How to get time difference in minutes in PHP

Asked 13/12, 2008 at 13:5 Answered 30/11, 2021 at 17:11

346

How to calculate minute difference between two date-times in PHP?

Cysticercus answered 13/12, 2008 at 13:5 Comment(0)

108

Subtract the past most one from the future most one and divide by 60.

Times are done in Unix format so they're just a big number showing the number of seconds from January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT

Petunia answered 13/12, 2008 at 13:23 Comment(3)

@Jerald How this solution works for you? Do you mind to brief it at least a little bit? Thanks. – Clothe 29/3, 2017 at 1:59

@WafieAli $nInterval = strtotime($sDate2) - strtotime($sDate1); this will return the time difference in seconds, then you can just divide by 60 like this. $nInterval = $nInterval/60; – Adulteress 11/7, 2017 at 10:27

+1 for explaining what needs to be done and not using the useless DateInterval class that doesn't have a method to do just that: return difference in minutes. – Bloomfield 10/6, 2019 at 19:47

501

The answers above are for older versions of PHP. Use the DateTime class to do any date calculations now that PHP 5.3 is the norm. Eg.

$start_date = new DateTime('2007-09-01 04:10:58');
$since_start = $start_date->diff(new DateTime('2012-09-11 10:25:00'));
echo $since_start->days.' days total<br>';
echo $since_start->y.' years<br>';
echo $since_start->m.' months<br>';
echo $since_start->d.' days<br>';
echo $since_start->h.' hours<br>';
echo $since_start->i.' minutes<br>';
echo $since_start->s.' seconds<br>';

$since_start is a DateInterval object. Note that the days property is available (because we used the diff method of the DateTime class to generate the DateInterval object).

The above code will output:

1837 days total
5 years
0 months
10 days
6 hours
14 minutes
2 seconds

To get the total number of minutes:

$minutes = $since_start->days * 24 * 60;
$minutes += $since_start->h * 60;
$minutes += $since_start->i;
echo $minutes.' minutes';

This will output:

2645654 minutes

Which is the actual number of minutes that has passed between the two dates. The DateTime class will take daylight saving (depending on timezone) into account where the "old way" won't. Read the manual about Date and Time http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.datetime.php

Mccrae answered 12/9, 2012 at 7:11 Comment(18)

Pitty DateInterval does not have method like inSeconds() or something similar, now it's code repetition everywhere I need to calculate difference in seconds. – Blackett 29/11, 2012 at 7:32

@barius Or you can write a function that wraps the repeating code, or even extend DateTime and not repeat your code. – Countermove 16/4, 2013 at 17:41

+1 for the only proper answer at the time of writing this comment. – Entomostracan 11/7, 2013 at 12:49

Using the new DateTime class is good, but why generate a DateInterval that then has to be decoded so awkwardly?

$dateFrom = new DateTime('2007-09-01 04:10:58'); $dateTo = new DateTime('2012-09-11 10:25:00'); echo ($dateTo->getTimestamp()-$dateFrom->getTimestamp())/60 ;

– Immunochemistry 14/12, 2014 at 22:43

@dkloke: because that would use a classic unix timestamp which means we have to deal with dates before 1970 and leap years and so on on our own. – Greggs 16/5, 2015 at 22:42

@Raphael Weber that's true for some earlier versions, I tried this in 5.3.15 and subsequent version and getTimestamp() gives negative numbers for DateTimes prior to the unix epoch, and hence correct calculations; I checked some trivial pre-epoch leap year examples and the calculations were correct. But it is version sensitive, a user note under DateTime:getTimestamp suggests that using format("U") is more reliable for a version that returns false for getTimestamp(). – Immunochemistry 17/5, 2015 at 7:49

Can someone explain to me why this is better than the strtotime answer above it? This seems like a case of OOP when Procedural is AT LEAST as valid (and considerably more concise) solution. – Senegal 25/7, 2016 at 5:5

How to know if difference is in plus or minus? – Sentinel 29/7, 2016 at 20:41

The "old way" does take in to account daylight savings and timezones so I can't really see any useful benefits of using DateTime in this situation. @Greggs That would be awful if leap years could distort a unix timestamp. Thankfully they thought of that. – Mor 4/10, 2016 at 21:56

@Phil_1984_ true. Probably didn't have enough coffee that day. Still I'd rather stick with DateTime and never mix usage of these two. It just simplifies things. So even when it ist not necessary for this particular usecase, i would generally stick with DateTime. – Greggs 5/10, 2016 at 14:24

