由于每个人都在发布代码示例，这里有另一个版本。

我想要一个函数来显示从秒到年的差异（仅一个单位）。对于超过1天的时段，我希望它在午夜滚动（周一上午10点到周三上午9点是2天前，而不是1天前）。对于超过一个月的时间段，我希望滚动在当月的同一天（包括30/31天的月份和闰年）。

这就是我想到的：

/**
 * Returns how long ago something happened in the past, showing it
 * as n seconds / minutes / hours / days / weeks / months / years ago.
 *
 * For periods over a day, it rolls over at midnight (so doesn't depend
 * on current time of day), and it correctly accounts for month-lengths
 * and leap-years (months and years rollover on current day of month).
 *
 * $param string $timestamp in DateTime format
 * $return string description of interval
 */
function ago($timestamp)
{
    $then = date_create($timestamp);

    // for anything over 1 day, make it rollover on midnight
    $today = date_create('tomorrow'); // ie end of today
    $diff = date_diff($then, $today);

    if ($diff->y > 0) return $diff->y.' year'.($diff->y>1?'s':'').' ago';
    if ($diff->m > 0) return $diff->m.' month'.($diff->m>1?'s':'').' ago';
    $diffW = floor($diff->d / 7);
    if ($diffW > 0) return $diffW.' week'.($diffW>1?'s':'').' ago';
    if ($diff->d > 1) return $diff->d.' day'.($diff->d>1?'s':'').' ago';

    // for anything less than 1 day, base it off 'now'
    $now = date_create();
    $diff = date_diff($then, $now);

    if ($diff->d > 0) return 'yesterday';
    if ($diff->h > 0) return $diff->h.' hour'.($diff->h>1?'s':'').' ago';
    if ($diff->i > 0) return $diff->i.' minute'.($diff->i>1?'s':'').' ago';
    return $diff->s.' second'.($diff->s==1?'':'s').' ago';
}

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

DateInterval很好，但它有几个注意事项：

仅适用于PHP 5.3+（但这真的不再是一个好借口）仅支持年、月、日、小时、分钟和秒（无周）它计算上述所有+天的差异（你不能只计算月的差异）

为了克服这个问题，我编写了以下代码（由@enobrev答案改进而来）：

function date_dif($since, $until, $keys = 'year|month|week|day|hour|minute|second')
{
    $date = array_map('strtotime', array($since, $until));

    if ((count($date = array_filter($date, 'is_int')) == 2) && (sort($date) === true))
    {
        $result = array_fill_keys(explode('|', $keys), 0);

        foreach (preg_grep('~^(?:year|month)~i', $result) as $key => $value)
        {
            while ($date[1] >= strtotime(sprintf('+%u %s', $value + 1, $key), $date[0]))
            {
                ++$value;
            }

            $date[0] = strtotime(sprintf('+%u %s', $result[$key] = $value, $key), $date[0]);
        }

        foreach (preg_grep('~^(?:year|month)~i', $result, PREG_GREP_INVERT) as $key => $value)
        {
            if (($value = intval(abs($date[0] - $date[1]) / strtotime(sprintf('%u %s', 1, $key), 0))) > 0)
            {
                $date[0] = strtotime(sprintf('+%u %s', $result[$key] = $value, $key), $date[0]);
            }
        }

        return $result;
    }

    return false;
}

它运行两个循环；第一个算法通过暴力强制处理相对间隔（年和月），第二个算法通过简单的算法计算额外的绝对间隔（因此速度更快）：

echo humanize(date_dif('2007-03-24', '2009-07-31', 'second')); // 74300400 seconds
echo humanize(date_dif('2007-03-24', '2009-07-31', 'minute|second')); // 1238400 minutes, 0 seconds
echo humanize(date_dif('2007-03-24', '2009-07-31', 'hour|minute|second')); // 20640 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds
echo humanize(date_dif('2007-03-24', '2009-07-31', 'year|day')); // 2 years, 129 days
echo humanize(date_dif('2007-03-24', '2009-07-31', 'year|week')); // 2 years, 18 weeks
echo humanize(date_dif('2007-03-24', '2009-07-31', 'year|week|day')); // 2 years, 18 weeks, 3 days
echo humanize(date_dif('2007-03-24', '2009-07-31')); // 2 years, 4 months, 1 week, 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds

function humanize($array)
{
    $result = array();

    foreach ($array as $key => $value)
    {
        $result[$key] = $value . ' ' . $key;

        if ($value != 1)
        {
            $result[$key] .= 's';
        }
    }

    return implode(', ', $result);
}

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); 

