Laravel Carbon Date Difference between two dates - php

Question

I have a field in my DB which has a time stamp using moment js. The result is like so.
["2018-02-11 11:30:17","2018-02-11 11:20:17","2018-02-11 11:10:17"]
But when i return created_at colum from db the array is given like so:
[{"date":"2018-02-11 11:40:17.000000","timezone_type":3,"timezone":"Asia\/Karachi"},{"date":"2018-02-11 11:40:31.000000","timezone_type":3,"timezone":"Asia\/Karachi"},{"date":"2018-02-11 11:40:40.000000","timezone_type":3,"timezone":"Asia\/Karachi"}]
So how can i take two column dates in a format where carbon can understand? I want the "starttime" column to compare with "created_at". Is this achievable? Here is my code so far:
$cleanStart = Clean::pluck('starttime')->toArray();
$cleanFinish = Clean::pluck('created_at')->toArray();
$from = Carbon::parse($cleanStart);
$to = Carbon::parse($cleanFinish);
$diff_in_hours = $to->diffInHours($from);
return $diff_in_hours;
But it gives me an error:
Type error: DateTime::__construct() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given
Also how can i give the array to carbon.
So finally here is the thing i tried:
$cleanCollection = Clean::get(['starttime','created_at']);
foreach($cleanCollection as $cleanObj){
$startTime = Carbon::parse($cleanObj->starttime);
$diff = $cleanObj->created_at->diffInseconds($startTime);
}
echo $diff;
But when ever i refresh the page, the value changes in seconds. and if another record is added, it adds up again.

Answer 1

Pluck will give you an array of all of the start times from your result set which is why you're passing an array into parse. You're actually getting all of the start times and all of the created ats then trying to compare all to all, effectively.
You either need to get a single result,
Like
$clean = Clean::first();
$from = Carbon::parse($clean->starttime);
$to = Carbon::parse($clean->created_at);
$diff_in_hours = $to->diffInHours($from);
Or if you wanted it for each row you'd have to iterate over them and do much the same
Clean::all()->each(function ($clean) {
$from = Carbon::parse($clean->starttime);
$to = Carbon::parse($clean->created_at);
$diff_in_hours = $to->diffInHours($from); // for this row
});
The other thing you could do is put an accessor on your Clean model to help you out with this
public function getDiffInHoursAttribute()
{
$from = Carbon::parse($this->starttime);
$to = Carbon::parse($this->created_at);
return $to->diffInHours($from);
}
Then
echo Clean::first()->diffInHours;
Or
foreach(Clean::all() as $clean) {
echo $clean->diffInHours;
}
Also, if you add the following to your model, Eloquent will automatically parse the strings into Carbon objects so you can skip the need for Carbon::parse() in your code
/**
* The attributes that should be mutated to dates.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $dates = [
'starttime'
];

Answer 2

Try adding protected $dates to your Clean model, like this:
/**
* The attributes that should be mutated to dates.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $dates = [
'created_at',
'updated_at'
];
As you can read from the comments inside the code, put all of the columns that should be converted to dates inside, this will help you achieve date manipulations easier.
EDIT 1:
$start = new Carbon($cleanStart['date'], $cleanStart['timezone']);
$finish = new Carbon($cleanFinish['date'], $cleanFinish['timezone']);
Then you can compare like this:
var_dump($start->eq($finish)); //Is start date same as finish date
var_dump($start->ne($finish)); //Is start date not same as finish date
var_dump($start->gt($finish)); //Is start date greater than finish date
var_dump($start->gte($finish)); //Is start date greater than or equal to finish date
var_dump($start->lt($finish)); //Is start date less than finish date
var_dump($start->lte($finish)); //Is start date less than or equal to finish date
EDIT 2:
In order for the code underneath to work, you must initialize $start and $finish dates as in EDIT 1
$ago = $start->diffForHumans($finish, true); //2 days OR 3 weeks OR 1 hour