How to calculate the difference between two dates using PHP

Question

I have two dates of the form   Start Date  2007-03-24  End Date  2009-06-26   Now I need to find the difference between these two in the following form   2 years  3 months and 2 days   How can I do this in PHP

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You can use the  getdate     function which returns an array containing all elements of the date time supplied    diff   abs  endDate -  startDate    my t getdate  diff   print   my t year  years   my t month  months and  my t mday  days      If your start and end dates are in string format then use   startDate   strtotime  startDateStr    endDate   strtotime  endDateStr     before the above code

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Try this very simple answer using date diff    this is tested    date1   date create  2017-11-27     date2   date create  2018-12-29     diff date diff  date1  date2    months    diff- gt format   m months     years    diff- gt format   y years     days    diff- gt format   d days     echo  years       months      days    the output is   1 years 1 months 2 days

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Use this for legacy code  PHP  lt  5 3   For up to date solution see jurka s answer below   You can use strtotime   to convert two dates to unix time and then calculate the number of seconds between them  From this it s rather easy to calculate different time periods    date1    2007-03-24    date2    2009-06-26     diff   abs strtotime  date2  - strtotime  date1      years   floor  diff    365 60 60 24     months   floor   diff -  years   365 60 60 24     30 60 60 24     days   floor   diff -  years   365 60 60 24 -  months 30 60 60 24    60 60 24     printf   d years   d months   d days n    years   months   days     Edit  Obviously the preferred way of doing this is like described by jurka below  My code is generally only recommended if you don t have PHP 5 3 or better    Several people in the comments have pointed out that the code above is only an approximation  I still believe that for most purposes that s fine  since the usage of a range is more to provide a sense of how much time has passed or remains rather than to provide precision - if you want to do that  just output the date    Despite all that  I ve decided to address the complaints  If you truly need an exact range but haven t got access to PHP 5 3  use the code below  it should work in PHP 4 as well   This is a direct port of the code that PHP uses internally to calculate ranges  with the exception that it doesn t take daylight savings time into account  That means that it s off by an hour at most  but except for that it should be correct    lt  php         Calculate differences between two dates with precise semantics  Based on PHPs DateTime  diff      implementation by Derick Rethans  Ported to PHP by Emil H  2011-05-02  No rights reserved         See here for original code     http   svn php net viewvc php php-src trunk ext date lib tm2unixtime c revision 302890 amp view markup    http   svn php net viewvc php php-src trunk ext date lib interval c revision 298973 amp view markup      function  date range limit  start   end   adj   a   b   result        if   result  a   lt   start             result  b  -  intval   start -  result  a  - 1     adj    1           result  a      adj   intval   start -  result  a  - 1     adj   1              if   result  a   gt    end             result  b     intval  result  a     adj            result  a  -   adj   intval  result  a     adj              return  result     function  date range limit days  base   result         days in month leap   array 31  31  29  31  30  31  30  31  31  30  31  30  31        days in month   array 31  31  28  31  30  31  30  31  31  30  31  30  31         date range limit 1  13  12   m    y    amp  base         year    base  y         month    base  m         if    result  invert              while   result  d    lt  0                 month--              if   month  lt  1                     month    12                   year--                              leapyear    year   400    0      year   100    0  amp  amp   year   4    0                days    leapyear    days in month leap  month     days in month  month                 result  d       days               result  m  --                  else           while   result  d    lt  0                 leapyear    year   400    0      year   100    0  amp  amp   year   4    0                days    leapyear    days in month leap  month     days in month  month                 result  d       days               result  m  --                month                if   month  gt  12                     month -  12                   year                                       return  result     function  date normalize  base   result         result    date range limit 0  60  60   s    i    result        result    date range limit 0  60  60   i    h    result        result    date range limit 0  24  24   h    d    result        result    date range limit 0  12  12   m    y    result         result    date range limit days  amp  base   amp  result         result    date range limit 0  12  12   m    y    result        return  result            Accepts two unix timestamps      function  date diff  one   two         invert   false      if   one  gt   two            list  one   two    array  two   one            invert   true              key   array  y    m    d    h    i    s         a   array combine  key  array map  intval   explode      date  Y m d H i s    one           b   array combine  key  array map  intval   explode      date  Y m d H i s    two            result   array         result  y      b  y   -  a  y         result  m      b  m   -  a  m         result  d      b  d   -  a  d         result  h      b  h   -  a  h         result  i      b  i   -  a  i         result  s      b  s   -  a  s         result  invert      invert   1   0       result  days     intval abs   one -  two  86400         if   invert             date normalize  amp  a   amp  result         else            date normalize  amp  b   amp  result              return  result      date    1986-11-10 19 37 22    print r  date diff strtotime  date   time      print r  date diff time    strtotime  date

