Difference in months between two dates

Question

How to calculate the difference in months between two dates in C#?

Is there is equivalent of VB's DateDiff() method in C#. I need to find difference in months between two dates that are years apart. The documentation says that I can use TimeSpan like:

TimeSpan ts = date1 - date2;

but this gives me data in Days. I don't want to divide this number by 30 because not every month is 30 days and since the two operand values are quite apart from each other, I am afraid dividing by 30 might give me a wrong value.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Expanded Kirks struct with ToString(format) and Duration(long ms)

 public struct DateTimeSpan
{
    private readonly int years;
    private readonly int months;
    private readonly int days;
    private readonly int hours;
    private readonly int minutes;
    private readonly int seconds;
    private readonly int milliseconds;

    public DateTimeSpan(int years, int months, int days, int hours, int minutes, int seconds, int milliseconds)
    {
        this.years = years;
        this.months = months;
        this.days = days;
        this.hours = hours;
        this.minutes = minutes;
        this.seconds = seconds;
        this.milliseconds = milliseconds;
    }

    public int Years { get { return years; } }
    public int Months { get { return months; } }
    public int Days { get { return days; } }
    public int Hours { get { return hours; } }
    public int Minutes { get { return minutes; } }
    public int Seconds { get { return seconds; } }
    public int Milliseconds { get { return milliseconds; } }

    enum Phase { Years, Months, Days, Done }


    public string ToString(string format)
    {
        format = format.Replace("YYYY", Years.ToString());
        format = format.Replace("MM", Months.ToString());
        format = format.Replace("DD", Days.ToString());
        format = format.Replace("hh", Hours.ToString());
        format = format.Replace("mm", Minutes.ToString());
        format = format.Replace("ss", Seconds.ToString());
        format = format.Replace("ms", Milliseconds.ToString());
        return format;
    }


    public static DateTimeSpan Duration(long ms)
    {
        DateTime dt = new DateTime();
        return CompareDates(dt, dt.AddMilliseconds(ms));
    }


    public static DateTimeSpan CompareDates(DateTime date1, DateTime date2)
    {
        if (date2 < date1)
        {
            var sub = date1;
            date1 = date2;
            date2 = sub;
        }

        DateTime current = date1;
        int years = 0;
        int months = 0;
        int days = 0;

        Phase phase = Phase.Years;
        DateTimeSpan span = new DateTimeSpan();

        while (phase != Phase.Done)
        {
            switch (phase)
            {
                case Phase.Years:
                    if (current.AddYears(years + 1) > date2)
                    {
                        phase = Phase.Months;
                        current = current.AddYears(years);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        years++;
                    }
                    break;
                case Phase.Months:
                    if (current.AddMonths(months + 1) > date2)
                    {
                        phase = Phase.Days;
                        current = current.AddMonths(months);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        months++;
                    }
                    break;
                case Phase.Days:
                    if (current.AddDays(days + 1) > date2)
                    {
                        current = current.AddDays(days);
                        var timespan = date2 - current;
                        span = new DateTimeSpan(years, months, days, timespan.Hours, timespan.Minutes, timespan.Seconds, timespan.Milliseconds);
                        phase = Phase.Done;
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        days++;
                    }
                    break;
            }
        }

        return span;
    }
}

Answer 2

This is in response to Kirk Woll's answer. I don't have enough reputation points to reply to a comment yet...

I liked Kirk's solution and was going to shamelessly rip it off and use it in my code, but when I looked through it I realized it's way too complicated. Unnecessary switching and looping, and a public constructor that is pointless to use.

Here's my rewrite:

public class DateTimeSpan {
    private DateTime _date1;
    private DateTime _date2;
    private int _years;
    private int _months;
    private int _days;
    private int _hours;
    private int _minutes;
    private int _seconds;
    private int _milliseconds;

    public int Years { get { return _years; } }
    public int Months { get { return _months; } }
    public int Days { get { return _days; } }
    public int Hours { get { return _hours; } }
    public int Minutes { get { return _minutes; } }
    public int Seconds { get { return _seconds; } }
    public int Milliseconds { get { return _milliseconds; } }

    public DateTimeSpan(DateTime date1, DateTime date2) {
        _date1 = (date1 > date2) ? date1 : date2;
        _date2 = (date2 < date1) ? date2 : date1;

        _years = _date1.Year - _date2.Year;
        _months = (_years * 12) + _date1.Month - _date2.Month;
        TimeSpan t = (_date2 - _date1);
        _days = t.Days;
        _hours = t.Hours;
        _minutes = t.Minutes;
        _seconds = t.Seconds;
        _milliseconds = t.Milliseconds;

    }

    public static DateTimeSpan CompareDates(DateTime date1, DateTime date2) {
        return new DateTimeSpan(date1, date2);
    }
}

Usage1, pretty much the same:

void Main()
{
    DateTime compareTo = DateTime.Parse("8/13/2010 8:33:21 AM");
    DateTime now = DateTime.Parse("2/9/2012 10:10:11 AM");
    var dateSpan = new DateTimeSpan(compareTo, now);
    Console.WriteLine("Years: " + dateSpan.Years);
    Console.WriteLine("Months: " + dateSpan.Months);
    Console.WriteLine("Days: " + dateSpan.Days);
    Console.WriteLine("Hours: " + dateSpan.Hours);
    Console.WriteLine("Minutes: " + dateSpan.Minutes);
    Console.WriteLine("Seconds: " + dateSpan.Seconds);
    Console.WriteLine("Milliseconds: " + dateSpan.Milliseconds);
}

