MySQL - difference between two dates

In this article, we would like to show you how to calculate the difference between two dates in MySQL.

Quick solution:

-- SELECT DATEDIFF('to_date','from_date')
SELECT DATEDIFF('YYYY-MM-DD','YYYY-MM-DD');

or (with time): 

-- SELECT DATEDIFF('to_date','from_date')
SELECT DATEDIFF('YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS','YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS');

Where:

• YYYY - four-digit year format, e.g. 2021,
• MM - month number (counted from 01 to 12),
• DD - day number (from 01 to 31 - depending on month),
• HH - hour number (from 00 to 24),
• MM - minute number (from 00 to 59),
• SS - second number (from 00 to 59).

Practical example

In this example, we will calculate the number of days from 2021-01-05 to 2021-01-08 using DATEDIFF() function.

Query:

SELECT DATEDIFF('2021-01-08','2021-01-05') AS 'difference (in days)';

or: 

SELECT DATEDIFF('2021-01-08 09:35:27','2021-01-05 11:22:55') AS 'difference (in days)';

Result:

Note:

Both of the above queries give the same result (difference between 2021-01-08 and 2021-01-05 - 3 days). They don't take time into account.

Related posts

• MySQL - difference between two datetimes

• MySQL - difference between two times