最好的做法是使用PHP的DateTime（和DateInterval）对象。每个日期都封装在DateTime对象中，然后可以在两者之间进行区别：

$first_date = new DateTime("2012-11-30 17:03:30");
$second_date = new DateTime("2012-12-21 00:00:00");

DateTime对象将接受strtotime（）的任何格式。如果需要更具体的日期格式，则可以使用DateTime:：createFromFormat（）创建DateTime对象。

两个对象实例化后，使用DateTime:：diff（）从另一个对象中减去一个对象。

$difference = $first_date->diff($second_date);

$difference现在保存一个包含差异信息的DateInterval对象。var_dump（）如下所示：

object(DateInterval)
  public 'y' => int 0
  public 'm' => int 0
  public 'd' => int 20
  public 'h' => int 6
  public 'i' => int 56
  public 's' => int 30
  public 'invert' => int 0
  public 'days' => int 20

要格式化DateInterval对象，我们需要检查每个值，如果值为0，则将其排除：

/**
 * Format an interval to show all existing components.
 * If the interval doesn't have a time component (years, months, etc)
 * That component won't be displayed.
 *
 * @param DateInterval $interval The interval
 *
 * @return string Formatted interval string.
 */
function format_interval(DateInterval $interval) {
    $result = "";
    if ($interval->y) { $result .= $interval->format("%y years "); }
    if ($interval->m) { $result .= $interval->format("%m months "); }
    if ($interval->d) { $result .= $interval->format("%d days "); }
    if ($interval->h) { $result .= $interval->format("%h hours "); }
    if ($interval->i) { $result .= $interval->format("%i minutes "); }
    if ($interval->s) { $result .= $interval->format("%s seconds "); }

    return $result;
}

现在剩下的就是调用$differenceDateInterval对象上的函数：

echo format_interval($difference);

我们得到了正确的结果：

20天6小时56分30秒

用于实现目标的完整代码：

/**
 * Format an interval to show all existing components.
 * If the interval doesn't have a time component (years, months, etc)
 * That component won't be displayed.
 *
 * @param DateInterval $interval The interval
 *
 * @return string Formatted interval string.
 */
function format_interval(DateInterval $interval) {
    $result = "";
    if ($interval->y) { $result .= $interval->format("%y years "); }
    if ($interval->m) { $result .= $interval->format("%m months "); }
    if ($interval->d) { $result .= $interval->format("%d days "); }
    if ($interval->h) { $result .= $interval->format("%h hours "); }
    if ($interval->i) { $result .= $interval->format("%i minutes "); }
    if ($interval->s) { $result .= $interval->format("%s seconds "); }

    return $result;
}

$first_date = new DateTime("2012-11-30 17:03:30");
$second_date = new DateTime("2012-12-21 00:00:00");

$difference = $first_date->diff($second_date);

echo format_interval($difference);

查看小时、分钟和秒。。

$date1 = "2008-11-01 22:45:00"; 

$date2 = "2009-12-04 13:44:01"; 

$diff = abs(strtotime($date2) - strtotime($date1)); 

$years   = floor($diff / (365*60*60*24)); 
$months  = floor(($diff - $years * 365*60*60*24) / (30*60*60*24)); 
$days    = floor(($diff - $years * 365*60*60*24 - $months*30*60*60*24)/ (60*60*24));

$hours   = floor(($diff - $years * 365*60*60*24 - $months*30*60*60*24 - $days*60*60*24)/ (60*60)); 

$minuts  = floor(($diff - $years * 365*60*60*24 - $months*30*60*60*24 - $days*60*60*24 - $hours*60*60)/ 60); 

$seconds = floor(($diff - $years * 365*60*60*24 - $months*30*60*60*24 - $days*60*60*24 - $hours*60*60 - $minuts*60)); 

printf("%d years, %d months, %d days, %d hours, %d minuts\n, %d seconds\n", $years, $months, $days, $hours, $minuts, $seconds); 

