Difference between 2 Dates

mark_and_co

Hi,

I have been trying to figure out how to get the difference between to dates in yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss format.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

____

When you store the data, it would be smart to only store the timestamp -time()-

Then you would be able to use either strtotimestrtotime or mktime

But if you can't change the change what type of data that is stored, then the use of explode() function would be userfull.

Eg.
time one is: 2003-01-23 08:01:01
and
the second time is: 2003-01-23 08:01:05

store the first time in $t1 and the second in $t2

There is a blank space between the date and the time ..-dd hh:.. so you can use the " " as separation in the explode function.
$DateAndTime1 = explode(" ", $t1);
$DateExplode = explode("-", $DateAndTime1[0]);
$TimeExplode = explode(":", $DateAndTime1[1]);

Now it has all been divided into arrays
the year is in the array $DateExplode[0]
month is in $DateExplode[1]
day is in $DateExplode[2]
hour is in $TimeExplode[0]
min is in $TimeExplode[1]
and secound is in $TimeExplode[2]

Do the same to extract the variables from $t2
$DateAndTime2 = explode(" ", $t2);
$DateExplode2 = explode("-", $DateAndTime2[0]);
$TimeExplode2 = explode(":", $DateAndTime2[1]);

To print the diference:
echo "Difference ";
echo "Years: ".($DateExplode2[0]-$DateExplode[0])." ";
echo "Months: ".($DateExplode2[1]-$DateExplode[1])." ";
echo "Days: ".($DateExplode2[2]-$DateExplode[2])." ";
echo "Hours: ".($TimeExplode2[0]-$TimeExplode[0])." ";
echo "Minutes: ".($TimeExplode2[1]-$TimeExplode[1])." ";
echo "Secounds: ".($TimeExplode2[2]-$TimeExplode[2])." ";

To sum it up... here's the script:

<?php
$t1 = "2003-01-23 08:01:01";
$t2 = "2003-01-23 08:01:05";

$DateAndTime1 = explode(" ", $t1);
$DateExplode = explode("-", $DateAndTime1[0]);
$TimeExplode = explode(":", $DateAndTime1[1]);

$DateAndTime2 = explode(" ", $t2);
$DateExplode2 = explode("-", $DateAndTime2[0]);
$TimeExplode2 = explode(":", $DateAndTime2[1]);

echo "Difference ";
echo "Years: ".($DateExplode2[0]-$DateExplode[0])." ";
echo "Months: ".($DateExplode2[1]-$DateExplode[1])." ";
echo "Days: ".($DateExplode2[2]-$DateExplode[2])." ";
echo "Hours: ".($TimeExplode2[0]-$TimeExplode[0])." ";
echo "Minutes: ".($TimeExplode2[1]-$TimeExplode[1])." ";
echo "Secounds: ".($TimeExplode2[2]-$TimeExplode[2])." ";

?>

The output here would be:
Difference
Years: 0
Months: 0
Days: 0
Hours: 0
Minutes: 0
Secounds: 4

Hope this helps!
🙂

keith73


<?php
/*
	function DateDiff
	Calculates the # of days between 2 dates
	takes 2 paramaters
	returns days
	parameters:
		date1
		date2 
*/

function DateDiff($date1,$date2,$absolute=0){
	$days = (strtotime ($date1) - strtotime ($date2)) / 86400;
	$days = is_integer($days)?intval($days):intval($days) + 1;
	if($absolute == 0){ return($days); }
	else { return(abs($days)); }
}

$date1 = "2003-01-01";
$date2 = "2003-01-10";
print DateDiff($date1,$date2) . "<br>\n"; // returns negative
print DateDiff($date1,$date2,1) . "<br>\n"; // get absolute value
print DateDiff($date2,$date1) . "<br>\n"; // returns positive

?>

The function DateDiff takes 2 dates as strings and finds the days between them. the optional parameter $absolute is so you don't get a negative number returned, although there may be a case where you want a negative number.

One problem with the function, if you have time in the string, it will also factor in the seconds and that may produce innacurate results. For example when I set the strings with time, I get either -8 or 10.

$date1 = "2003-01-01 03:40:27";
$date2 = "2003-01-10 14:12:38";
print DateDiff($date1,$date2) . "<br>\n";
print DateDiff($date1,$date2,1) . "<br>\n";
print DateDiff($date2,$date1) . "<br>\n";

I plan on fixing that.

keith