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Very simple        lt  php          date1   date create  2007-03-24            echo  Start date     date1- gt format  Y-m-d     lt br gt             date2   date create  2009-06-26            echo  End date     date2- gt format  Y-m-d     lt br gt             diff   date diff  date1  date2           echo  Difference between start date and end date     diff- gt format   y years   m months and  d days     lt br gt          gt    Please checkout the following link for details   PHP  date diff - Manual  Note that it s for PHP  5 3 0 or greater

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Some time ago I wrote a format date function as this gives many options on how you want your date   function format date  date   type   seperator  -         if  date                 day   date  j   strtotime  date             month   date  n   strtotime  date             year   date  Y   strtotime  date             hour   date  H   strtotime  date             min   date  i   strtotime  date             sec   date  s   strtotime  date             switch  type                        case 0    date   date  Y   seperator  m   seperator  d  mktime  hour   min   sec   month   day   year    break              case 1    date   date  D  F j  Y  mktime  hour   min   sec   month   day   year    break              case 2    date   date  d   seperator  m   seperator  Y  mktime  hour   min   sec   month   day   year    break              case 3    date   date  d   seperator  M   seperator  Y  mktime  hour   min   sec   month   day   year    break              case 4    date   date  d   seperator  M   seperator  Y h i A  mktime  hour   min   sec   month   day   year    break              case 5    date   date  m   seperator  d   seperator  Y  mktime  hour   min   sec   month   day   year    break              case 6    date   date  M  mktime  hour   min   sec   month   day   year    break              case 7    date   date  Y  mktime  hour   min   sec   month   day   year    break              case 8    date   date  j  mktime  hour   min   sec   month   day   year    break              case 9    date   date  n  mktime  hour   min   sec   month   day   year    break              case 10                         diff   abs strtotime  date  - strtotime date  Y-m-d h i s                             years   floor  diff    365 60 60 24                          months   floor   diff -  years   365 60 60 24     30 60 60 24                          days   floor   diff -  years   365 60 60 24 -  months 30 60 60 24    60 60 24                          date    years     years       months     months       days    days                       return  date

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Since everyone is posting code samples  here is another version   I wanted a function to display differences from seconds to years  just one unit   For periods over 1 day  I wanted it to rollover at midnight  10am Monday seen from 9am Wednesday is 2 days ago  not 1   And for periods over a month  I wanted the rollover to be on the same day of the month  including for 30 31 day months  amp  leap years    This is what I came up with          Returns how long ago something happened in the past  showing it    as n seconds   minutes   hours   days   weeks   months   years ago        For periods over a day  it rolls over at midnight  so doesn t depend    on current time of day   and it correctly accounts for month-lengths    and leap-years  months and years rollover on current day of month          param string  timestamp in DateTime format     return string description of interval     function ago  timestamp         then   date create  timestamp           for anything over 1 day  make it rollover on midnight      today   date create  tomorrow       ie end of today      diff   date diff  then   today        if   diff- gt y  gt  0  return  diff- gt y   year    diff- gt y gt 1  s        ago       if   diff- gt m  gt  0  return  diff- gt m   month    diff- gt m gt 1  s        ago        diffW   floor  diff- gt d   7       if   diffW  gt  0  return  diffW   week    diffW gt 1  s        ago       if   diff- gt d  gt  1  return  diff- gt d   day    diff- gt d gt 1  s        ago           for anything less than 1 day  base it off  now       now   date create         diff   date diff  then   now        if   diff- gt d  gt  0  return  yesterday       if   diff- gt h  gt  0  return  diff- gt h   hour    diff- gt h gt 1  s        ago       if   diff- gt i  gt  0  return  diff- gt i   minute    diff- gt i gt 1  s        ago       return  diff- gt s   second    diff- gt s  1     s     ago

