Months from 2 unixtimestamps - php

Question

I have 2 timestamps from 2 dates: 01/2012 and 02/2013. The difference between these timestamps is 31795200. The function i've used is:
function unixTimeStampInMonths($timestamp){
$elapsed_minutes = ($timestamp / 60);
$elapsed_hours = ($elapsed_minutes / 60);
$elapsed_days = ($elapsed_hours / 24);
$elapsed_months = floor($elapsed_days / 30);
return $elapsed_months;
}
But there is a problem, the months are rounded to 30 days. What's the best way of calculating the months difference between them?
LE:
The solution suggested by a friend is:
// arguments format: 05/2010
function monthDifferenceBetween2Dates($first, $second){
$expl1 = explode('/', $first);
$expl2 = explode('/', $second);
$months_in_years = ($expl2[1] - $expl1[1] - 1) * 12;
$first_months = 12 - $expl1[0];
$second_months = $expl2[0];
return $months_in_years + $first_months + $second_months;
}
i'm gonna use this. thanks #nickb

Answer 1

Use PHP's DateTime class instead of UNIX timestamps:
$start = DateTime::createFromFormat( 'm/d/Y', '01/01/2012');
$end = DateTime::createFromFormat( 'm/d/Y', '02/01/2013');
$diff = $start->diff( $end);
var_dump( $diff);
Will output:
object(DateInterval)#3 (8) {
["y"]=>
int(1)
["m"]=>
int(1)
["d"]=>
int(0)
["h"]=>
int(0)
["i"]=>
int(0)
["s"]=>
int(0)
["invert"]=>
int(0)
["days"]=>
int(397)
}
So, to calculate total months, we can do:
$months = $diff->y * 12 + $diff->m;
Which will print 13. Demo