Comparing dates and show the remainder left til expiry date in PHP - php

Question

I am trying to create an application in PHP that have a subscription period of 14 days. In my db table, I have start date and expiry date. Iam a bit confused to show up the expiration banner that says "Your application will expire in --- days" .
$start = explode(' ', $billing->started_at); // to get the date only
$end = explode(' ', $billing->expires_at);
$date1=date_create($start[0]);
$date2=date_create($end[0]);
$diff=date_diff($date1,$date2);
Session::put('days_left', $diff->format("%R%a days"));
Please help

Answer 1

In theory, your code should work but you didn't tell us what the actual issue is so here's how I'd approach it.
If you only want to calculate using the date portion of your timestamps, you can just format it before creating your DateTime objects.
<?php
$start = new DateTime(date('Y-m-d', strtotime($billing->started_at)));
$end = new DateTime(date('Y-m-d', strtotime($billing->expires_at)));
$difference = $start->diff($end);
echo $difference->format("Your application will expire in %a days.");
Alternatively, you can simply use the timestamp directly. Depends on what you are trying to achieve.
<?php
$start = new DateTime($billing->started_at);
$end = new DateTime($billing->expires_at);
$difference = $start->diff($end);
echo $difference->format("Your application will expire in %a days.");
Working example:
http://sandbox.onlinephpfunctions.com/code/417d4691483f53fe083735d257df4fb49b832c58