Find Month difference in php? [duplicate] - php

Question

This question already has answers here:
Elegant way to get the count of months between two dates?
(10 answers)
Closed 3 years ago.
Is there any way to find the month difference in PHP? I have the input of from-date 2003-10-17 and to-date 2004-03-24. I need to find how many months there are within these two days. Say if 6 months, I need the output in months only. Thanks for guiding me for day difference.
I find the solution through MySQL but I need it in PHP. Anyone help me, Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The easiest way without reinventing the wheel. This'll give you the full months difference. I.e. the below two dates are almost 76 months apart, but the result is 75 months.
date_default_timezone_set('Asia/Tokyo'); // you are required to set a timezone
$date1 = new DateTime('2009-08-12');
$date2 = new DateTime('2003-04-14');
$diff = $date1->diff($date2);
echo (($diff->format('%y') * 12) + $diff->format('%m')) . " full months difference";

Answer 2

After testing tons of solutions, putting all in a unit test, this is what I come out with:
/**
* Calculate the difference in months between two dates (v1 / 18.11.2013)
*
* #param \DateTime $date1
* #param \DateTime $date2
* #return int
*/
public static function diffInMonths(\DateTime $date1, \DateTime $date2)
{
$diff = $date1->diff($date2);
$months = $diff->y * 12 + $diff->m + $diff->d / 30;
return (int) round($months);
}
For example it will return (test cases from the unit test):
01.11.2013 - 30.11.2013 - 1 month
01.01.2013 - 31.12.2013 - 12 months
31.01.2011 - 28.02.2011 - 1 month
01.09.2009 - 01.05.2010 - 8 months
01.01.2013 - 31.03.2013 - 3 months
15.02.2013 - 15.04.2013 - 2 months
01.02.1985 - 31.12.2013 - 347 months
Notice: Because of the rounding it does with the days, even a half of a month will be rounded, which may lead to issue if you use it with some cases. So DO NOT USE it for such cases, it will cause you issues.
For example:
02.11.2013 - 31.12.2013 will return 2, not 1 (as expected).

Answer 3

I just wanted to add this if anyone is looking for a simple solution that counts each touched-upon month in stead of complete months, rounded months or something like that.
// Build example data
$timeStart = strtotime("2003-10-17");
$timeEnd = strtotime("2004-03-24");
// Adding current month + all months in each passed year
$numMonths = 1 + (date("Y",$timeEnd)-date("Y",$timeStart))*12;
// Add/subtract month difference
$numMonths += date("m",$timeEnd)-date("m",$timeStart);
echo $numMonths;

Answer 4

Wow, way to overthink the problem... How about this version:
function monthsBetween($startDate, $endDate) {
$retval = "";
// Assume YYYY-mm-dd - as is common MYSQL format
$splitStart = explode('-', $startDate);
$splitEnd = explode('-', $endDate);
if (is_array($splitStart) && is_array($splitEnd)) {
$difYears = $splitEnd[0] - $splitStart[0];
$difMonths = $splitEnd[1] - $splitStart[1];
$difDays = $splitEnd[2] - $splitStart[2];
$retval = ($difDays > 0) ? $difMonths : $difMonths - 1;
$retval += $difYears * 12;
}
return $retval;
}
NB: unlike several of the other solutions, this doesn't depend on the date functions added in PHP 5.3, since many shared hosts aren't there yet.

Answer 5

http://www.php.net/manual/en/datetime.diff.php
This returns a DateInterval object which has a format method.

Answer 6

$datetime1 = date_create('2009-10-11');
$datetime2 = date_create('2013-1-13');
$interval = date_diff($datetime1, $datetime2);
echo $interval->format('%a day %m month %y year');

Answer 7

// get year and month difference
$a1 = '20170401';
$a2 = '20160101'
$yearDiff = (substr($a1, 0, 4) - substr($a2, 0, 4));
$monthDiff = (substr($a1, 4, 2) - substr($a2, 4, 2));
$fullMonthDiff = ($yearDiff * 12) + $monthDiff;
// fullMonthDiff = 16