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DateInterval is great but it has a couple of caveats    only for PHP 5 3   but that s really not a good excuse anymore  only supports years  months  days  hours  minutes and seconds  no weeks  it calculates the difference with all of the above   days  you can t get the difference in months only    To overcome that  I coded the following  improved from  enobrev answer    function date dif  since   until   keys    year month week day hour minute second          date   array map  strtotime   array  since   until         if   count  date   array filter  date   is int       2   amp  amp   sort  date      true                  result   array fill keys explode       keys   0            foreach  preg grep       year month  i    result  as  key   gt   value                        while   date 1   gt   strtotime sprintf    u  s    value   1   key    date 0                                     value                              date 0    strtotime sprintf    u  s    result  key     value   key    date 0                       foreach  preg grep       year month  i    result  PREG GREP INVERT  as  key   gt   value                        if    value   intval abs  date 0  -  date 1     strtotime sprintf   u  s   1   key   0     gt  0                                 date 0    strtotime sprintf    u  s    result  key     value   key    date 0                                     return  result             return false      It runs two loops  the first one deals with the relative intervals  years and months  via brute-forcing  and the second one computes the additional absolute intervals with simple arithmetic  so it s faster    echo humanize date dif  2007-03-24    2009-07-31    second        74300400 seconds echo humanize date dif  2007-03-24    2009-07-31    minute second        1238400 minutes  0 seconds echo humanize date dif  2007-03-24    2009-07-31    hour minute second        20640 hours  0 minutes  0 seconds echo humanize date dif  2007-03-24    2009-07-31    year day        2 years  129 days echo humanize date dif  2007-03-24    2009-07-31    year week        2 years  18 weeks echo humanize date dif  2007-03-24    2009-07-31    year week day        2 years  18 weeks  3 days echo humanize date dif  2007-03-24    2009-07-31        2 years  4 months  1 week  0 days  0 hours  0 minutes  0 seconds  function humanize  array         result   array         foreach   array as  key   gt   value                 result  key     value          key           if   value    1                         result  key      s                        return implode        result

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View Hours and Minuts and Seconds     date1    2008-11-01 22 45 00      date2    2009-12-04 13 44 01      diff   abs strtotime  date2  - strtotime  date1       years     floor  diff    365 60 60 24      months    floor   diff -  years   365 60 60 24     30 60 60 24      days      floor   diff -  years   365 60 60 24 -  months 30 60 60 24    60 60 24      hours     floor   diff -  years   365 60 60 24 -  months 30 60 60 24 -  days 60 60 24    60 60       minuts    floor   diff -  years   365 60 60 24 -  months 30 60 60 24 -  days 60 60 24 -  hours 60 60   60      seconds   floor   diff -  years   365 60 60 24 -  months 30 60 60 24 -  days 60 60 24 -  hours 60 60 -  minuts 60      printf   d years   d months   d days   d hours   d minuts n   d seconds n    years   months   days   hours   minuts   seconds

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I m using the following function which I wrote  when PHP 5 3  respectively date diff    is not available           function dateDifference  startDate   endDate                         startDate   strtotime  startDate                endDate   strtotime  endDate               if   startDate     false     startDate  lt  0     endDate     false     endDate  lt  0     startDate  gt   endDate                  return false                years   date  Y    endDate  - date  Y    startDate                 endMonth   date  m    endDate                startMonth   date  m    startDate                   Calculate months              months    endMonth -  startMonth              if   months  lt   0                      months    12                   years--                            if   years  lt  0                  return false                  Calculate the days              measure     months    1     month     months                days    endDate - strtotime        months          measure   startDate                days   date  z    days                   return array  years   months   days

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If you just want to see the year difference then use this function     Using the logic I ve created you may also create month and day difference    which I did not provide here so you may have the efforts to use your brain         date1  2009-01-01    date2  2010-01-01   echo getYearDifference   date1  date2   function getYearDifference  date1 strtotime  date1   date2 strtotime  date2         year   0      while  date2  gt   date1   strtotime   1 year    date1               year            return  year

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I found your article on the following page  which contains a number of references for PHP date time calculations   Calculate the difference between two Dates  and time  using PHP  The following page provides a range of different methods  7 in total  for performing date   time calculations using PHP  to determine the difference in time  hours  munites   days  months or years between two dates   See PHP Date Time     7 Methods to Calculate the Difference between 2 dates

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Take a look at the following link  This is the best answer I ve found so far       function dateDiff   d1   d2            Return the number of days between the two dates          return round abs strtotime  d1  - strtotime  d2   86400         end function dateDiff      It doesn t matter which date is earlier or later when you pass in the   date parameters  The function uses the PHP ABS   absolute value to   always return a postive number as the number of days between the two   dates       Keep in mind that the number of days between the two dates is NOT   inclusive of both dates  So if you are looking for the number of days   represented by all the dates between and including the dates entered    you will need to add one  1  to the result of this function       For example  the difference  as returned by the above function    between 2013-02-09 and 2013-02-14 is 5  But the number of days or   dates represented by the date range 2013-02-09 - 2013-02-14 is 6    http   www bizinfosys com php date-difference html