Not every day has 24 hours so this solution won't actually take into account daylight savings. I don't have a better suggestion though :/ Pity DateInterval doesn't have methods for this sort of thing. – Colloid 6/5, 2018 at 18:22

You might aswell edit your 'above' answer because you are taking the the draw with my vote and soon hopefully the lead :) – Polypropylene 14/5, 2018 at 13:13

I understood $minutes = $since_start->days * 24 * 60; , because there are 24 hours in a day and 60 minutes in an hour, totalNumberOfDays * 24 * 60 does give us the total number of minutes. But then why do we again do $minutes += $since_start->h * 60; and $minutes += $since_start->i; in the next two lines? – Sealy 5/11, 2018 at 5:44

Good answer I suggest to add sign :(int)($interval->format('%R').$minutes); – Sudanic 16/9, 2020 at 2:27

@Immunochemistry your answer was simple and discards all the concerns about seconds calculation... – Quincyquindecagon 1/7, 2021 at 2:52

This answer does not let me know whether the time difference is in the future or past. Swap the two date inputs, same results appear in $since_start. – Slide 22/9, 2021 at 12:28

For me, DateTime API is a little confusing. I expected $since_start->i to be equal to 2645654 minutes without extra calculations – Yousuf 16/10, 2021 at 10:21

Also do not forget $since_start->invert which is 1 or 0 depending on if the difference is negative or positive. If you want to tell if the amount is less than or greater than 0. – Tempo 30/3, 2023 at 15:51

382

Here is the answer:

$to_time = strtotime("2008-12-13 10:42:00");
$from_time = strtotime("2008-12-13 10:21:00");
echo round(abs($to_time - $from_time) / 60,2). " minute";

Jurisdiction answered 13/12, 2008 at 13:36 Comment(4)

abs() function not required if anyone wish to check negative time too! – Amesace 12/12, 2015 at 6:9

For those wondering, the / 60,2 means: divide by sixty, round to the nearest two decimal places. – Senegal 25/7, 2016 at 5:9

strtotime is unreliable, avoid. Only works for specific date formats, mostly US-related. – Veliavelick 26/9, 2016 at 15:6

strtotime may be obsolete but it's not unreliable if you use it properly. It stands to reason you need to be working with consistent date formats to be able to read (or parse) the dates correctly. See ISO 8601 and don't blame the tools :=) – Mor 4/10, 2016 at 21:29

108

Subtract the past most one from the future most one and divide by 60.

Times are done in Unix format so they're just a big number showing the number of seconds from January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT

Petunia answered 13/12, 2008 at 13:23 Comment(3)

@Jerald How this solution works for you? Do you mind to brief it at least a little bit? Thanks. – Clothe 29/3, 2017 at 1:59

+1 for explaining what needs to be done and not using the useless DateInterval class that doesn't have a method to do just that: return difference in minutes. – Bloomfield 10/6, 2019 at 19:47

<?php
$date1 = time();
sleep(2000);
$date2 = time();
$mins = ($date2 - $date1) / 60;
echo $mins;
?>

Eben answered 13/12, 2008 at 15:49 Comment(3)

Can you explain why you need some sleep to calculate a date difference? – Restrainer 1/2, 2019 at 8:55

What better way to use your time whilst waiting for another time to compare to than have a quick sleep. although this should in theory give you an answer of 2, which could help people trying to understand the formula, confirming it's correct. – Almita 5/2, 2019 at 23:59

@NicoHaase sleep() is basically used to delay the execution of the current script by a specified number of seconds. So here it is being used just to demonstrate a decent or a good enough amount of time difference. Thanks. – Farmhouse 3/2, 2022 at 4:50

<?php
$start = strtotime('12:01:00');
$end = strtotime('13:16:00');
$mins = ($end - $start) / 60;
echo $mins;
?>

Output:

Cozart answered 12/9, 2019 at 14:10 Comment(0)

DateTime::diff is cool, but awkward for this sort of calculations that require a single unit result. Manually subtracting the timestamps works better:

$date1 = new DateTime('2020-09-01 01:00:00');
$date2 = new DateTime('2021-09-01 14:00:00');
$diff_mins = abs($date1->getTimestamp() - $date2->getTimestamp()) / 60;

Einberger answered 25/5, 2021 at 15:26 Comment(1)

Does this handle leap years, leap seconds, and daylight savings? – Sateen 4/3, 2023 at 12:38

It worked on my programs, i'am using date_diff, you can check date_diff manual on here.