一便士一英镑：我刚刚回顾了几个解决方案，所有这些方案都使用floor（）提供了一个复杂的解决方案，然后四舍五入到26年12个月零2天的解决方案中，原本应该是25年11个月零20天！！！！

这是我对这个问题的看法：可能不优雅，可能编码不好，但如果不计算LEAP年份，则提供了更接近答案的答案，显然闰年可以编码为，但在这种情况下-正如其他人所说，也许您可以提供以下答案：我已经包含了所有测试条件和print_r，以便您可以更清楚地看到结果的构造：在这里，

//设置输入日期/变量：：

$ISOstartDate   = "1987-06-22";
$ISOtodaysDate = "2013-06-22";

//我们需要将ISO yyyy-mm-dd格式分解为yyyy-mm-d格式，如下所示：

$yDate[]=爆炸（'-'，$ISOstartDate）；print_r（$yDate）；

$zDate[]=爆炸（'-'，$ISOtodaysDate）；print_r（$zDate）；

// Lets Sort of the Years!
// Lets Sort out the difference in YEARS between startDate and todaysDate ::
$years = $zDate[0][0] - $yDate[0][0];

// We need to collaborate if the month = month = 0, is before or after the Years Anniversary ie 11 months 22 days or 0 months 10 days...
if ($months == 0 and $zDate[0][1] > $ydate[0][1]) {
    $years = $years -1;
}
// TEST result
echo "\nCurrent years => ".$years;

// Lets Sort out the difference in MONTHS between startDate and todaysDate ::
$months = $zDate[0][1] - $yDate[0][1];

// TEST result
echo "\nCurrent months => ".$months;

// Now how many DAYS has there been - this assumes that there is NO LEAP years, so the calculation is APPROXIMATE not 100%
// Lets cross reference the startDates Month = how many days are there in each month IF m-m = 0 which is a years anniversary
// We will use a switch to check the number of days between each month so we can calculate days before and after the years anniversary

switch ($yDate[0][1]){
    case 01:    $monthDays = '31';  break;  // Jan
    case 02:    $monthDays = '28';  break;  // Feb
    case 03:    $monthDays = '31';  break;  // Mar
    case 04:    $monthDays = '30';  break;  // Apr
    case 05:    $monthDays = '31';  break;  // May
    case 06:    $monthDays = '30';  break;  // Jun
    case 07:    $monthDays = '31';  break;  // Jul
    case 08:    $monthDays = '31';  break;  // Aug
    case 09:    $monthDays = '30';  break;  // Sept
    case 10:    $monthDays = '31';  break;  // Oct
    case 11:    $monthDays = '30';  break;  // Nov
    case 12:    $monthDays = '31';  break;  // Dec
};
// TEST return
echo "\nDays in start month ".$yDate[0][1]." => ".$monthDays;


// Lets correct the problem with 0 Months - is it 11 months + days, or 0 months +days???

$days = $zDate[0][2] - $yDate[0][2] +$monthDays;
echo "\nCurrent days => ".$days."\n";

// Lets now Correct the months to being either 11 or 0 Months, depending upon being + or - the years Anniversary date 
// At the same time build in error correction for Anniversary dates not being 1yr 0m 31d... see if ($days == $monthDays )
if($days < $monthDays && $months == 0)
    {
    $months = 11;       // If Before the years anniversary date
    }
else    {
    $months = 0;        // If After the years anniversary date
    $years = $years+1;  // Add +1 to year
    $days = $days-$monthDays;   // Need to correct days to how many days after anniversary date
    };
// Day correction for Anniversary dates
if ($days == $monthDays )   // if todays date = the Anniversary DATE! set days to ZERO
    {
    $days = 0;          // days set toZERO so 1 years 0 months 0 days
    };

    echo "\nTherefore, the number of years/ months/ days/ \nbetween start and todays date::\n\n";

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

最终结果是：26年零个月零天

这就是我在2013年6月22日做生意的时间——哎呦！

对于遗留代码（PHP＜5.3）使用此选项。有关最新的解决方案，请参阅下面jurka的答案

您可以使用strtotime（）将两个日期转换为unix时间，然后计算它们之间的秒数。由此很容易计算出不同的时间段。

$date1 = "2007-03-24";
$date2 = "2009-06-26";

$diff = abs(strtotime($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));