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This is my function  Required PHP    5 3 4  It use DateTime class  Very fast  quick and can do the difference between two dates or even the so called  time since    if function exists  grk Datetime Since       FALSE       function grk Datetime Since  From   To      Prefix      Suffix   ago    Words array                 Est-ce qu on calcul jusqu    un moment pr  cis   Probablement pas  on utilise maintenant         if empty  To      TRUE                To   time                           On va s assurer que  From est num  rique         if is int  From      FALSE                From   strtotime  From                           On va s assurer que  To est num  rique         if is int  To      FALSE                To   strtotime  To                          On a une erreur           if  From     FALSE OR  From     -1 OR  To     FALSE OR  To     -1               return FALSE                         On va cr  er deux objets de date          From   new DateTime  date  Y-m-d H i s    From   new DateTimeZone  GMT              To     new DateTime  date  Y-m-d H i s    To   new DateTimeZone  GMT                  On va calculer la diff  rence entre  From et  To         if   Diff    From- gt diff  To       FALSE               return FALSE                         On va merger le tableau des noms  par d  faut  anglais           Words   array merge array               year         gt   year                years        gt   years                month        gt   month                months       gt   months                week         gt   week                weeks        gt   weeks                day          gt   day                days         gt   days                hour         gt   hour                hours        gt   hours                minute       gt   minute                minutes      gt   minutes                second       gt   second                seconds      gt   seconds              Words                On va cr  er la cha  ne maintenant         if  Diff- gt y  gt  1                Text    Diff- gt y      Words  years              elseif  Diff- gt y    1                Text    1    Words  year              elseif  Diff- gt m  gt  1                Text    Diff- gt m      Words  months              elseif  Diff- gt m    1                Text    1    Words  month              elseif  Diff- gt d  gt  7                Text   ceil  Diff- gt d 7       Words  weeks              elseif  Diff- gt d    7                Text    1    Words  week              elseif  Diff- gt d  gt  1                Text    Diff- gt d      Words  days              elseif  Diff- gt d    1                Text    1    Words  day              elseif  Diff- gt h  gt  1                Text    Diff- gt h      Words  hours              elseif  Diff- gt h    1                Text    1    Words  hour              elseif  Diff- gt i  gt  1                Text    Diff- gt i      Words  minutes              elseif  Diff- gt i    1                Text    1    Words  minute              elseif  Diff- gt s  gt  1                Text    Diff- gt s      Words  seconds              else                Text    1    Words  second                       return  Prefix  Text  Suffix

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For php version   5 3   Create two date objects and then use date diff   function  It will return php DateInterval object  see documentation   date1 date create  2007-03-24     date2 date create  2009-06-26     diff date diff  date1  date2   echo  diff- gt format   R a days

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Use example      echo time diff string  2013-05-01 00 22 35    now    echo time diff string  2013-05-01 00 22 35    now   true     Output      4 months ago 4 months  2 weeks  3 days  1 hour  49 minutes  15 seconds ago   Function      function time diff string  from   to   full   false         from   new DateTime  from        to   new DateTime  to        diff    to- gt diff  from         diff- gt w   floor  diff- gt d   7        diff- gt d -   diff- gt w   7        string   array           y    gt   year            m    gt   month            w    gt   week            d    gt   day            h    gt   hour            i    gt   minute            s    gt   second              foreach   string as  k   gt   amp  v            if   diff- gt  k                 v    diff- gt  k          v     diff- gt  k  gt  1    s                   else               unset  string  k                         if    full   string   array slice  string  0  1       return  string   implode        string      ago     just now

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An easy function  function time difference  time 1   time 2   limit   null          val 1   new DateTime  time 1        val 2   new DateTime  time 2         interval    val 1- gt diff  val 2         output   array           year    gt   interval- gt y           month    gt   interval- gt m           day    gt   interval- gt d           hour    gt   interval- gt h           minute    gt   interval- gt i           second    gt   interval- gt s              return           foreach   output AS  key   gt   value             if   value    1               return     value          key                elseif   value  gt   1               return     value          key    s             if   key     limit              return trim  return             return trim  return       Use like  echo time difference   time 1   time 2   day     Will return like 2 years 8 months 2 days

