Get interval seconds between two datetime in PHP?

Question

2009-10-05 18:11:08

2009-10-05 18:07:13

This should generate 235,how to do it ?

Answer 1

With DateTime objects, you can do it like this:

$date = new DateTime( '2009-10-05 18:07:13' );
$date2 = new DateTime( '2009-10-05 18:11:08' );

$diffInSeconds = $date2->getTimestamp() - $date->getTimestamp();

Answer 2

You can use strtotime() to do that:

$diff = strtotime('2009-10-05 18:11:08') - strtotime('2009-10-05 18:07:13')

A similar approach is possible with DateTime objects, e.g.

$date = new DateTime( '2009-10-05 18:07:13' );
$date2 = new DateTime( '2009-10-05 18:11:08' );

$diff = $date2->getTimestamp() - $date->getTimestamp();

Answer 3

PHP Date Time reference is helpful for things like this: PHP Date Time Functions

strtotime() is probably the best way.

$seconds = strtotime('2009-10-05 18:11:08') - strtotime('2009-10-05 18:07:13')

Answer 4

For those worrying about the limitations of using timestamps (i.e. using dates before 1970 and beyond 2038), you can simply calculate the difference in seconds like so:

$start = new DateTime('2009-10-05 18:07:13');
$end = new DateTime('2009-10-05 18:11:08');
$diff = $start->diff($end);

$daysInSecs = $diff->format('%r%a') * 24 * 60 * 60;
$hoursInSecs = $diff->h * 60 * 60;
$minsInSecs = $diff->i * 60;

$seconds = $daysInSecs + $hoursInSecs + $minsInSecs + $diff->s;

echo $seconds; // output: 235

Wrote a blog post for those interested in reading more.

Answer 5

Because of unix epoch limitations, you could have problems compairing dates before 1970 and after 2038. I choose to loose precision (=don't look at the single second) but avoid to pass trough unix epoch conversions (getTimestamp). It depends on what you are doing to do...

In my case, using 365 instead (12*30) and "30" as mean month lenght, reduced the error in an usable output.

function DateIntervalToSec($start,$end){ // as datetime object returns difference in seconds
    $diff = $end->diff($start);
    $diff_sec = $diff->format('%r').( // prepend the sign - if negative, change it to R if you want the +, too
                ($diff->s)+ // seconds (no errors)
                (60*($diff->i))+ // minutes (no errors)
                (60*60*($diff->h))+ // hours (no errors)
                (24*60*60*($diff->d))+ // days (no errors)
                (30*24*60*60*($diff->m))+ // months (???)
                (365*24*60*60*($diff->y)) // years (???)
                );
    return $diff_sec;
}

Note that the error could be 0, if "mean" quantities are intended for diff. The PHP docs don't speaks about this... In a bad case, error could be:

• 0 seconds if diff is applied to time gaps < 1 month
• 0 to 3 days if diff is applied to time gaps > 1 month
• 0 to 14 days if diff is applied to time gaps > 1 year

I prefer to suppose that somebody decided to consider "m" as 30 days and "y" as 365, charging "d" with the difference when "diff" walk trough non-30-days months...

If somebody knows something more about this and can provide official documentation, is welcome!

Answer 6

strtotime("2009-10-05 18:11:08") - strtotime("2009-10-05 18:07:13")

Answer 7

The solution proposed by @designcise is wrong when "end date" is before "start date". Here is the corrected calculation

$diff = $start->diff($end);

$daysInSecs = $diff->format('%r%a') * 24 * 60 * 60;
$hoursInSecs = $diff->format('%r%h') * 60 * 60;
$minsInSecs = $diff->format('%r%i') * 60;

$seconds = $daysInSecs + $hoursInSecs + $minsInSecs + $diff->format('%r%s');

Answer 8

I know this is an old question, but I had a similar problem and came up with this solution that should work for almost any date, including those before 1970 or after 2038:

$loDate = new DateTime('1000-01-01');
$hiDate = new DateTime('2525-01-01');

if ($hiDate >= $loDate) {
    $diff = $loDate->diff($hiDate);
    $seconds = bcmul((string) $diff->days, '86400');

    if ($diff->h > 0 || $diff->i > 0 || $diff->s > 0) {
        $seconds = bcadd($seconds, (string) ($diff->h * 3600));
        $seconds = bcadd($seconds, (string) ($diff->i * 60));
        $seconds = bcadd($seconds, (string) $diff->s);
    }
 }

The DateTime class is not smart enough to account for calendar changes made in 1752 (when Sept 2, 1752 was followed by Sept 14, 1752), so don't count on this to handle historical dates correctly.

Answer 9

$date1 = new DateTime('2009-10-05 18:11:08');
$date2 = new DateTime('2009-10-05 18:07:13');
$interval = $date1->diff($date2);
echo $interval->s + $interval->i * 60 + $interval->h * 3600 + $interval->days * 86400;

Answer 10

A simple and exact solution (exemplifying Nilz11's comment):

$hiDate = new DateTime("2310-05-22 08:33:26");
$loDate = new DateTime("1910-11-03 13:00:01");
$diff = $hiDate->diff($loDate);
$secs = ((($diff->format("%a") * 24) + $diff->format("%H")) * 60 + 
   $diff->format("%i")) * 60 + $diff->format("%s");