How do I get the difference between two Dates in JavaScript?

Question

I'm creating an application which lets you define events with a time frame. I want to automatically fill in the end date when the user selects or changes the start date. I can't quite figure out, however, how to get the difference between the two times, and then how to create a new end Date using that difference.

Answer 1

In JavaScript, dates can be transformed to the number of milliseconds since the epoc by calling the getTime() method or just using the date in a numeric expression.

So to get the difference, just subtract the two dates.

To create a new date based on the difference, just pass the number of milliseconds in the constructor.

var oldBegin = ...
var oldEnd = ...
var newBegin = ...

var newEnd = new Date(newBegin + oldEnd - oldBegin);

This should just work

EDIT: Fixed bug pointed by @bdukes

EDIT:

For an explanation of the behavior, oldBegin, oldEnd, and newBegin are Date instances. Calling operators + and - will trigger Javascript auto casting and will automatically call the valueOf() prototype method of those objects. It happens that the valueOf() method is implemented in the Date object as a call to getTime().

So basically: date.getTime() === date.valueOf() === (0 + date) === (+date)

Answer 2

JavaScript perfectly supports date difference out of the box

https://jsfiddle.net/b9chris/v5twbe3h/

var msMinute = 60*1000, 
    msDay = 60*60*24*1000,
    a = new Date(2012, 2, 12, 23, 59, 59),
    b = new Date("2013 march 12");


console.log(Math.floor((b - a) / msDay) + ' full days between'); // 364
console.log(Math.floor(((b - a) % msDay) / msMinute) + ' full minutes between'); // 0

---

Now some pitfalls. Try this:

console.log(a - 10); // 1331614798990
console.log(a + 10); // mixed string

So if you have risk of adding a number and Date, convert Date to number directly.

console.log(a.getTime() - 10); // 1331614798990
console.log(a.getTime() + 10); // 1331614799010

My fist example demonstrates the power of Date object but it actually appears to be a time bomb

Answer 3

See JsFiddle DEMO

    var date1 = new Date();    
    var date2 = new Date("2025/07/30 21:59:00");
    //Customise date2 for your required future time

    showDiff();

function showDiff(date1, date2){

    var diff = (date2 - date1)/1000;
    diff = Math.abs(Math.floor(diff));

    var days = Math.floor(diff/(24*60*60));
    var leftSec = diff - days * 24*60*60;

    var hrs = Math.floor(leftSec/(60*60));
    var leftSec = leftSec - hrs * 60*60;

    var min = Math.floor(leftSec/(60));
    var leftSec = leftSec - min * 60;

    document.getElementById("showTime").innerHTML = "You have " + days + " days " + hrs + " hours " + min + " minutes and " + leftSec + " seconds before death.";

setTimeout(showDiff,1000);
}

for your HTML Code:

<div id="showTime"></div>

Answer 4

If you don't care about the time component, you can use .getDate() and .setDate() to just set the date part.

So to set your end date to 2 weeks after your start date, do something like this:

function GetEndDate(startDate)
{
    var endDate = new Date(startDate.getTime());
    endDate.setDate(endDate.getDate()+14);
    return endDate;
}

To return the difference (in days) between two dates, do this:

function GetDateDiff(startDate, endDate)
{
    return endDate.getDate() - startDate.getDate();
}

Finally, let's modify the first function so it can take the value returned by 2nd as a parameter:

function GetEndDate(startDate, days)
{
    var endDate = new Date(startDate.getTime());
    endDate.setDate(endDate.getDate() + days);
    return endDate;
}

Answer 5

Thanks @Vincent Robert, I ended up using your basic example, though it's actually newBegin + oldEnd - oldBegin. Here's the simplified end solution:

    // don't update end date if there's already an end date but not an old start date
    if (!oldEnd || oldBegin) {
        var selectedDateSpan = 1800000; // 30 minutes
        if (oldEnd) {
            selectedDateSpan = oldEnd - oldBegin;
        }

       newEnd = new Date(newBegin.getTime() + selectedDateSpan));
    }

Answer 6

Depending on your needs, this function will calculate the difference between the 2 days, and return a result in days decimal.

// This one returns a signed decimal. The sign indicates past or future.

this.getDateDiff = function(date1, date2) {
    return (date1.getTime() - date2.getTime()) / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24);
}

// This one always returns a positive decimal. (Suggested by Koen below)

this.getDateDiff = function(date1, date2) {
    return Math.abs((date1.getTime() - date2.getTime()) / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24));
}

Answer 7

If using moment.js, there is a simpler solution, which will give you the difference in days in one single line of code.

moment(endDate).diff(moment(beginDate), 'days');

Additional details can be found in the moment.js page

Cheers, Miguel

Answer 8

function compare()
{
  var end_actual_time    = $('#date3').val();

  start_actual_time = new Date();
  end_actual_time = new Date(end_actual_time);

  var diff = end_actual_time-start_actual_time;

  var diffSeconds = diff/1000;
  var HH = Math.floor(diffSeconds/3600);
  var MM = Math.floor(diffSeconds%3600)/60;

  var formatted = ((HH < 10)?("0" + HH):HH) + ":" + ((MM < 10)?("0" + MM):MM)
  getTime(diffSeconds);
}
function getTime(seconds) {
  var days = Math.floor(leftover / 86400);

  //how many seconds are left
  leftover = leftover - (days * 86400);

  //how many full hours fits in the amount of leftover seconds
  var hours = Math.floor(leftover / 3600);

  //how many seconds are left
  leftover = leftover - (hours * 3600);

  //how many minutes fits in the amount of leftover seconds
  var minutes = leftover / 60;

  //how many seconds are left
  //leftover = leftover - (minutes * 60);
  alert(days + ':' + hours + ':' + minutes);
}

