Subtract some date and time from current date and time to find age in PHP

Question

Suppose I have a ticket $create_time = "2016-08-02 12:35:04". I want to subtract the $create_time from current date and time like $current_time="2016-08-02 16:16:02" to find the age in the format 3hr 41min.

<?php

$sql = "SELECT count(*) as total, create_time FROM article where ticket_id='$ticket_id'";
$otrs_db = $this->load->database('otrs',true);
$result = $otrs_db->query($sql);

foreach($result->result() as $row)
{?>
    <div class="pull-left">
        <h4><b><?php echo $row->total ;?> Article(s)</b></h4>
    </div>
    <div class="pull-right">
        <h4>Age: <?php echo date("Y-m-d H:i", strtotime("-$row->create_time",strtotime($thestime))) ?>Created: <?php echo $row->create_time; ?></h4>
    </div>

<?php
}
?>

I know my date subtraction code is wrong. How can i do it right?

Try `date("Y-m-d H:i", time() - strtotime($row->create_time))` — Blue, Aug 02 '16 at 10:39
I am sure this is a duplicate question, but you should use date_diff() — M. I., Aug 02 '16 at 10:48

Kevin Kopf · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-02T11:01:43.957

2

You should use DateTime class.

$create_time = "2016-08-02 12:35:04";
$current_time="2016-08-02 16:16:02";

$dtCurrent = DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d H:i:s', $current_time);
$dtCreate = DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d H:i:s', $create_time);
$diff = $dtCurrent->diff($dtCreate);

echo $diff->format("%Y-%m-%d %H:%i");

This returns 00-0-0 03:40 See DateInterval::format for more formatting details.

edited Aug 02 '16 at 11:01

answered Aug 02 '16 at 10:55

Kevin Kopf

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@SujanShrestha I also posted an answer in the linked question if you wish to use "6 hours 5 minutes" format of answer: http://stackoverflow.com/a/38721229/3324556 – Kevin Kopf Aug 02 '16 at 13:18

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

You need to progressively work through the timestamp to extract Days, Minutes & Hours. You can use something like this.

function timeSince($t)
{
    $timeSince = time() - $t;

    $pars = array (
        31536000 => 'year',
        2592000 => 'month',
        604800 => 'week',
        86400 => 'day',
        3600 => 'hour',
        60 => 'minute',
        1 => 'second'
    );

    $result = '';
    $counter = 1;
    foreach ($pars as $unit => $text) {
        if ($timeSince < $unit) continue;
        if ($counter > 2) break;

        $numberOfUnits = floor($timeSince / $unit);
        $result .= "$numberOfUnits $text ";
        $timeSince -= $numberOfUnits * $unit;
        ++$counter;
    }

    return "{$result} ago..";
}

Credit https://stackoverflow.com/a/20171268/1106380

This is very ugly code compared to `DateTime` class that was introduced in PHP 5.2.0. Please use `DateTime.` — Kevin Kopf, Aug 02 '16 at 11:03

Subtract some date and time from current date and time to find age in PHP

2 Answers2

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