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I voted for jurka s answer as that s my favorite  but I have a pre-php 5 3 version     I found myself working on a similar problem - which is how I got to this question in the first place - but just needed a difference in hours   But my function solved this one pretty nicely as well and I don t have anywhere in my own library to keep it where it won t get lost and forgotten  so    hope this is useful to someone              param DateTime  oDate1     param DateTime  oDate2     return array      function date diff array DateTime  oDate1  DateTime  oDate2         aIntervals   array           year      gt  0           month     gt  0           week      gt  0           day       gt  0           hour      gt  0           minute    gt  0           second    gt  0              foreach  aIntervals as  sInterval   gt   amp  iInterval            while  oDate1  lt    oDate2                 oDate1- gt modify   1      sInterval               if   oDate1  gt   oDate2                     oDate1- gt modify  -1      sInterval                   break                else                    iInterval                                       return  aIntervals      And the test     oDate   new DateTime     oDate- gt modify   111402189 seconds    var dump  oDate   var dump date diff array new DateTime     oDate      And the result   object DateTime  2    public  date    gt  string  2014-04-29 18 52 51   length 19    public  timezone type    gt  int 3   public  timezone    gt  string  America New York   length 16   array    year      gt  int 3    month     gt  int 6    week      gt  int 1    day       gt  int 4    hour      gt  int 9    minute    gt  int 3    second    gt  int 8   I got the original idea from here  which I modified for my uses  and I hope my modification will show on that page as well    You can very easily remove intervals you don t want  say  week   by removing them from the  aIntervals array  or maybe adding an  aExclude parameter  or just filter them out when you output the string

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if  the date is stored in MySQL  I find it easier to do the difference calculation at the database level    Then based on the Day  Hour  Min  Sec output  parse and display results as appropriate     mysql gt  select firstName  convert tz loginDate    00 00    -04 00   as loginDate  TIMESTAMPDIFF DAY  loginDate  now    as  Day   TIMESTAMPDIFF HOUR  loginDate  now    4 as  Hour   TIMESTAMPDIFF MINUTE  loginDate  now     60 4  as  Min   TIMESTAMPDIFF SECOND  loginDate  now     60 60 4  as  Sec  from User  where userId     10158  AND userId     10198  group by emailAddress order by loginDate desc    ----------- --------------------- ------ ------ ------ --------     firstName   loginDate             Day    Hour   Min    Sec        ----------- --------------------- ------ ------ ------ --------     Peter       2014-03-30 18 54 40      0      4    244    14644      Keith       2014-03-30 18 54 11      0      4    244    14673      Andres      2014-03-28 09 20 10      2     61   3698   221914      Nadeem      2014-03-26 09 33 43      4    109   6565   393901     ----------- --------------------- ------ ------ ------ --------   4 rows in set  0 00 sec

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I would prefer to use date create and date diff objects   Code    date1   date create  2007-03-24     date2   date create  2009-06-26      dateDifference   date diff  date1   date2 - gt format   y years   m months and  d days     echo  dateDifference    Output   2 years  3 months and 2 days   For more info read PHP date diff manual     According to manual date diff is an alias of   DateTime  diff

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I had the same problem with PHP 5 2 and solved it with MySQL  Might not be exactly what you re looking for  but this will do the trick and return the number of days    datediff q    dbh- gt prepare  SELECT DATEDIFF  date2   date1      datediff q- gt bindValue   date1    2007-03-24   PDO  PARAM STR    datediff q- gt bindValue   date2    2009-06-26   PDO  PARAM STR    datediff     datediff q- gt execute       datediff q- gt fetchColumn 0    false    More info here http   dev mysql com doc refman 5 5 en date-and-time-functions html function datediff

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This will try to detect whether a timestamp was given or not  and will also return future dates times as negative values    lt  php  function time diff  start   end   NULL   convert to timestamp   FALSE         If  convert to timestamp is not explicitly set to TRUE       check to see if it was accidental    if   convert to timestamp     is numeric  start            If  convert to timestamp is TRUE  convert to timestamp       timestamp start   strtotime  start         else          Otherwise  leave it as a timestamp       timestamp start    start           Same as above  but make sure  end has actually been overridden with a non-null       non-empty  non-numeric value    if   is null  end   amp  amp    empty  end   amp  amp   is numeric  end           timestamp end   strtotime  end         else          If  end is NULL or empty and non-numeric value  assume the end time desired        is the current time  useful for age  etc        timestamp end   time             Regardless  set the start and end times to an integer     start time    int   timestamp start     end time    int   timestamp end        Assign these values as the params for  then and  now     start time var    start time      end time var    end time        Use this to determine if the output is positive  time passed  or negative  future      pos neg   1        If the end time is at a later time than the start time  do the opposite    if   end time  lt    start time         start time var    end time        end time var    start time        pos neg   -1            Convert everything to the proper format  and do some math     then   new DateTime date  Y-m-d H i s     start time var       now   new DateTime date  Y-m-d H i s     end time var        years then    then- gt format  Y       years now    now- gt format  Y       years    years now -  years then      months then    then- gt format  m       months now    now- gt format  m       months    months now -  months then      days then    then- gt format  d       days now    now- gt format  d       days    days now -  days then      hours then    then- gt format  H       hours now    now- gt format  H       hours    hours now -  hours then      minutes then    then- gt format  i       minutes now    now- gt format  i       minutes    minutes now -  minutes then      seconds then    then- gt format  s       seconds now    now- gt format  s       seconds    seconds now -  seconds then     if   seconds  lt  0         minutes -  1       seconds    60        if   minutes  lt  0         hours -  1       minutes    60        if   hours  lt  0         days -  1       hours    24         months last    months now - 1    if   months now    1         years now -  1       months last   12             Thirty days hath September  April  June  and November       if   months last    9     months last    4     months last    6     months last    11         days last month   30        else if   months last    2           Factor in leap years      if    years now   4     0           days last month   29            else          days last month   28              else        days last month   31        if   days  lt  0         months -  1       days     days last month        if   months  lt  0         years -  1       months    12            Finally  multiply each value by either 1  in which case it will stay the same        or by -1  in which case it will become negative  for future dates        Note  0   1    0   -1    0    out   new stdClass     out- gt years    int   years    pos neg     out- gt months    int   months    pos neg     out- gt days    int   days    pos neg     out- gt hours    int   hours    pos neg     out- gt minutes    int   minutes    pos neg     out- gt seconds    int   seconds    pos neg    return  out      Example usage    lt  php    birthday    June 2  1971      check age for this date    June 3  1999 8 53pm      age   time diff  birthday   check age for this date - gt years    print  age    28   Or    lt  php    christmas 2020    December 25  2020      countdown   time diff  christmas 2020     print r  countdown

