How to Calculate Timestamp Difference in MySQL Database: MySQL Operators: TIMESTAMPDIFF() WITH MOD() FLOOR() CONCAT() Table of Contents Problem: Example: Solution 1 (difference in days, hours, minutes, or seconds): Discussion: Solution 2 (difference in days, hours, minutes, and seconds): Discussion: Problem: You have two columns of the type timestamp and you want to calculate the difference between them. Example: In the travel table, there are three columns: id, departure, and arrival. You'd like to calculate the difference between the arrival and the departure. The travel table looks like this: iddeparturearrival 12018-03-25 12:00:002018-04-05 07:30:00 22019-09-12 15:50:002019-10-23 10:30:30 32018-07-14 16:15:002018-07-14 20:40:30 42018-01-05 08:35:002019-01-08 14:00:00 Solution 1 (difference in days, hours, minutes, or seconds): SELECT id, departure, arrival, TIMESTAMPDIFF(SECOND, departure, arrival) AS difference FROM travel; The result is: iddeparturearrivaldifference 12018-03-25 12:00:002018-04-05 07:30:00934200 22019-09-12 15:50:002019-10-23 10:30:303523230 32018-07-14 16:15:002018-07-14 20:40:3015930 42018-01-05 08:35:002019-01-08 14:00:0031814700 Discussion: To calculate the difference between the timestamps in MySQL, use the TIMESTAMPDIFF(unit, start, end) function. The unit argument can be MICROSECOND, SECOND, MINUTE, HOUR, DAY, WEEK, MONTH, QUARTER, or YEAR. To get the difference in seconds as we have done here, choose SECOND. To get the difference in minutes, choose MINUTE; for the difference in hours, choose HOUR, etc. The end and the start arguments are the ending timestamp and the starting timestamp, respectively (here, departure and arrival, respectively). Solution 2 (difference in days, hours, minutes, and seconds): WITH difference_in_seconds AS ( SELECT id, departure, arrival, TIMESTAMPDIFF(SECOND, departure, arrival) AS seconds FROM travel ), differences AS ( SELECT id, departure, arrival, seconds, MOD(seconds, 60) AS seconds_part, MOD(seconds, 3600) AS minutes_part, MOD(seconds, 3600 * 24) AS hours_part FROM difference_in_seconds ) SELECT id, departure, arrival, CONCAT( FLOOR(seconds / 3600 / 24), ' days ', FLOOR(hours_part / 3600), ' hours ', FLOOR(minutes_part / 60), ' minutes ', seconds_part, ' seconds' ) AS difference FROM differences; The result is: iddeparturearrivaldifference 12018-03-25 12:00:002018-04-05 07:30:0010 days 19 hours 30 minutes 0 seconds 22019-09-12 15:50:002019-10-23 10:30:3040 days 18 hours 40 minutes 30 seconds 32018-07-14 16:15:002018-07-14 20:40:300 days 4 hours 25 minutes 30 seconds 42018-01-05 08:35:002019-01-08 14:00:00368 days 5 hours 25 minutes 0 seconds Discussion: First, calculate the difference between the timestamps in seconds, using the TIMESTAMPDIFF() function (the first CTE, named difference_in_seconds), just as in Solution 1. Calculate how many seconds there are in excess of whole minutes (seconds_part) to be used later to calculate the seconds, how many seconds there are in excess of whole hours (minutes_part) to be used later to calculate the minutes, and how many seconds there are in excess of whole hours (hours_part) to be used later to calculate the hours. To do this, use the MOD() function. For example, an hour has 3600 seconds, so to find how many seconds there are in minutes_part, find the remainder from the division by 3600 like this: MOD(seconds, 3600) AS minutes_part Similarly, there are 3600 * 24 seconds in a day, so to calculate how many seconds there are in hours_part, write: MOD(seconds, 3600 * 24) AS hours_part Once these remainders are calculated (in the second CTE, named differences), you can finally get the difference in days, hours, minutes, and seconds. To get the number of seconds, minutes, hours, and days, divide the number of seconds in the remainder by the corresponding number of seconds in days, hours, or minutes. For example, to find out how many minutes should be displayed, take minutes_part and divide it by 60, since there are 60 minutes in an hour. You only need the integer part from this (i.e., without the decimal part), so use the FLOOR() function like this: FLOOR(minutes_part / 60) Finally, you simply need to display in one string what you've calculated. To do this, use the CONCAT() function in the outer query: CONCAT( FLOOR(seconds / 3600 / 24), ' days ', FLOOR(hours_part / 3600), ' hours ', FLOOR(minutes_part / 60), ' minutes ', seconds_part, ' seconds' ) AS difference The solution presented here returns the last column as text. You can easily modify this solution to display it in some other format. You can also display the numbers in separate columns, like this: FLOOR(seconds / 3600 / 24) AS days, FLOOR(hours_part / 3600) AS hours, FLOOR(minutes_part / 60) AS minutes, seconds_part AS seconds Recommended courses: SQL Basics in MySQL Common MySQL Functions Data Types in SQL Recommended articles: MySQL Cheat Sheet Top 10 MySQL Interview Questions And Answers How to Analyze a Time Series in SQL Performing Calculations on Date- and Time-Related Values MySQL Date Functions: Complete Analyst’s Guide See also: How to Add Days to a Date in MySQL How to Add Time to a Datetime Value in MySQL How to Get the Year from a Datetime Column in MySQL How to Find the Number of Days Between Two Dates in MySQL How to Calculate the Difference Between Two Dates in MySQL Subscribe to our newsletter Join our monthly newsletter to be notified about the latest posts. Email address How Do You Write a SELECT Statement in SQL? What Is a Foreign Key in SQL? 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