Get Time Difference (I already did a research but i just dont know how to fix it)

Question

The timestamp in my database is 2015-03-03 00:25:39 (Take note that the type = timestamp and the correct current timestamp in my end is 2015-03-02 01:31:00. The difference should be around 23 hours. But now the problem is that the answers provided in the net will give me 30 hours instead of 23 hours. Some of the codes that I have tried are the following:

$target is the target date

CODE 1:
$then = strtotime($target);
$diff = $then - time();
echo sprintf("%s days and %s hours left", date('z', $diff), date('G', $diff));

But it gives me 1 days and 6 hours left. So 30 hours

CODE2:
$seconds = strtotime("$target") - time();
echo $seconds; exit();
$days = floor($seconds / 86400);
$seconds %= 86400;
$hours = floor($seconds / 3600);
echo $hours;

It gives me something like 107388 = 30 hours.

CODE 3:
//Convert to date
$datestr= $target;//Your date
$date=strtotime($datestr);//Converted to a PHP date (a second count) 
//Calculate difference
$diff=$date-time();//time returns current time in seconds
$days=floor($diff/(60*60*24));//seconds/minute*minutes/hour*hours/day)
$hours=round(($diff-$days*60*60*24)/(60*60));

It gives me 6 hours

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, more like I have no idea how to do it. This is now my last resort since I can't find the solution that will help me. Hoping for your fast responses.

*"Hoping for your fast responses."* - Protip: Don't use that in questions. We're not on a deadline here. — Funk Forty Niner, Mar 01 '15 at 17:41
It's currently 1:41am here and I would really like to have this to be done as soon as possible. Still many stuff to fix in our project. So yeah, I hope you understand. — Dev, Mar 01 '15 at 17:42

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 01 '15 at 17:43

2

PHP's DateTime() (and DateInterval()) are much better for date math and returns the correct results:

$date = new DateTime('2015-03-03 00:25:39');
$now  = new DateTime('2015-03-02 01:31:00');
$diff = $date->diff($now);
echo $diff->h, ' hours ', $diff->i, ' minutes';

Demo

answered Mar 01 '15 at 17:43

John Conde

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But I am using variables for the dates. How would I convert your code to accomodate such? – Dev Mar 01 '15 at 17:46
1

Just put the variables where the dates are. That's basic PHP. – John Conde Mar 01 '15 at 17:47
How will I put the timestamp for the current time? $now = new DateTime(time());? – Dev Mar 01 '15 at 17:49
Just put nothing (i.e. no parameters). That will default to "now". `$now = new DateTime();` – John Conde Mar 01 '15 at 17:50
It gives me 5 hours and 32 minutes. – Dev Mar 01 '15 at 17:53
The code above definitely works. The link in my answer shows that. If you changed the value in one of the variables then the results will be different and probably correct. What did you change? – John Conde Mar 01 '15 at 17:55
$date = new DateTime($target); $now = new DateTime(); – Dev Mar 01 '15 at 17:57

mickmackusa · Answer 2 · 2017-03-23T09:42:46.590

This is a very late answer, but your question is a good one that will likely be searched for in the future.

Here is an online demo.

// this doesn't appreciate any timezone declarations, you'll need to add this if necessary

$target="2015-03-03 00:25:39";  // declare your input
$then=new DateTime($target);    // feed input to DateTime
$now=new DateTime();         // get DateTime for Now
$diff=(array)$then->diff($now);      // calculate difference & cast as array
$labels=array("y"=>"year","m"=>"month","d"=>"day","h"=>"hour","i"=>"minute","s"=>"second");
$readable="";       // declare as empty string
// filter the $diff array to only include the desired elements and loop
foreach(array_intersect_key($diff,$labels) as $k=>$v){
    if($v>0){  // only add non-zero values to $readable
        $readable.=($readable!=""?", ":"")."$v {$labels[$k]}".($v>1?"s":"");
        //  use comma-space as glue | show value | show unit | pluralize when necessary
    }
}
echo "$readable";
// e.g. 2 years, 20 days, 1 hour, 10 minutes, 40 seconds

@NotTestAcct I designed this solution for not only your case, but for anyone's case where they wish to output a human-readable time difference. If it satisfies, please award it a green tick so that your question is removed from the unanswered questions list. — mickmackusa, Mar 23 '17 at 08:41

Get Time Difference (I already did a research but i just dont know how to fix it)

2 Answers2