Answer 8

This is my enhanced version of #deceze answer:
/**
* #param string $startDate
* Current date is considered if empty string is passed
* #param string $endDate
* Current date is considered if empty string is passed
* #param bool $unsigned
* If $unsigned is true, difference is always positive, otherwise the difference might be negative
* #return int
*/
public static function diffInFullMonths($startDate, $endDate, $unsigned = false)
{
$diff = (new DateTime($startDate))->diff(new DateTime($endDate));
$reverse = $unsigned === true ? '' : '%r';
return ((int) $diff->format("{$reverse}%y") * 12) + ((int) $diff->format("{$reverse}%m"));
}

Answer 9

The best way.
function getIntervals(DateTime $from, DateTime $to)
{
$intervals = [];
$startDate = $from->modify('first day of this month');
$endDate = $to->modify('last day of this month');
while($startDate < $endDate){
$firstDay = $startDate->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
$startDate->modify('last day of this month')->modify('+1 day');
$intervals[] = [
'firstDay' => $firstDay,
'lastDay' => $startDate->modify('-1 second')->format('Y-m-d H:i:s'),
];
$startDate->modify('+1 second');
}
return $intervals;
}
$dateTimeFirst = new \DateTime('2013-01-01');
$dateTimeSecond = new \DateTime('2013-03-31');
$interval = getIntervals($dateTimeFirst, $dateTimeSecond);
print_r($interval);
Result:
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[firstDay] => 2013-01-01 00:00:00
[lastDay] => 2013-01-31 23:59:59
)
[1] => Array
(
[firstDay] => 2013-02-01 00:00:00
[lastDay] => 2013-02-28 23:59:59
)
[2] => Array
(
[firstDay] => 2013-03-01 00:00:00
[lastDay] => 2013-03-31 23:59:59
)
)

Answer 10

In my case I needed to count full months and day leftovers as month as well to build a line chart labels.
/**
* Calculate the difference in months between two dates
*
* #param \DateTime $from
* #param \DateTime $to
* #return int
*/
public static function diffInMonths(\DateTime $from, \DateTime $to)
{
// Count months from year and month diff
$diff = $to->diff($from)->format('%y') * 12 + $to->diff($from)->format('%m');
// If there is some day leftover, count it as the full month
if ($to->diff($from)->format('%d') > 0) $diff++;
// The month count isn't still right in some cases. This covers it.
if ($from->format('d') >= $to->format('d')) $diff++;
}

Answer 11

<?php
# end date is 2008 Oct. 11 00:00:00
$_endDate = mktime(0,0,0,11,10,2008);
# begin date is 2007 May 31 13:26:26
$_beginDate = mktime(13,26,26,05,31,2007);
$timestamp_diff= $_endDate-$_beginDate +1 ;
# how many days between those two date
$days_diff = $timestamp_diff/2635200;
?>
Reference: http://au.php.net/manual/en/function.mktime.php#86916

Answer 12

function monthsDif($start, $end)
{
// Assume YYYY-mm-dd - as is common MYSQL format
$splitStart = explode('-', $start);
$splitEnd = explode('-', $end);
if (is_array($splitStart) && is_array($splitEnd)) {
$startYear = $splitStart[0];
$startMonth = $splitStart[1];
$endYear = $splitEnd[0];
$endMonth = $splitEnd[1];
$difYears = $endYear - $startYear;
$difMonth = $endMonth - $startMonth;
if (0 == $difYears && 0 == $difMonth) { // month and year are same
return 0;
}
else if (0 == $difYears && $difMonth > 0) { // same year, dif months
return $difMonth;
}
else if (1 == $difYears) {
$startToEnd = 13 - $startMonth; // months remaining in start year(13 to include final month
return ($startToEnd + $endMonth); // above + end month date
}
else if ($difYears > 1) {
$startToEnd = 13 - $startMonth; // months remaining in start year
$yearsRemaing = $difYears - 2; // minus the years of the start and the end year
$remainingMonths = 12 * $yearsRemaing; // tally up remaining months
$totalMonths = $startToEnd + $remainingMonths + $endMonth; // Monthsleft + full years in between + months of last year
return $totalMonths;
}
}
else {
return false;
}
}

Answer 13

Here's a quick one:
$date1 = mktime(0,0,0,10,0,2003); // m d y, use 0 for day
$date2 = mktime(0,0,0,3,0,2004); // m d y, use 0 for day
echo round(($date2-$date1) / 60 / 60 / 24 / 30);