PHP | date_diff() Function

Hello folks! welcome back to a new edition of our tutorial on PHP. In this tutorial guide, we are going to be studying about the PHP date_diff() Function.

The built-in PHP date_diff() function is an alias of the DateTime::diff(). It accepts two DateTime objects as parameters and then returns the difference between them.

Syntax

Following below is the syntax to use this function -

date_diff($datetime1, $datetime2[, $absolute])

READ: PHP | time() Function

Parameter Details

Sr.No	Parameter & Description
1	datetime1(Mandatory) This is a DateTime object, representing one of the dates for the comparison.
2	$datetime2 (Mandatory) This is a DateTime object, representing one of the dates for the comparison.
3	$absolute (Optional) A boolean value representing whether interval difference should be Must be positive

Return Value

This PHP function returns the DateInterval object specifying the difference between the two given dates. In case of failure, then it returns the boolean value false.

PHP Version

This function was first introduced as part of core PHP v 5.3.0 and, it works with all the later versions.

Example1

Following example demonstrates the usage of the PHP date_diff() function -

<?php
   //Creating a DateTime object
   $date1 = date_create("25-09-1989");
   $date2 = date_create("1-09-2012");
   $interval = date_diff($date1, $date2);
   print($interval->format('%Y years %d days'));
?>

Output

When the above code is executed, it will produce the following result -

22 years 7 days

Example2

The following example below calculates the difference between a given date and current date -

<?php
   $date1 = date_create("25-09-1989");
   $date2 = date_create();
   $interval = date_diff($date1, $date2);
   print($interval->format('%Y years %d days'));  
?>

Output

When the above code is executed, it will produce the following result -

31 years 0 days

Example3

Try the following example -

<?php
   //Creating a DateTime object
   $date1 = date_create("25-09-2012");
   $date2 = date_create("1-09-2014");
   $interval = date_diff($date1, $date2);
   print($interval->format('%Y years %m months %d days'));
   print("\n");
   $date3 = date_create("25-09-1989");
   $date4 = date_create("19-03-2012");
   $interval = date_diff($date3, $date4);
   print($interval->format('%Y years %m months %d days'));
   print("\n");
   $date5 = date_create("16-11-2002");
   $date6 = date_create("12-09-2014");
   $interval = date_diff($date5,;"> $date6);
   print($interval->format('%Y years %m months %d days'));
   print("\n");
   $date7 = date_create("25-09-1989");
   $date8 = date_create("1-09-2012");
   $interval = date_diff($date7, $date8);
   print($interval->format('%Y years %m months %d days'));
?>

Output

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result -

01 years 11 months 7 days
22 years 5 months 23 days
11 years 9 months 27 days
22 years 11 months 7 days

READ: PHP | date_add() Function

Alright guys! This is where we are going to be rounding up for this tutorial post. In our next tutorial, we are going to be discussing about the PHP date_parse_from_format() Function.

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