$start = date_create('2015-01-26 12:01:00');
$end = date_create('2015-01-26 13:15:00');
$diff=date_diff($end,$start);
print_r($diff);

You get results what do you want.

Agni answered 9/7, 2015 at 15:43 Comment(3)

Strange, for me, executing that code does not provide the time difference in minutes – Restrainer 1/2, 2019 at 8:56

This is useful only if you want to output "1hr 14mins". If you want only minutes, for example), you'd have to do the math: ($diff->h * 60) + $diff->i) – Carlo 10/1, 2020 at 16:26

This is useful only if... and then you provided a counterexample to how it is useful beyond the stated condition. So, it is useful, but it requires another step for the stated problem. That's different. – Sateen 4/3, 2023 at 12:47

another way with timezone.

$start_date = new DateTime("2013-12-24 06:00:00",new DateTimeZone('Pacific/Nauru'));
$end_date = new DateTime("2013-12-24 06:45:00", new DateTimeZone('Pacific/Nauru'));
$interval = $start_date->diff($end_date);
$hours   = $interval->format('%h'); 
$minutes = $interval->format('%i');
echo  'Diff. in minutes is: '.($hours * 60 + $minutes);

Epigeal answered 24/12, 2013 at 13:16 Comment(1)

If you want days, too, than you add $days = $interval->format('%d'); and the diff is ($days * 1440 + $hours * 60 + $minutes) . For months, years => same logic – Bumptious 22/1, 2014 at 11:1

I wrote this function for one my blog site(difference between a past date and server's date). It will give you an output like this

"49 seconds ago", "20 minutes ago", "21 hours ago" and so on

I have used a function that would get me the difference between the date passed and the server's date.

<?php

//Code written by purpledesign.in Jan 2014
function dateDiff($date)
{
    $mydate= date("Y-m-d H:i:s");
    $theDiff="";
    //echo $mydate;//2014-06-06 21:35:55
    $datetime1 = date_create($date);
    $datetime2 = date_create($mydate);
    $interval = date_diff($datetime1, $datetime2);
    //echo $interval->format('%s Seconds %i Minutes %h Hours %d days %m Months %y Year    Ago')."<br>";
    $min=$interval->format('%i');
    $sec=$interval->format('%s');
    $hour=$interval->format('%h');
    $mon=$interval->format('%m');
    $day=$interval->format('%d');
    $year=$interval->format('%y');
    if($interval->format('%i%h%d%m%y')=="00000") {
        //echo $interval->format('%i%h%d%m%y')."<br>";
        return $sec." Seconds";
    } else if($interval->format('%h%d%m%y')=="0000"){
        return $min." Minutes";
    } else if($interval->format('%d%m%y')=="000"){
        return $hour." Hours";
    } else if($interval->format('%m%y')=="00"){
        return $day." Days";
    } else if($interval->format('%y')=="0"){
        return $mon." Months";
    } else{
        return $year." Years";
    }    
}
?>

Save it as a file suppose "date.php". Call the function from another page like this

<?php
 require('date.php');
 $mydate='2014-11-14 21:35:55';
 echo "The Difference between the server's date and $mydate is:<br> ";
 echo dateDiff($mydate);
?>

Of course you can modify the function to pass two values.

Chloromycetin answered 7/6, 2014 at 19:21 Comment(1)

This produces grammatically incorrect strings whenever the unit is 1. "1 Seconds", "1 Hours", etc. It should really be return "{$unit} unit" . ($unit != 1 ? "s" : ""); – Sateen 4/3, 2023 at 12:41

I think this will help you

function calculate_time_span($date){
    $seconds  = strtotime(date('Y-m-d H:i:s')) - strtotime($date);

        $months = floor($seconds / (3600*24*30));
        $day = floor($seconds / (3600*24));
        $hours = floor($seconds / 3600);
        $mins = floor(($seconds - ($hours*3600)) / 60);
        $secs = floor($seconds % 60);

        if($seconds < 60)
            $time = $secs." seconds ago";
        else if($seconds < 60*60 )
            $time = $mins." min ago";
        else if($seconds < 24*60*60)
            $time = $hours." hours ago";
        else if($seconds < 24*60*60)
            $time = $day." day ago";
        else
            $time = $months." month ago";

        return $time;
}

Inhumanity answered 31/10, 2014 at 5:26 Comment(2)

Please add some explanation to your code such that the OP can learn from it – Restrainer 1/2, 2019 at 8:56

