How to convert Php::DateInterval to seconds?

Question

so, I substract two dates: ``` $d = $start->diff($end); ``` and now I want to get the date in seconds (not the `second` parameter). I know it can be done with a native Php function - but it only works above 1970. I know I have to somehow operate with `format()` method, but I dont get it...

Accepted Answer

You could access the public properties of the `DateInterval` class and do some math on it:

```
$seconds = $d->s + ($d->i * 60) + ($d->h * 3600) + ($d->d * 86400) + ($d->m * 2592000); // and so on
```

but once we get into the months there will be variance by +/- 2 days unless we stick to an arbitrary definition of a month as `2592000 secs` (30 days).

You can also use the difference of the two UNIX timestamps from the DateTime objects (but you will end up having problems with the dates being less than year of 1970):

```
$seconds = $end->getTimestamp() - $start->getTimestamp();
```

How to convert Php::DateInterval to seconds?

Solution

Problem