Answer 9

alternative modificitaion extended code..

http://jsfiddle.net/vvGPQ/48/

showDiff();

function showDiff(){
var date1 = new Date("2013/01/18 06:59:00");   
var date2 = new Date();
//Customise date2 for your required future time

var diff = (date2 - date1)/1000;
var diff = Math.abs(Math.floor(diff));

var years = Math.floor(diff/(365*24*60*60));
var leftSec = diff - years * 365*24*60*60;

var month = Math.floor(leftSec/((365/12)*24*60*60));
var leftSec = leftSec - month * (365/12)*24*60*60;    

var days = Math.floor(leftSec/(24*60*60));
var leftSec = leftSec - days * 24*60*60;

var hrs = Math.floor(leftSec/(60*60));
var leftSec = leftSec - hrs * 60*60;

var min = Math.floor(leftSec/(60));
var leftSec = leftSec - min * 60;




document.getElementById("showTime").innerHTML = "You have " + years + " years "+ month + " month " + days + " days " + hrs + " hours " + min + " minutes and " + leftSec + " seconds the life time has passed.";

setTimeout(showDiff,1000);
}

Answer 10

Below code will return the days left from today to futures date.

Dependencies: jQuery and MomentJs.

var getDaysLeft = function (date) {
  var today = new Date();
  var daysLeftInMilliSec = Math.abs(new Date(moment(today).format('YYYY-MM-DD')) - new Date(date));
  var daysLeft = daysLeftInMilliSec / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24);   
  return daysLeft;
};

getDaysLeft('YYYY-MM-DD');

Answer 11

this code fills the duration of study years when you input the start date and end date(qualify accured date) of study and check if the duration less than a year if yes the alert a message take in mind there are three input elements the first txtFromQualifDate and second txtQualifDate and third txtStudyYears

it will show result of number of years with fraction

function getStudyYears()
    {
        if(document.getElementById('txtFromQualifDate').value != '' && document.getElementById('txtQualifDate').value != '')
        {
            var d1 = document.getElementById('txtFromQualifDate').value;

            var d2 = document.getElementById('txtQualifDate').value;

            var one_day=1000*60*60*24;

            var x = d1.split("/");
            var y = d2.split("/");

            var date1=new Date(x[2],(x[1]-1),x[0]);

            var date2=new Date(y[2],(y[1]-1),y[0])

            var dDays = (date2.getTime()-date1.getTime())/one_day;

            if(dDays < 365)
            {
                alert("the date between start study and graduate must not be less than a year !");

                document.getElementById('txtQualifDate').value = "";
                document.getElementById('txtStudyYears').value = "";

                return ;
            }

            var dMonths = Math.ceil(dDays / 30);

            var dYears = Math.floor(dMonths /12) + "." + dMonths % 12;

            document.getElementById('txtStudyYears').value = dYears;
        }
    }

Answer 12

<html>
<head>
<script>
function dayDiff()
{
     var start = document.getElementById("datepicker").value;
     var end= document.getElementById("date_picker").value;
     var oneDay = 24*60*60*1000; 
     var firstDate = new Date(start);
     var secondDate = new Date(end);    
     var diffDays = Math.round(Math.abs((firstDate.getTime() - secondDate.getTime())/(oneDay)));
    document.getElementById("leave").value =diffDays ;
 }
</script>
</head>
<body>
<input type="text" name="datepicker"value=""/>
<input type="text" name="date_picker" onclick="function dayDiff()" value=""/>
<input type="text" name="leave" value=""/>
</body>
</html>

Answer 13

If you use Date objects and then use the getTime() function for both dates it will give you their respective times since Jan 1, 1970 in a number value. You can then get the difference between these numbers.

If that doesn't help you out, check out the complete documentation: http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/jsref_obj_date.asp

Answer 14

var getDaysLeft = function (date1, date2) {
   var daysDiffInMilliSec = Math.abs(new Date(date1) - new Date(date2));
   var daysLeft = daysDiffInMilliSec / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24);   
   return daysLeft;
};
var date1='2018-05-18';
var date2='2018-05-25';
var dateDiff = getDaysLeft(date1, date2);
console.log(dateDiff);

Answer 15

To get the date difference in milliseconds between two dates:

var diff = Math.abs(date1 - date2);

I'm not sure what you mean by converting the difference back into a date though.

Answer 16

Many answers here are based on a direct subtraction of Date objects like new Date(…) - new Date(…). This is syntactically wrong. Browsers still accept it because of backward compatibility. But modern JS linters will throw at you.

The right way to calculate date differences in milliseconds is new Date(…).getTime() - new Date(…).getTime():

// Time difference between two dates
let diffInMillis = new Date(…).getTime() - new Date(…).getTime()

If you want to calculate the time difference to now, you can just remove the argument from the first Date:

// Time difference between now and some date
let diffInMillis = new Date().getTime() - new Date(…).getTime()

Answer 17

THIS IS WHAT I DID ON MY SYSTEM.

var startTime=("08:00:00").split(":");
var endTime=("16:00:00").split(":");
var HoursInMinutes=((parseInt(endTime[0])*60)+parseInt(endTime[1]))-((parseInt(startTime[0])*60)+parseInt(startTime[1]));
console.log(HoursInMinutes/60);

Answer 18

function checkdate() {
    var indate = new Date()
    indate.setDate(dat)
    indate.setMonth(mon - 1)
    indate.setFullYear(year)

    var one_day = 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24
    var diff = Math.ceil((indate.getTime() - now.getTime()) / (one_day))
    var str = diff + " days are remaining.."
    document.getElementById('print').innerHTML = str.fontcolor('blue')
}