Conversion of DateTime to relative time - asp.net

Question

The following code does not seem to work correctly when comparing DateTimes under certain circumstances.
For example, when the comparison DateTime is less than 24 hours, the function will return the incorrect minutes. Is there a better way to approach this?
Public Function GetElapsedTimeAsString(givenDate As DateTime) As String
Return ConvertTimeSpanToTotalAgo(DateTime.Now.Subtract(givenDate))
End Function
Private Shared Function ConvertTimeSpanToTotalAgo(diffDate As TimeSpan) As String
Dim d As New StringBuilder()
If diffDate.Days > 0 Then
d.AppendFormat("{0} Day ago ", diffDate.Days)
ElseIf diffDate.Minutes > 0 Then
d.AppendFormat("{0} Minutes ago ", diffDate.Minutes)
ElseIf diffDate.Seconds > 0 Then
d.AppendFormat("{0} Seconds ago ", diffDate.Seconds)
ElseIf diffDate.Milliseconds > 0 Then
d.AppendFormat("Just Now", diffDate.Milliseconds)
End If
Return d.ToString()
End Function

Answer 1

If the number of days, minutes, seconds and milliseconds is zero, and the number of hours is nonzero, it'll report nothing, i.e. an empty string. You need to add
If diffDate.Hours > 0 Then
d.AppendFormat("{0} Hours ago ", diffDate.Hours
at the very least.
Maybe deal with pluralisation as well: you're mixing plural and singular, e.g.
If diffDate.Hours > 0 Then
Dim text = If (diffDate.Hours > 1, "Hours", "Hour")
d.AppendFormat("{0} {1} ago ", diffDate.Hours,text
Apologies if this doesn't build - I'm from a C# background, and was looking for a VB.NET equivalent to the ternary operator.

Answer 2

The following function will properly display the elapsed Days, Hours, Minutes, Seconds, and optionally Milliseconds between two DateTimes.
MessageBox.Show("Completed in " & GetElapedTimeDescription(DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now.AddDays(5).AddHours(1).AddMinutes(3).AddSeconds(1)) & ".")
displays: "Completed in 5 Days, 1 Hour, 3 Minutes, 1 Second."
Private Shared Function GetElapedTimeDescription(ByVal startTime As DateTime, ByVal endTime As DateTime, Optional ByVal includeMilliseconds As Boolean = False) As String
Dim ts As TimeSpan = endTime - startTime
Dim elapsed As New System.Text.StringBuilder(100)
If startTime > endTime Then
ts = startTime - endTime
End If
If ts.Days > 0 Then
elapsed.AppendFormat("{0} Day{1}, ", ts.Days, If(ts.Days > 1, "s", ""))
End If
If ts.Hours > 0 Then
elapsed.AppendFormat("{0} Hour{1}, ", ts.Hours, If(ts.Hours > 1, "s", ""))
End If
If ts.Minutes > 0 Then
elapsed.AppendFormat("{0} Minute{1}, ", ts.Minutes, If(ts.Minutes > 1, "s", ""))
End If
If ts.Seconds > 0 Then
elapsed.AppendFormat("{0} Second{1}, ", ts.Seconds, If(ts.Seconds > 1, "s", ""))
End If
If includeMilliseconds Then
If ts.Milliseconds > 0 Then
elapsed.AppendFormat("{0} Millisecond{1}, ", ts.Milliseconds, If(ts.Milliseconds > 1, "s", ""))
End If
End If
If elapsed.ToString() = "" Then
elapsed.Append("Less than 1 Second")
End If
If elapsed.ToString().EndsWith(", ") Then
elapsed.Remove(elapsed.Length - 2, 2)
End If
Return elapsed.ToString()
End Function