Verbose Beautified Date Range

functions.php

/**
 * Verbose Beautified Date Range
 *
 * @access public
 * @param mixed $start_date
 * @param mixed $end_date
 * @return string $date_range (beautified date range)
 * @license WTFPL
 *
 * @author Jon Brown <[email protected]>
 * @since 1.0
 */
function my_verbose_date_range($start_date, $end_date) {
	$date_range = '';

	// Setup basic dates
	$start_date_pretty = date( 'F j', $start_date );
	$end_date_pretty = date( 'jS, Y', $end_date );

	// If years differ add suffix and year to start_date
	if ( date('Y',$start_date) != date('Y',$end_date) ) {
		$start_date_pretty .= date( 'S, Y', $start_date );
	}

	// If months differ add suffix and year to end_date
	if ( date('F',$start_date) != date('F',$end_date) ) {
		$end_date_pretty = date( 'F ', $end_date) . $end_date_pretty;
	}

	// build date_range return string
	if( ! empty( $start_date ) ) {
		$date_range .= $start_date_pretty;
	}

	// check if there is an end date and append if not identical
	if( ! empty( $end_date ) ) {
		if( $end_date_pretty != $start_date_pretty ) {
			$date_range .= ' - ' . $end_date_pretty;
		}
	}
	return $date_range;
}

// Usage
echo my_verbose_date_range( strtotime('1/1/2016'), strtotime('2/1/2016') );