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In for a penny  in for a pound  I have just reviewed several solutions  all providing a complex solution using floor   that then rounds up to a 26 years 12 month and 2 days solution  for what should have been 25 years  11 months and 20 days      here is my version of this problem  may not be elegant  may not be well coded  but provides a more closer proximity to a answer if you do not count LEAP years  obviously leap years could be coded into this  but in this case - as someone else said  perhaps you could provide this answer   I have included all TEST conditions and print r so that you can see more clearly the construct of the results   here goes      set your input dates  variables     ISOstartDate      1987-06-22    ISOtodaysDate    2013-06-22        We need to EXPLODE the ISO yyyy-mm-dd format into yyyy mm dd  as follows     yDate      explode  -    ISOstartDate       print r   yDate     zDate      explode  -    ISOtodaysDate       print r   zDate       Lets Sort of the Years     Lets Sort out the difference in YEARS between startDate and todaysDate     years    zDate 0  0  -  yDate 0  0       We need to collaborate if the month   month   0  is before or after the Years Anniversary ie 11 months 22 days or 0 months 10 days    if   months    0 and  zDate 0  1   gt   ydate 0  1          years    years -1       TEST result echo   nCurrent years   gt     years      Lets Sort out the difference in MONTHS between startDate and todaysDate     months    zDate 0  1  -  yDate 0  1       TEST result echo   nCurrent months   gt     months      Now how many DAYS has there been - this assumes that there is NO LEAP years  so the calculation is APPROXIMATE not 100     Lets cross reference the startDates Month   how many days are there in each month IF m-m   0 which is a years anniversary    We will use a switch to check the number of days between each month so we can calculate days before and after the years anniversary  switch   yDate 0  1        case 01      monthDays    31    break      Jan     case 02      monthDays    28    break      Feb     case 03      monthDays    31    break      Mar     case 04      monthDays    30    break      Apr     case 05      monthDays    31    break      May     case 06      monthDays    30    break      Jun     case 07      monthDays    31    break      Jul     case 08      monthDays    31    break      Aug     case 09      monthDays    30    break      Sept     case 10      monthDays    31    break      Oct     case 11      monthDays    30    break      Nov     case 12      monthDays    31    break      Dec       TEST return echo   nDays in start month    yDate 0  1      gt     monthDays       Lets correct the problem with 0 Months - is it 11 months   days  or 0 months  days      days    zDate 0  2  -  yDate 0  2    monthDays  echo   nCurrent days   gt     days   n       Lets now Correct the months to being either 11 or 0 Months  depending upon being   or - the years Anniversary date     At the same time build in error correction for Anniversary dates not being 1yr 0m 31d    see if   days     monthDays   if  days  lt   monthDays  amp  amp   months    0             months   11           If Before the years anniversary date       else           months   0            If After the years anniversary date      years    years 1      Add  1 to year      days    days- monthDays       Need to correct days to how many days after anniversary date           Day correction for Anniversary dates if   days     monthDays        if todays date   the Anniversary DATE  set days to ZERO            days   0              days set toZERO so 1 years 0 months 0 days             echo   nTherefore  the number of years  months  days   nbetween start and todays date   n n        printf   d years   d months   d days n    years   months   days     the end result is   26 years  0 months  0 days  That s how long I have been in business for on the 22nd June 2013 - Ouch

