Difference between two dates from database in php

Question

Dates are stored in the database in this format

month/day/year - hour:minute AM/PM

Example:

10/06/2014 - 07:25 AM
10/08/2014 - 09:30 AM

I want to find the difference between the dates in x days y hours z minutes .

Answer 1

The date must be first formatted into a php date by using the function date_create_from_format() and the difference is found using the object oriented function $interval->format() with the formats specified with % .

Use this simple PHP code:

$format = "m/d/Y - h:i A";
$date1 = "10/06/2014 - 07:25 AM";
$date2 = "10/08/2014 - 09:30 AM";
$date1 = date_create_from_format($format, $date1);
$date2 = date_create_from_format($format, $date2);
$interval = date_diff($date1, $date2);
echo $interval->format('%d days %h hours %i minutes');

This will give you are difference in dates in x days y hours z minutes as you want it to be.

And for your information, the date formats and inteval formats can be found in these links. Both of them are php manuals.

Answer 2

Use DATEDIFF(datepart,startdate,enddate) If it's generic database query. But use date_diff if it's PHP operation.

In the case of your question, just put

DATEDIFF(m dd hh, "10/06/2014 -07:25AM", "10/08/2014 - 09:30 AM")

For a general database query