For minutes $minutes = floor(($seconds/60)%60); – Volleyball 29/5, 2019 at 6:6

This is how I displayed "xx times ago" in php > 5.2 .. here is more info on DateTime object

//Usage:
$pubDate = $row['rssfeed']['pubDates']; // e.g. this could be like 'Sun, 10 Nov 2013 14:26:00 GMT'
$diff = ago($pubDate);    // output: 23 hrs ago

// Return the value of time different in "xx times ago" format
function ago($timestamp)
{

    $today = new DateTime(date('y-m-d h:i:s')); // [2]
    //$thatDay = new DateTime('Sun, 10 Nov 2013 14:26:00 GMT');
    $thatDay = new DateTime($timestamp);
    $dt = $today->diff($thatDay);

    if ($dt->y > 0){
        $number = $dt->y;
        $unit = "year";
    } else if ($dt->m > 0) {
        $number = $dt->m;
        $unit = "month";
    } else if ($dt->d > 0) {
        $number = $dt->d;
        $unit = "day";
    } else if ($dt->h > 0) {
        $number = $dt->h;
        $unit = "hour";
    } else if ($dt->i > 0) {
        $number = $dt->i;
        $unit = "minute";
    } else if ($dt->s > 0) {
        $number = $dt->s;
        $unit = "second";
    }
    
    $unit .= $number  > 1 ? "s" : "";
 
    $ret = $number." ".$unit." "."ago";
    return $ret;
}

Skewback answered 27/3, 2014 at 4:11 Comment(0)

function date_getFullTimeDifference( $start, $end )
{
$uts['start']      =    strtotime( $start );
        $uts['end']        =    strtotime( $end );
        if( $uts['start']!==-1 && $uts['end']!==-1 )
        {
            if( $uts['end'] >= $uts['start'] )
            {
                $diff    =    $uts['end'] - $uts['start'];
                if( $years=intval((floor($diff/31104000))) )
                    $diff = $diff % 31104000;
                if( $months=intval((floor($diff/2592000))) )
                    $diff = $diff % 2592000;
                if( $days=intval((floor($diff/86400))) )
                    $diff = $diff % 86400;
                if( $hours=intval((floor($diff/3600))) )
                    $diff = $diff % 3600;
                if( $minutes=intval((floor($diff/60))) )
                    $diff = $diff % 60;
                $diff    =    intval( $diff );
                return( array('years'=>$years,'months'=>$months,'days'=>$days, 'hours'=>$hours, 'minutes'=>$minutes, 'seconds'=>$diff) );
            }
            else
            {
                echo "Ending date/time is earlier than the start date/time";
            }
        }
        else
        {
            echo "Invalid date/time data detected";
        }
}

Scalar answered 28/1, 2015 at 7:5 Comment(0)

A more universal version that returns result in days, hours, minutes or seconds including fractions/decimals:

function DateDiffInterval($sDate1, $sDate2, $sUnit='H') {
//subtract $sDate2-$sDate1 and return the difference in $sUnit (Days,Hours,Minutes,Seconds)
    $nInterval = strtotime($sDate2) - strtotime($sDate1);
    if ($sUnit=='D') { // days
        $nInterval = $nInterval/60/60/24;
    } else if ($sUnit=='H') { // hours
        $nInterval = $nInterval/60/60;
    } else if ($sUnit=='M') { // minutes
        $nInterval = $nInterval/60;
    } else if ($sUnit=='S') { // seconds
    }
    return $nInterval;
} //DateDiffInterval

Statics answered 1/6, 2017 at 22:19 Comment(1)

Please add some explanation to your code such that the OP can learn from it – Restrainer 1/2, 2019 at 8:57

Subtract the times and divide by 60.

Here is an example which calculate elapsed time from 2019/02/01 10:23:45 in minutes:

$diff_time=(strtotime(date("Y/m/d H:i:s"))-strtotime("2019/02/01 10:23:45"))/60;

Theolatheologian answered 30/10, 2019 at 14:54 Comment(0)

My solution to find the difference between two dates is here. With this function you can find differences like seconds, minutes, hours, days, years and months.

function alihan_diff_dates($date = null, $diff = "minutes") {
 $start_date = new DateTime($date);
 $since_start = $start_date->diff(new DateTime( date('Y-m-d H:i:s') )); // date now
 print_r($since_start);
 switch ($diff) {
    case 'seconds':
        return $since_start->s;
        break;
    case 'minutes':
        return $since_start->i;
        break;
    case 'hours':
        return $since_start->h;
        break;
    case 'days':
        return $since_start->d;
        break;      
    default:
        # code...
        break;
 }
}

