DateInterval::createFromDateString
Be aware that your default timezone can sometimes alter the result of a diff so that the returned months/days are incorrect.
There is a bug report at: http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=52480
DateInterval::format
(PHP 5 >= 5.3.0)
DateInterval::format — Formats the interval
Description
public string DateInterval::format
( string $format
)
Formats the interval.
Parameters
- format
-
The following characters are recognized in the format parameter string. Each format character must be prefixed by a percent sign (%). format character Description Example values % Literal % % Y Years, numeric, at least 2 digits with leading 0 01, 03 y Years, numeric 1, 3 M Months, numeric, at least 2 digits with leading 0 01, 03, 12 m Months, numeric 1, 3, 12 D Days, numeric, at least 2 digits with leading 0 01, 03, 31 d Days, numeric 1, 3, 31 a Total amount of days 4, 18, 8123 H Hours, numeric, at least 2 digits with leading 0 01, 03, 23 h Hours, numeric 1, 3, 23 I Minutes, numeric, at least 2 digits with leading 0 01, 03, 59 i Minutes, numeric 1, 3, 59 S Seconds, numeric, at least 2 digits with leading 0 01, 03, 57 s Seconds, numeric 1, 3, 57 R Sign "-" when negative, "+" when positive -, + r Sign "-" when negative, empty when positive -,
Return Values
Returns the formatted interval.
Notes
Note:
The DateInterval::format() method does not recalculate carry over points in time strings nor in date segments. This is expected because it is not possible to overflow values like "32 days" which could be interpreted as anything from "1 month and 4 days" to "1 month and 1 day".
Examples
Example #1 DateInterval example
<?php
$interval = new DateInterval('P2Y4DT6H8M');
echo $interval->format('%d days');
?>
The above example will output:
4 days
Example #2 DateInterval and carry over points
<?php
$interval = new DateInterval('P32D');
echo $interval->format('%d days');
?>
The above example will output:
32 days
Example #3 DateInterval and DateTime::diff() with the %a and %d modifiers
<?php
$january = new DateTime('2010-01-01');
$february = new DateTime('2010-02-01');
$interval = $february->diff($january);
// %a will output the total number of days.
echo $interval->format('%a total days')."\n";
// While %d will only output the number of days not already covered by the
// month.
echo $interval->format('%m month, %d days');
?>
The above example will output:
31 total days 1 month, 0 days
add a note
User Contributed Notes
DateInterval::format
balaclark at gmail dot com
02-Jun-2011 12:58
pekka at gmx dot de
13-Feb-2011 12:20
Note that `%a` is broken on Windows on VC6 builds. http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=51184
kuzb
05-Feb-2011 02:15
Quick class to allow you to input a time in any unit, and have it recalculate in to different denominations (for example, seconds to hours, minutes and seconds):
<?php
class DateIntervalEnhanced extends DateInterval
{
/* Keep in mind that a year is seen in this class as 365 days, and a month is seen as 30 days.
It is not possible to calculate how many days are in a given year or month without a point of
reference in time.*/
public function to_seconds()
{
return ($this->y * 365 * 24 * 60 * 60) +
($this->m * 30 * 24 * 60 * 60) +
($this->d * 24 * 60 * 60) +
($this->h * 60 *60) +
$this->s;
}
public function recalculate()
{
$seconds = $this->to_seconds();
$this->y = floor($seconds/60/60/24/365);
$seconds -= $this->y * 31536000;
$this->m = floor($seconds/60/60/24/30);
$seconds -= $this->m * 2592000;
$this->d = floor($seconds/60/60/24);
$seconds -= $this->d * 86400;
$this->h = floor($seconds/60/60);
$seconds -= $this->h * 3600;
$this->i = floor($seconds/60);
$seconds -= $this->i * 60;
$this->s = $seconds;
}
}
// Example usage
$di = new DateIntervalEnhanced('PT3600S');
$di->recalculate();
// outputs 1:0:0 instead of 0:0:3600 now!
echo $di->format('%H:%i:%s');
?>
baptiste dot place at utopiaweb dot fr
15-Mar-2010 04:47
With php 5.3, DateTime is sweet !
Here is one quick example :
<?php
/**
* A sweet interval formatting, will use the two biggest interval parts.
* On small intervals, you get minutes and seconds.
* On big intervals, you get months and days.
* Only the two biggest parts are used.
*
* @param DateTime $start
* @param DateTime|null $end
* @return string
*/
public function formatDateDiff($start, $end=null) {
if(!($start instanceof DateTime)) {
$start = new DateTime($start);
}
if($end === null) {
$end = new DateTime();
}
if(!($end instanceof DateTime)) {
$end = new DateTime($start);
}
$interval = $end->diff($start);
$doPlural = function($nb,$str){return $nb>1?$str.'s':$str;}; // adds plurals
$format = array();
if($interval->y !== 0) {
$format[] = "%y ".$doPlural($interval->y, "year");
}
if($interval->m !== 0) {
$format[] = "%m ".$doPlural($interval->m, "month");
}
if($interval->d !== 0) {
$format[] = "%d ".$doPlural($interval->d, "day");
}
if($interval->h !== 0) {
$format[] = "%h ".$doPlural($interval->h, "hour");
}
if($interval->i !== 0) {
$format[] = "%i ".$doPlural($interval->i, "minute");
}
if($interval->s !== 0) {
if(!count($format)) {
return "less than a minute ago";
} else {
$format[] = "%s ".$doPlural($interval->s, "second");
}
}
// We use the two biggest parts
if(count($format) > 1) {
$format = array_shift($format)." and ".array_shift($format);
} else {
$format = array_pop($format);
}
// Prepend 'since ' or whatever you like
return $interval->format($format);
}
?>