php get microtime from date string

Question

I am trying to get the time passed between two datetime strings (including milliseconds)

example:

$pageTime = strtotime(\"2012-04-23T16:08:14.9-05:00         


        

Answer 1

Building on Dan Lee's answer, here's a universally working solution:

$pageTime = new DateTime("2012-04-23T16:08:14.9-05:00");
$rowTime  = new DateTime("2012-04-23T16:08:16.1-05:00");

$uDiff = ($rowTime->format('u') - $pageTime->format('u')) / (1000 * 1000);

$timePassed = $rowTime->getTimestamp() - $pageTime->getTimestamp() + $uDiff;

Complete explanations:

• We store the signed microseconds difference between both dates in $uDiff and convert the result in seconds by dividing by 1000 * 1000
• The order of the operands in $uDiff is important and has to be the same as in the $timePassed operation.
• We compute the Unix timestamp (in full seconds) difference between both dates and we add the microseconds difference to get the wanted result
• Using DateTime::getTimestamp() will give a correct answer even when the difference is greater than 60 seconds