Usage2, similar:

void Main()
{
    DateTime compareTo = DateTime.Parse("8/13/2010 8:33:21 AM");
    DateTime now = DateTime.Parse("2/9/2012 10:10:11 AM");
    Console.WriteLine("Years: " + DateTimeSpan.CompareDates(compareTo, now).Years);
    Console.WriteLine("Months: " + DateTimeSpan.CompareDates(compareTo, now).Months);
    Console.WriteLine("Days: " + DateTimeSpan.CompareDates(compareTo, now).Days);
    Console.WriteLine("Hours: " + DateTimeSpan.CompareDates(compareTo, now).Hours);
    Console.WriteLine("Minutes: " + DateTimeSpan.CompareDates(compareTo, now).Minutes);
    Console.WriteLine("Seconds: " + DateTimeSpan.CompareDates(compareTo, now).Seconds);
    Console.WriteLine("Milliseconds: " + DateTimeSpan.CompareDates(compareTo, now).Milliseconds);
}

Answer 3

you can use the following extension: Code

public static class Ext
{
    #region Public Methods

    public static int GetAge(this DateTime @this)
    {
        var today = DateTime.Today;
        return ((((today.Year - @this.Year) * 100) + (today.Month - @this.Month)) * 100 + today.Day - @this.Day) / 10000;
    }

    public static int DiffMonths(this DateTime @from, DateTime @to)
    {
        return (((((@to.Year - @from.Year) * 12) + (@to.Month - @from.Month)) * 100 + @to.Day - @from.Day) / 100);
    }

    public static int DiffYears(this DateTime @from, DateTime @to)
    {
        return ((((@to.Year - @from.Year) * 100) + (@to.Month - @from.Month)) * 100 + @to.Day - @from.Day) / 10000;
    }

    #endregion Public Methods
}

Implementation !

int Age;
int years;
int Months;
//Replace your own date
var d1 = new DateTime(2000, 10, 22);
var d2 = new DateTime(2003, 10, 20);
//Age
Age = d1.GetAge();
Age = d2.GetAge();
//positive
years = d1.DiffYears(d2);
Months = d1.DiffMonths(d2);
//negative
years = d2.DiffYears(d1);
Months = d2.DiffMonths(d1);
//Or
Months = Ext.DiffMonths(d1, d2);
years = Ext.DiffYears(d1, d2); 

Answer 4

int nMonths = 0;
if (FDate.ToDateTime().Year == TDate.ToDateTime().Year)
     nMonths = TDate.ToDateTime().Month - FDate.ToDateTime().Month;                         
else
nMonths = (12 - FDate.Month) + TDate.Month;                          

Answer 5

Here's how we approach this:

public static int MonthDiff(DateTime date1, DateTime date2)
{
    if (date1.Month < date2.Month)
    {
        return (date2.Year - date1.Year) * 12 + date2.Month - date1.Month;
    }
    else
    {
        return (date2.Year - date1.Year - 1) * 12 + date2.Month - date1.Month + 12;
    }
}

Answer 6

If you want the exact number of full months, always positive (2000-01-15, 2000-02-14 returns 0), considering a full month is when you reach the same day the next month (something like the age calculation)

public static int GetMonthsBetween(DateTime from, DateTime to)
{
    if (from > to) return GetMonthsBetween(to, from);

    var monthDiff = Math.Abs((to.Year * 12 + (to.Month - 1)) - (from.Year * 12 + (from.Month - 1)));

    if (from.AddMonths(monthDiff) > to || to.Day < from.Day)
    {
        return monthDiff - 1;
    }
    else
    {
        return monthDiff;
    }
}

Edit reason: the old code was not correct in some cases like :

new { From = new DateTime(1900, 8, 31), To = new DateTime(1901, 8, 30), Result = 11 },

Test cases I used to test the function:

var tests = new[]
{
    new { From = new DateTime(1900, 1, 1), To = new DateTime(1900, 1, 1), Result = 0 },
    new { From = new DateTime(1900, 1, 1), To = new DateTime(1900, 1, 2), Result = 0 },
    new { From = new DateTime(1900, 1, 2), To = new DateTime(1900, 1, 1), Result = 0 },
    new { From = new DateTime(1900, 1, 1), To = new DateTime(1900, 2, 1), Result = 1 },
    new { From = new DateTime(1900, 2, 1), To = new DateTime(1900, 1, 1), Result = 1 },
    new { From = new DateTime(1900, 1, 31), To = new DateTime(1900, 2, 1), Result = 0 },
    new { From = new DateTime(1900, 8, 31), To = new DateTime(1900, 9, 30), Result = 0 },
    new { From = new DateTime(1900, 8, 31), To = new DateTime(1900, 10, 1), Result = 1 },
    new { From = new DateTime(1900, 1, 1), To = new DateTime(1901, 1, 1), Result = 12 },
    new { From = new DateTime(1900, 1, 1), To = new DateTime(1911, 1, 1), Result = 132 },
    new { From = new DateTime(1900, 8, 31), To = new DateTime(1901, 8, 30), Result = 11 },
};