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

编辑：显然，尤尔卡在下面描述了这样做的首选方式。如果您没有PHP5.3或更高版本，通常只建议使用我的代码。

评论中的一些人指出，上面的代码只是一个近似值。我仍然认为，对于大多数目的来说，这是很好的，因为范围的使用更多地是为了提供时间流逝或剩余时间的感觉，而不是为了提供精度-如果你想这样做，只需输出日期。

尽管如此，我还是决定解决这些投诉。如果您确实需要一个精确的范围，但还没有访问PHP 5.3，请使用下面的代码（它也可以在PHP 4中使用）。这是PHP内部用于计算范围的代码的直接端口，但不考虑夏时制。这意味着它最多休息一个小时，但除此之外，它应该是正确的。

<?php

/**
 * Calculate differences between two dates with precise semantics. Based on PHPs DateTime::diff()
 * implementation by Derick Rethans. Ported to PHP by Emil H, 2011-05-02. No rights reserved.
 * 
 * See here for original code:
 * http://svn.php.net/viewvc/php/php-src/trunk/ext/date/lib/tm2unixtime.c?revision=302890&view=markup
 * http://svn.php.net/viewvc/php/php-src/trunk/ext/date/lib/interval.c?revision=298973&view=markup
 */

function _date_range_limit($start, $end, $adj, $a, $b, $result)
{
    if ($result[$a] < $start) {
        $result[$b] -= intval(($start - $result[$a] - 1) / $adj) + 1;
        $result[$a] += $adj * intval(($start - $result[$a] - 1) / $adj + 1);
    }

    if ($result[$a] >= $end) {
        $result[$b] += intval($result[$a] / $adj);
        $result[$a] -= $adj * intval($result[$a] / $adj);
    }

    return $result;
}

function _date_range_limit_days($base, $result)
{
    $days_in_month_leap = array(31, 31, 29, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31);
    $days_in_month = array(31, 31, 28, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31);

    _date_range_limit(1, 13, 12, "m", "y", &$base);

    $year = $base["y"];
    $month = $base["m"];

    if (!$result["invert"]) {
        while ($result["d"] < 0) {
            $month--;
            if ($month < 1) {
                $month += 12;
                $year--;
            }

            $leapyear = $year % 400 == 0 || ($year % 100 != 0 && $year % 4 == 0);
            $days = $leapyear ? $days_in_month_leap[$month] : $days_in_month[$month];

            $result["d"] += $days;
            $result["m"]--;
        }
    } else {
        while ($result["d"] < 0) {
            $leapyear = $year % 400 == 0 || ($year % 100 != 0 && $year % 4 == 0);
            $days = $leapyear ? $days_in_month_leap[$month] : $days_in_month[$month];

            $result["d"] += $days;
            $result["m"]--;

            $month++;
            if ($month > 12) {
                $month -= 12;
                $year++;
            }
        }
    }

    return $result;
}

function _date_normalize($base, $result)
{
    $result = _date_range_limit(0, 60, 60, "s", "i", $result);
    $result = _date_range_limit(0, 60, 60, "i", "h", $result);
    $result = _date_range_limit(0, 24, 24, "h", "d", $result);
    $result = _date_range_limit(0, 12, 12, "m", "y", $result);

    $result = _date_range_limit_days(&$base, &$result);

    $result = _date_range_limit(0, 12, 12, "m", "y", $result);

    return $result;
}

/**
 * Accepts two unix timestamps.
 */
function _date_diff($one, $two)
{
    $invert = false;
    if ($one > $two) {
        list($one, $two) = array($two, $one);
        $invert = true;
    }

    $key = array("y", "m", "d", "h", "i", "s");
    $a = array_combine($key, array_map("intval", explode(" ", date("Y m d H i s", $one))));
    $b = array_combine($key, array_map("intval", explode(" ", date("Y m d H i s", $two))));

    $result = array();
    $result["y"] = $b["y"] - $a["y"];
    $result["m"] = $b["m"] - $a["m"];
    $result["d"] = $b["d"] - $a["d"];
    $result["h"] = $b["h"] - $a["h"];
    $result["i"] = $b["i"] - $a["i"];
    $result["s"] = $b["s"] - $a["s"];
    $result["invert"] = $invert ? 1 : 0;
    $result["days"] = intval(abs(($one - $two)/86400));

    if ($invert) {
        _date_normalize(&$a, &$result);
    } else {
        _date_normalize(&$b, &$result);
    }

    return $result;
}

$date = "1986-11-10 19:37:22";

print_r(_date_diff(strtotime($date), time()));
print_r(_date_diff(time(), strtotime($date)));