1st thing - differences inbetween times

i know i can use $ctime then calculate the differences in between the two - but as it comes out in secods if i get something like 3454 seconds - doesnt really help - so is there a property im missing - or will i simply need to have various if events, i.e if (RESULT < 60) { , elseif (RESULT < 3600) etc ?

as for the 2nd problem

is it possible to replace a value in a hash table - or will i have to dlt then readd?