You can develop this function. I tested and works for me. DateInterval object output is here:

/*
DateInterval Object ( [y] => 0 [m] => 0 [d] => 0 [h] => 0 [i] => 5 [s] => 13 [f] => 0 [weekday] => 0 [weekday_behavior] => 0 [first_last_day_of] => 0 [invert] => 0 [days] => 0 [special_type] => 0 [special_amount] => 0 [have_weekday_relative] => 0 [have_special_relative] => 0 ) 
*/

Function Usage:

$date = the past date, $diff = type eg: "minutes", "days", "seconds"

$diff_mins = alihan_diff_dates("2019-03-24 13:24:19", "minutes");

Good Luck.

Prevot answered 24/3, 2019 at 2:52 Comment(0)

$date1=date_create("2020-03-15");
$date2=date_create("2020-12-12");
$diff=date_diff($date1,$date2);
echo $diff->format("%R%a days");

For detailed format specifiers, visit the link.

Catfall answered 1/11, 2020 at 11:42 Comment(0)

Another simple way to calculate the difference in minutes. Please note this is a sample for calculating within a 1-year range. for more details click here

$origin = new DateTime('2021-02-10 09:46:32');
$target = new DateTime('2021-02-11 09:46:32');
$interval = $origin->diff($target);
echo (($interval->format('%d')*24) + $interval->format('%h'))*60; //1440 (difference in minutes)

Gauge answered 13/2, 2021 at 20:20 Comment(0)

Here is a simple one-liner:

$start = new DateTime('yesterday');
$end = new DateTime('now');
$diffInMinutes = iterator_count(new \DatePeriod($start, new \DateInterval('PT1M'), $end));

Normy answered 30/11, 2021 at 17:11 Comment(0)

This will help....

function get_time($date,$nosuffix=''){
    $datetime = new DateTime($date);
    $interval = date_create('now')->diff( $datetime );
    if(empty($nosuffix))$suffix = ( $interval->invert ? ' ago' : '' );
    else $suffix='';
    //return $interval->y;
    if($interval->y >=1)        {$count = date(VDATE, strtotime($date)); $text = '';}
    elseif($interval->m >=1)    {$count = date('M d', strtotime($date)); $text = '';}
    elseif($interval->d >=1)    {$count = $interval->d; $text = 'day';} 
    elseif($interval->h >=1)    {$count = $interval->h; $text = 'hour';}
    elseif($interval->i >=1)    {$count = $interval->i; $text = 'minute';}
    elseif($interval->s ==0)    {$count = 'Just Now'; $text = '';}
    else                        {$count = $interval->s; $text = 'second';}
    if(empty($text)) return '<i class="fa fa-clock-o"></i> '.$count;
    return '<i class="fa fa-clock-o"></i> '.$count.(($count ==1)?(" $text"):(" ${text}s")).' '.$suffix;     
}

Socialite answered 16/1, 2018 at 4:57 Comment(1)

Please add some explanation to your code such that the OP can learn from it – Restrainer 1/2, 2019 at 8:57

I found so many solution but I never got correct solution. But i have created some code to find minutes please check it.

<?php

  $time1 = "23:58";
  $time2 = "01:00";
  $time1 = explode(':',$time1);
  $time2 = explode(':',$time2);
  $hours1 = $time1[0];
  $hours2 = $time2[0];
  $mins1 = $time1[1];
  $mins2 = $time2[1];
  $hours = $hours2 - $hours1;
  $mins = 0;
  if($hours < 0)
  {
    $hours = 24 + $hours;
  }
  if($mins2 >= $mins1) {
        $mins = $mins2 - $mins1;
    }
    else {
      $mins = ($mins2 + 60) - $mins1;
      $hours--;
    }
    if($mins < 9)
    {
      $mins = str_pad($mins, 2, '0', STR_PAD_LEFT);
    }
    if($hours < 9)
    {
      $hours =str_pad($hours, 2, '0', STR_PAD_LEFT);
    }
echo $hours.':'.$mins;
?>

It gives output in hours and minutes for example 01 hour 02 minutes like 01:02

Higgins answered 5/6, 2019 at 9:45 Comment(0)

-2

try this

$now = \Carbon\Carbon::now()->toDateString(); // get current time 
             $a = strtotime("2012-09-21 12:12:22"); 
             $b = strtotime($now);
             $minutes = ceil(($a - $b) / 3600); it will get ceiling value

Aeromancy answered 8/5, 2021 at 8:43 Comment(0)

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