A life in a few lines • Alexander Nevsky

22 DEC 1984 · BORN

22 December 1984 is my date of birth. It is the starting point for the count of days lived.

30 JUL 2022 · DUBAI

30 July 2022 marks the start of my life in Dubai. This part of my life has its own counter.

NOW

Today’s date on Dubai time, UTC+4. It changes with the calendar.

LIFE · DAY

The number of complete calendar days since birth. The day of birth is the starting point, day zero.

DUBAI · DAY

The number of days since moving to Dubai.

OF LIFE · DUBAI

Days in Dubai divided by all days lived. This makes the move visible in the span of a whole life.

See all days

The code behind these numbers

This function counts days lived, days in Dubai and their share of a lifetime. It also powers the counter above. Copy this working example for your own page and replace the two dates with yours. Calendar days follow Dubai time.

HTML + JavaScript

<output id="life-counter" aria-label="Counter code"></output>
<script>
const lifeCounters = function lifeCounters(now, residency, birth, locale, units) {
	const parts = Object.fromEntries(new Intl.DateTimeFormat("en-CA", {
		timeZone: "Asia/Dubai",
		year: "numeric",
		month: "2-digit",
		day: "2-digit"
	}).formatToParts(now).map((p) => [p.type, p.value]));
	const day = Date.UTC(+parts.year, +parts.month - 1, +parts.day);
	const count = (date) => {
		if (!/^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$/.test(date || "")) throw new Error("Invalid counter date");
		return Math.floor((day - Date.parse(date + "T00:00:00Z")) / 864e5);
	};
	const dubai = count(residency), life = count(birth);
	if (!Number.isFinite(dubai) || !Number.isFinite(life) || dubai < 0 || life <= 0) throw new Error("Invalid counter range");
	const unit = (n) => units[new Intl.PluralRules(locale).select(n)] || units.other;
	const d = Object.fromEntries(new Intl.DateTimeFormat(locale, {
		timeZone: "Asia/Dubai",
		year: "numeric",
		month: "long",
		day: "numeric"
	}).formatToParts(now).map((p) => [p.type, p.value]));
	return {
		"data-current-date": ["ru", "en"].includes(locale.split("-")[0]) ? `${d.day} ${d.month} ${d.year}` : new Intl.DateTimeFormat(locale, {
			timeZone: "Asia/Dubai",
			dateStyle: "long"
		}).format(now),
		"data-dubai-day-counter": dubai.toLocaleString(locale),
		"data-life-day-counter": life.toLocaleString(locale),
		"data-dubai-day-unit": unit(dubai),
		"data-life-day-unit": unit(life),
		"data-dubai-life-share": (dubai / life * 100).toLocaleString(locale, {
			minimumFractionDigits: 2,
			maximumFractionDigits: 2
		}) + "%"
	};
};

function updateCounter() {
  const counters = lifeCounters(
    new Date(), '2022-07-30', '1984-12-22', 'en-US', {other: 'days'}
  );
  document.getElementById('life-counter').textContent = [
    'LIFE · DAY ' + counters['data-life-day-counter'],
    'DUBAI · DAY ' + counters['data-dubai-day-counter'],
    counters['data-dubai-life-share'] + ' OF LIFE · DUBAI'
  ].join(' / ');
}
updateCounter();
setInterval(updateCounter, 30000);
</script>