mysql timediff to hours

Question

I\'m Trying to get the timediff from my table and convert it to hours (it\'s for an hourly billed service)

SELECT TIME_TO_SEC(TIMEDIFF(endDate,startDa

Answer 1

TIMESTAMPDIFF(HOUR, startDate, endDate)

is the best way to do it, because it works with big time intervals, like

TIMESTAMPDIFF(HOUR, "2012-01-01 00:00:00", "2050-01-01 00:00:00")

Result: 333120

while

HOUR(TIMEDIFF("2050-01-01 00:00:00", "2012-01-01 00:00:00"))

Result: 838

fails.

As we see in the example above, it surprisingly even works beyond the timestamp limitation in year 2038.

The maximum hours which are returned by HOUR(TIMEDIFF(dateEnd, dateStart)) is 838, because TIMEDIFF is limited to the range allowed for TIME values.