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date1   date create  2007-03-24     date2   date create  2009-06-26     interval   date diff  date1   date2   echo  difference        interval- gt y     years       interval- gt m   months     interval- gt d   days

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I d like to bring a slightly different perspective  which seemingly hasn t been mentioned   You could solve this problem  just like any other  in a declarative way  The point is asking what you need  not how to get there   Here  you need a difference  But what is that difference  It s an interval  as already mentioned in the most upvoted answer  The thing is how to get it  Instead of explicitly invoking diff   method  you could just create an interval by start date and finish date  that is  by date range    startDate    2007-03-24    endDate    2009-06-26    range   new FromRange new ISO8601DateTime  startDate   new ISO8601DateTime  endDate      All the intricacies such as a leap year and all are already taken care of  Now when you have an interval with fixed start datetime  you can get a human-readable version   var dump  new HumanReadable  range  - gt value       It outputs exactly what you need   If you need some customized format  it s not a problem either  You can use a ISO8601Formatted class which accepts a callable with six arguments  year  month   day  hour  minute  and second    new ISO8601Formatted      new FromRange          new ISO8601DateTime  2017-07-03T14 27 39 00 00            new ISO8601DateTime  2018-07-05T14 27 39 235487 00 00              function  int  years  int  months  int  days  int  hours  int  minutes  int  seconds            return  years  gt   1    More than a year     Less than a year                - gt value      It outputs More than a year   For more about this approach  take a look at a quick start entry

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Here is the runnable code   date1   date create  2007-03-24     date2   date create  2009-06-26     diff1   date diff  date1  date2    daysdiff    diff1- gt format   R a     daysdiff   abs  daysdiff

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The best course of action is using PHP s DateTime  and DateInterval  objects  Each date is encapsulated in a DateTime object  and then a difference between the two can be made    first date   new DateTime  2012-11-30 17 03 30     second date   new DateTime  2012-12-21 00 00 00      The DateTime object will accept any format strtotime   would  If an even more specific date format is needed  DateTime  createFromFormat   can be used to create the DateTime object   After both objects were instantiated  you substract one from the other with DateTime  diff      difference    first date- gt diff  second date      difference now holds a DateInterval object with the difference information  A var dump   looks like this   object DateInterval    public  y    gt  int 0   public  m    gt  int 0   public  d    gt  int 20   public  h    gt  int 6   public  i    gt  int 56   public  s    gt  int 30   public  invert    gt  int 0   public  days    gt  int 20   To format the DateInterval object  we ll need check each value and exclude it if it s 0          Format an interval to show all existing components     If the interval doesn t have a time component  years  months  etc     That component won t be displayed         param DateInterval  interval The interval        return string Formatted interval string      function format interval DateInterval  interval         result           if   interval- gt y     result     interval- gt format   y years           if   interval- gt m     result     interval- gt format   m months           if   interval- gt d     result     interval- gt format   d days           if   interval- gt h     result     interval- gt format   h hours           if   interval- gt i     result     interval- gt format   i minutes           if   interval- gt s     result     interval- gt format   s seconds            return  result      All that s left now is to call our function on the  difference DateInterval object   echo format interval  difference     And we get the correct result      20 days 6 hours 56 minutes 30 seconds   The complete code used to achieve the goal          Format an interval to show all existing components     If the interval doesn t have a time component  years  months  etc     That component won t be displayed         param DateInterval  interval The interval        return string Formatted interval string      function format interval DateInterval  interval         result           if   interval- gt y     result     interval- gt format   y years           if   interval- gt m     result     interval- gt format   m months           if   interval- gt d     result     interval- gt format   d days           if   interval- gt h     result     interval- gt format   h hours           if   interval- gt i     result     interval- gt format   i minutes           if   interval- gt s     result     interval- gt format   s seconds            return  result      first date   new DateTime  2012-11-30 17 03 30     second date   new DateTime  2012-12-21 00 00 00      difference    first date- gt diff  second date    echo format interval  difference

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date    2012 11 13    dateOfReturn    2017 10 31     substract   str replace       -    date     substract2   str replace       -    dateOfReturn       date1    substract   date2    substract2    ts1   strtotime  date1    ts2   strtotime  date2     year1   date  Y    ts1    year2   date  Y    ts2     month1   date  m    ts1    month2   date  m    ts2    echo  diff      year2 -  year1    12      month2 -  month1

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I don t know if you are using a PHP framework or not  but a lot of PHP frameworks have date time libraries and helpers to help keep you from reinventing the wheel   For example CodeIgniter has the timespan   function  Simply input two Unix timestamps and it will automatically generate a result like this   1 Year  10 Months  2 Weeks  5 Days  10 Hours  16 Minutes   http   codeigniter com user guide helpers date helper html

