How to get the difference in months between two dates in PHP

Question

I wanted to calculate the difference between two dates in month with PHP but it seems like there is a bug somewhere.

$datetime1 = new DateTime(date('Y-m-d'));
$datetime2 = new DateTime(MyObject->getDate());
echo($datetime1->format('d/m/Y'));
echo($datetime2->format('d/m/Y));

Result:

29/01/2016
27/01/2015

$dateInterval = $datetime1->diff($datetime2);
echo($dateInterval->format(%m months);

Result:

0 months

Why is that? What am i doing wrong ?

Answer 1

Calculate months between two dates:

For PHP >=5.3 you can use DateTime diff that returns a DateInterval object as below.

 $d1 = new DateTime("2013-12-09"); $d2 = new DateTime("2014-03-17"); var_dump($d1->diff($d2)->m); var_dump($d1->diff($d2)->m + ($d1->diff($d2)->y*12)); 

If you don't have PHP 5.3 or higher , you can use strtotime() function to get timestamps, the number of seconds between any date and January 1 1970 00:00:00.

 $d1 = "2013-12-09"; $d2 = "2014-03-17"; echo (int)abs((strtotime($d1) - strtotime($d2))/(60*60*24*30)); 

http://www.tricksofit.com/2013/12/calculate-the-difference-between-two-dates-in-php

Answer 2

// @link http://www.php.net/manual/en/class.datetime.php
$d1 = new DateTime(date('Y-m-d'));
$d2 = new DateTime(MyObject->getDate());

// @link http://www.php.net/manual/en/class.dateinterval.php
$interval = $d2->diff($d1);

$interval->format('%m months');

Answer 3

DateTime::diff returns relative values, with exception of days . So, to calculate the absolute difference in months, you have to use:

$datetime1->diff($datetime2)->format('%y')*12+$datetime1->diff($datetime2)->format('%m');

Answer 4

$currentDateTime = new DateTime;
$dateTimeInTheFuture = new DateTime(MyObject->getDate());

$dateInterval = $dateTimeInTheFuture->diff($currentDateTime);

$totalMonths = 12 * $dateInterval->y + $dateInterval->m;

echo $totalMonths;

Answer 5

You are just missed Single quote termination,

$datetime1 = new DateTime(date('Y-m-d'));
$datetime2 = new DateTime(MyObject->getDate());
echo($datetime1->format('d/m/Y'));
echo($datetime2->format('d/m/Y'));//You are missing single quote here

I am also try with this code,

<?php
$datetime1 = date_create('2009-10-11');
$datetime2 = date_create('2009-12-13');
echo($datetime1->format('d/m/Y'));
echo "<br/>";
echo($datetime2->format('d/m/Y'));
$dateInterval = $datetime1->diff($datetime2);
//print_r(arrayColumn($dateInterval,'m'));
echo "<br>Month are :".$dateInterval->format('%m');
exit; 

?>