我在下面的页面上找到了您的文章，其中包含了许多PHP日期时间计算的参考。

使用PHP计算两个日期（和时间）之间的差异。下一页提供了一系列不同的方法（共7种），用于使用PHP执行日期/时间计算，以确定两个日期之间的时间差（小时、弹药）、天、月或年。

请参阅PHP日期时间–计算两个日期之间差值的7种方法。

我有一些简单的逻辑：

<?php
    per_days_diff('2011-12-12','2011-12-29')
    function per_days_diff($start_date, $end_date) {
        $per_days = 0;
        $noOfWeek = 0;
        $noOfWeekEnd = 0;
        $highSeason=array("7", "8");

        $current_date = strtotime($start_date);
        $current_date += (24 * 3600);
        $end_date = strtotime($end_date);

        $seassion = (in_array(date('m', $current_date), $highSeason))?"2":"1";

        $noOfdays = array('');

        while ($current_date <= $end_date) {
            if ($current_date <= $end_date) {
                $date = date('N', $current_date);
                array_push($noOfdays,$date);
                $current_date = strtotime('+1 day', $current_date);
            }
        }

        $finalDays = array_shift($noOfdays);
        //print_r($noOfdays);
        $weekFirst = array("week"=>array(),"weekEnd"=>array());
        for($i = 0; $i < count($noOfdays); $i++)
        {
            if ($noOfdays[$i] == 1)
            {
                //echo "This is week";
                //echo "<br/>";
                if($noOfdays[$i+6]==7)
                {
                    $noOfWeek++;
                    $i=$i+6;
                }
                else
                {
                    $per_days++;
                }
                //array_push($weekFirst["week"],$day);
            }
            else if($noOfdays[$i]==5)
            {
                //echo "This is weekend";
                //echo "<br/>";
                if($noOfdays[$i+2] ==7)
                {
                    $noOfWeekEnd++;
                    $i = $i+2;
                }
                else
                {
                    $per_days++;
                }
                //echo "After weekend value:- ".$i;
                //echo "<br/>";
            }
            else
            {
                $per_days++;
            }
        }

        /*echo $noOfWeek;
          echo "<br/>";
          echo $noOfWeekEnd;
          echo "<br/>";
          print_r($per_days);
          echo "<br/>";
          print_r($weekFirst);
        */

        $duration = array("weeks"=>$noOfWeek, "weekends"=>$noOfWeekEnd, "perDay"=>$per_days, "seassion"=>$seassion);
        return $duration;
      ?>

您可以始终使用以下函数，以年和月为单位返回年龄（即1年4个月）

function getAge($dob, $age_at_date)
{  
    $d1 = new DateTime($dob);
    $d2 = new DateTime($age_at_date);
    $age = $d2->diff($d1);
    $years = $age->y;
    $months = $age->m;

    return $years.'.'.months;
}

或者如果希望在当前日期计算年龄，可以使用

function getAge($dob)
{  
    $d1 = new DateTime($dob);
    $d2 = new DateTime(date());
    $age = $d2->diff($d1);
    $years = $age->y;
    $months = $age->m;

    return $years.'.'.months;
}

当PHP 5.3（分别为date_diff（））不可用时，我使用了我编写的以下函数：

        function dateDifference($startDate, $endDate)
        {
            $startDate = strtotime($startDate);
            $endDate = strtotime($endDate);
            if ($startDate === false || $startDate < 0 || $endDate === false || $endDate < 0 || $startDate > $endDate)
                return false;

            $years = date('Y', $endDate) - date('Y', $startDate);

            $endMonth = date('m', $endDate);
            $startMonth = date('m', $startDate);

            // Calculate months
            $months = $endMonth - $startMonth;
            if ($months <= 0)  {
                $months += 12;
                $years--;
            }
            if ($years < 0)
                return false;

            // Calculate the days
            $measure = ($months == 1) ? 'month' : 'months';
            $days = $endDate - strtotime('+' . $months . ' ' . $measure, $startDate);
            $days = date('z', $days);   

            return array($years, $months, $days);
        }