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I have some simple logic for that    lt  php     per days diff  2011-12-12   2011-12-29       function per days diff  start date   end date             per days   0           noOfWeek   0           noOfWeekEnd   0           highSeason array  7    8              current date   strtotime  start date            current date     24   3600            end date   strtotime  end date             seassion    in array date  m    current date    highSeason    2   1             noOfdays   array               while   current date  lt    end date                if   current date  lt    end date                     date   date  N    current date                   array push  noOfdays  date                    current date   strtotime   1 day    current date                                     finalDays   array shift  noOfdays             print r  noOfdays            weekFirst   array  week   gt array    weekEnd   gt array             for  i   0   i  lt  count  noOfdays    i                          if   noOfdays  i     1                                  echo  This is week                     echo   lt br  gt                    if  noOfdays  i 6   7                                         noOfWeek                         i  i 6                                    else                                        per days                                        array push  weekFirst  week    day                             else if  noOfdays  i   5                                  echo  This is weekend                     echo   lt br  gt                    if  noOfdays  i 2    7                                         noOfWeekEnd                         i    i 2                                    else                                        per days                                        echo  After weekend value -    i                    echo   lt br  gt                              else                                per days                                       echo  noOfWeek            echo   lt br  gt              echo  noOfWeekEnd            echo   lt br  gt              print r  per days             echo   lt br  gt              print r  weekFirst                        duration   array  weeks   gt  noOfWeek   weekends   gt  noOfWeekEnd   perDay   gt  per days   seassion   gt  seassion           return  duration          gt

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use this function   function Diff between Dates                                                                          PARA  Date Should In YYYY-MM-DD Format   RESULT FORMAT       y Year  m Month  d Day  h Hours  i Minute  s Seconds    gt   1 Year 3 Month 14 Day 11 Hours 49 Minute 36 Seconds      y Year  m Month  d Day                          gt   1 Year 3 Month 14 Days      m Month  d Day                                        gt   3 Month 14 Day      d Day  h Hours                                      gt   14 Day 11 Hours      d Day                                                    gt   14 Days      h Hours  i Minute  s Seconds            gt   11 Hours 49 Minute 36 Seconds      i Minute  s Seconds                              gt   49 Minute 36 Seconds      h Hours                                            gt   11 Hours      a Days                                                  gt   468 Days                                                                        function dateDifference  date 1    date 2    differenceFormat     a           datetime1   date create  date 1        datetime2   date create  date 2         interval   date diff  datetime1   datetime2        return  interval- gt format  differenceFormat       only set parameter  differenceFormat  As your need example I want Diff between to years with months and days your age dateDifference date  Y-m-d      date     y  m  d   or other format dateDifference date  Y-m-d      date     y- m- d

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I suggest to use DateTime and DateInterval objects    date1   new DateTime  2007-03-24     date2   new DateTime  2009-06-26     interval    date1- gt diff  date2   echo  difference      interval- gt y     years       interval- gt m   months     interval- gt d   days         shows the total amount of days  not divided into years  months and days like above  echo  difference      interval- gt days     days      read more php DateTime  diff manual  From the manual      As of PHP 5 2 2  DateTime objects can be compared using comparison operators      date1   new DateTime  now     date2   new DateTime  tomorrow     var dump  date1     date2      bool false  var dump  date1  lt   date2       bool true  var dump  date1  gt   date2       bool false

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you can always use the following function that can return the age in years and months  ie  1 Year 4 Months   function getAge  dob   age at date           d1   new DateTime  dob        d2   new DateTime  age at date        age    d2- gt diff  d1        years    age- gt y       months    age- gt m       return  years     months      or if you want the age to be calculated at the current date  you can use  function getAge  dob           d1   new DateTime  dob        d2   new DateTime date          age    d2- gt diff  d1        years    age- gt y       months    age- gt m       return  years     months

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You can also use following code to return date diff by round fractions up      date1    duedate     assign due date     echo  date2   date  Y-m-d       current date       ts1   strtotime  date1         ts2   strtotime  date2        seconds diff    ts1 -  ts2      echo  datediff   ceil   seconds diff 3600  24      return in days  If you use floor method of php instead of ceil it will return you the round fraction down  Please check the difference here  some times if your staging servers timezone is different then the live site time zone in that case you may get different results so change the conditions accordingly

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lt  php      today   strtotime  2011-02-03 00 00 00         myBirthDate   strtotime  1964-10-30 00 00 00        printf  Days since my birthday       today -  myBirthDate  60 60 24     gt

[php] How to calculate the difference between two dates using PHP?

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