$date = '2012.11.13';
$dateOfReturn = '2017.10.31';

$substract = str_replace('.', '-', $date);

$substract2 = str_replace('.', '-', $dateOfReturn);



$date1 = $substract;
$date2 = $substract2;

$ts1 = strtotime($date1);
$ts2 = strtotime($date2);

$year1 = date('Y', $ts1);
$year2 = date('Y', $ts2);

$month1 = date('m', $ts1);
$month2 = date('m', $ts2);

echo $diff = (($year2 - $year1) * 12) + ($month2 - $month1);

这是可运行的代码

$date1 = date_create('2007-03-24');
$date2 = date_create('2009-06-26');
$diff1 = date_diff($date1,$date2);
$daysdiff = $diff1->format("%R%a");
$daysdiff = abs($daysdiff);

非常简单：

    <?php
        $date1 = date_create("2007-03-24");
        echo "Start date: ".$date1->format("Y-m-d")."<br>";
        $date2 = date_create("2009-06-26");
        echo "End date: ".$date2->format("Y-m-d")."<br>";
        $diff = date_diff($date1,$date2);
        echo "Difference between start date and end date: ".$diff->format("%y years, %m months and %d days")."<br>";
    ?>

有关详细信息，请查看以下链接：

PHP:date_diff-手动

注意，它适用于PHP 5.3.0或更高版本。

function showTime($time){

    $start      = strtotime($time);
    $end        = strtotime(date("Y-m-d H:i:s"));
    $minutes    = ($end - $start)/60;


    // years 
    if(($minutes / (60*24*365)) > 1){
        $years = floor($minutes/(60*24*365));
        return "From $years year( s ) ago";
    }


    // monthes 
    if(($minutes / (60*24*30)) > 1){
        $monthes = floor($minutes/(60*24*30));
        return "From $monthes monthe( s ) ago";
    }


    // days 
    if(($minutes / (60*24)) > 1){
        $days = floor($minutes/(60*24));
        return "From $days day( s ) ago";
    }

    // hours 
    if(($minutes / 60) > 1){
        $hours = floor($minutes/60);
        return "From $hours hour( s ) ago";
    }

    // minutes 
    if($minutes > 1){
        $minutes = floor($minutes);
        return "From $minutes minute( s ) ago";
    }
}

echo showTime('2022-05-05 21:33:00');

使用示例：

echo time_diff_string('2013-05-01 00:22:35', 'now');
echo time_diff_string('2013-05-01 00:22:35', 'now', true);

输出：

4 months ago
4 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 1 hour, 49 minutes, 15 seconds ago

功能：

function time_diff_string($from, $to, $full = false) {
    $from = new DateTime($from);
    $to = new DateTime($to);
    $diff = $to->diff($from);

    $diff->w = floor($diff->d / 7);
    $diff->d -= $diff->w * 7;

    $string = array(
        'y' => 'year',
        'm' => 'month',
        'w' => 'week',
        'd' => 'day',
        'h' => 'hour',
        'i' => 'minute',
        's' => 'second',
    );
    foreach ($string as $k => &$v) {
        if ($diff->$k) {
            $v = $diff->$k . ' ' . $v . ($diff->$k > 1 ? 's' : '');
        } else {
            unset($string[$k]);
        }
    }

    if (!$full) $string = array_slice($string, 0, 1);
    return $string ? implode(', ', $string) . ' ago' : 'just now';
}

我在PHP5.2中遇到了同样的问题，并用MySQL解决了这个问题。可能并不是你想要的，但这会奏效，并返回天数：

$datediff_q = $dbh->prepare("SELECT DATEDIFF(:date2, :date1)");
$datediff_q->bindValue(':date1', '2007-03-24', PDO::PARAM_STR);
$datediff_q->bindValue(':date2', '2009-06-26', PDO::PARAM_STR);
$datediff = ($datediff_q->execute()) ? $datediff_q->fetchColumn(0) : false;

此处有更多信息http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/date-and-time-functions.html#function_datediff