how to subtract two dates in php code example

Example 1: php calculate date difference

//get Date diff as intervals 
$d1 = new DateTime("2018-01-10 00:00:00");
$d2 = new DateTime("2019-05-18 01:23:45");
$interval = $d1->diff($d2);
$diffInSeconds = $interval->s; //45
$diffInMinutes = $interval->i; //23
$diffInHours   = $interval->h; //8
$diffInDays    = $interval->d; //21
$diffInMonths  = $interval->m; //4
$diffInYears   = $interval->y; //1

//or get Date difference as total difference
$d1 = strtotime("2018-01-10 00:00:00");
$d2 = strtotime("2019-05-18 01:23:45");
$totalSecondsDiff = abs($d1-$d2); //42600225
$totalMinutesDiff = $totalSecondsDiff/60; //710003.75
$totalHoursDiff   = $totalSecondsDiff/60/60;//11833.39
$totalDaysDiff    = $totalSecondsDiff/60/60/24; //493.05
$totalMonthsDiff  = $totalSecondsDiff/60/60/24/30; //16.43
$totalYearsDiff   = $totalSecondsDiff/60/60/24/365; //1.35

Example 2: how to calculate days between two dates in php

<?php
function dateDifference($start_date, $end_date)
{
    // calulating the difference in timestamps 
    $diff = strtotime($start_date) - strtotime($end_date);
     
    // 1 day = 24 hours 
    // 24 * 60 * 60 = 86400 seconds
    return ceil(abs($diff / 86400));
}
 
// start date 
$start_date = "2016-01-02";
 
// end date 
$end_date = "2016-01-21";
 
// call dateDifference() function to find the number of days between two dates
$dateDiff = dateDifference($start_date, $end_date);
 
echo "Difference between two dates: " . $dateDiff . " Days ";
?>

Example 3: substract 2 dates php

$datetime1 = strtotime('May 3, 2012 10:38:22 GMT');
$datetime2 = strtotime('06 Apr 2012 07:22:21 GMT');

$secs = $datetime2 - $datetime1;// == <seconds between the two times>
$days = $secs / 86400;