MySQL & PHP : Time() to Decimal Hour - php

Question

I have in my MySQL database two Time() saves: start and end.
I would like to have a decimal result of the interval between my two times in my PHP code.
for exemple, if :
start = 15:00:00
end = 16:00:00
result = 1
and if
start = 15:30:00
end = 16:00:00
result = 0,5
Is it possible to get this result using MySQL? If it isn't possible, how could I convert a time format to decimal interval please?
Thanks a lot for reading my issue.

Answer 1

Very straightforward solution would be to take this two values, convert them to time and then make it to hours.
$start = "15:00:00";
$end = "16:00:00";
$result = (strtotime($end) - strtotime($start))/3600;
That gives you $result = 1
For values 15:30:00 and 16:00:00 $result will be 0.5.

Answer 2

Okay,
So I think it is easy. Just follow these steps:
You need to separate those numbers. Make 3 variables. For this example we'll use $hours, $minutes, $seconds (you can achieve these by separating the main time using REGEX. I recommend reading about how to do it first)
Now you have these numbers, for example like so:
$start = "15:30:00";
$start_hours = "15"
$start_minutes = "30"; //or just 0
$start_seconds = "00"; //or just 0
$end = "16:00:00";
$end_hours = "15"
$end_minutes = "00"; //or just 0
$end_seconds = "00"; //or just 0
So... this is briefly how you need to separate those numbers.
Now about the counting...
$result_hours = $end_hours - $start_hours //there you get 1
So hours are easy... For the minutes we need to think about time it self. Cause time values are always in 60 and we need "percents" which are in 100. We'll solve this doing:
$result_minutes = $end_minutes + $start_minutes; //you get 30.. which obviously is NOT what we want.. easily fixed by://
$right_minutes = 100 / 60 * $result_minutes; // gives you 50, which is great.
So far, we have 1,50 (If you'll take enough effort you can simply devide 50 by 10.. you'll get 5)
$result_seconds = $end_seconds + $start_seconds;
$right_seconds = 100 / 60 * $result_seconds;
Now we need to realize that we are dealing with seconds, so the number will be percentage of MINUTES not hours, we can fix this using:
$best_seconds = 100 / 60 * (0.$right_seconds) //now we have all right.
$right = $right_minutes + $best_seconds;
$result = $result_hours.",".$right;
.........................
And that should be it. Hope it will help you figure out the best solution, this is just how I thought it might work.
Try. Change. Try. And Done.
Good Luck