Calculate total seconds in PHP DateInterval

Question

What is the best way to calculate the total number of seconds between two dates? So far, I've tried something along the lines of:

$delta   = $date->diff(new DateTime('now'));
$seconds = $delta->days * 60 * 60 * 24;

However, the days property of the DateInterval object seems to be broken in the current PHP5.3 build (at least on Windows, it always returns the same 6015 value). I also attempted to do it in a way which would fail to preserve number of days in each month (rounds to 30), leap years, etc:

$seconds = ($delta->s)
         + ($delta->i * 60)
         + ($delta->h * 60 * 60)
         + ($delta->d * 60 * 60 * 24)
         + ($delta->m * 60 * 60 * 24 * 30)
         + ($delta->y * 60 * 60 * 24 * 365);

But I'm really not happy with using this half-assed solution.

@warrenm The problem with `format` is when say the number of seconds is 0 while the number of minutes is 1, `$delta->format("%r%s")` turns out to be 0 :( — Vadim Samokhin, Aug 15 '12 at 14:34
Worse yet, speaking as somebody now fixing a defect caught in code review from a coder who pasted your EXACT code above -- not every month has 30 days, and not every year has 365 days. :) [Edit: and that coder may have been myself!] — taiganaut, Nov 02 '12 at 21:42

score 248 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 05 '10 at 00:01

248

Could you not compare the time stamps instead?

$now = new DateTime('now');
$diff = $date->getTimestamp() - $now->getTimestamp()

answered Jul 05 '10 at 00:01

Ben

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I think this works without lurking edge cases (wouldn't bet my life on it though having just spent 10 months doing a DateTime refactor of a large PHP app) but it should be noted that it's a workaround that doesn't solve the comparing-DateIntervals problem. It'd still be really nice to have that ability. – taiganaut Nov 02 '12 at 21:41
7

If you're stuck with PHP 5.2 on your crappy shared hoster, use `format('U')` instead of `getTimestamp()`. – chiborg Nov 26 '12 at 14:51
4

Your solution is not compatible w/ year 2038 bug – Jack M. Jun 27 '14 at 09:02
11

@JackM. Good to know. I do hope whatever is being built now isn't running anymore in 2037. Feel free to provide a year 2038 bug safe alternative solution. – Ben Jun 27 '14 at 09:59
@JackM. Is it compatible with year 2038 on 64-bit systems? If so, will 32-bit PHP remain supported in 2038? – Damian Yerrick Feb 19 '18 at 17:35

score 47 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 05 '14 at 22:24

47

This function allows you to get the total duration in seconds from a DateInterval object

/**
 * @param DateInterval $dateInterval
 * @return int seconds
 */
function dateIntervalToSeconds($dateInterval)
{
    $reference = new DateTimeImmutable;
    $endTime = $reference->add($dateInterval);

    return $endTime->getTimestamp() - $reference->getTimestamp();
}

answered Aug 05 '14 at 22:24

dave1010

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It should be noted that DateTimeImmutable is only available from PHP 5.5 or higher. – XtraBytesLab May 07 '15 at 11:34
I think you have to replace the return variables `$endTime` and `$reference` with each other, since this gives me a minus result with a future interval datetime value. – AlexioVay Jun 01 '18 at 13:42
1

I don't think Timestamp is in Seconds either. PHP DateTime = Horrific API – Quadrivium Nov 30 '18 at 00:29

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 03 '21 at 09:18

DateTime::diff returns a DateInterval object between 2 dates.

The DateInterval object gives all the informations (the number of days, hours, minutes, seconds).

Here's a sample code:

/**
 * intervalToSeconds
 *
 * @param  DateInterval $interval
 * @return int
 */
function intervalToSeconds(\DateInterval $interval) {
    return $interval->days * 86400 + $interval->h * 3600 + $interval->i * 60 + $interval->s;
}

$date_1 = new \DateTime('2021-03-03 05:59:19');
$date_2 = new \DateTime('now');
$interval = $date_1->diff($date_2);
echo intervalToSeconds($interval);

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 04 '10 at 23:57

You could do it like this:

$currentTime = time();
$timeInPast = strtotime("2009-01-01 00:00:00");

$differenceInSeconds = $currentTime - $timeInPast;

time() returns the current time in seconds since the epoch time (1970-01-01T00:00:00), and strtotime does the same, but based on a specific date/time you give.

score 5 · Answer 5 · edited Dec 01 '12 at 13:59

static function getIntervalUnits($interval, $unit)
{
    // Day
    $total = $interval->format('%a');
    if ($unit == TimeZoneCalc::Days)
        return $total;
    //hour
    $total = ($total * 24) + ($interval->h );
    if ($unit == TimeZoneCalc::Hours)
        return $total;
    //min
    $total = ($total * 60) + ($interval->i );
    if ($unit == TimeZoneCalc::Minutes)
        return $total;  
    //sec
    $total = ($total * 60) + ($interval->s );
    if ($unit == TimeZoneCalc::Seconds)
        return $total;  

    return false;
}

Calculate total seconds in PHP DateInterval

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