简单的功能

function time_difference($time_1, $time_2, $limit = null)
{

    $val_1 = new DateTime($time_1);
    $val_2 = new DateTime($time_2);

    $interval = $val_1->diff($val_2);

    $output = array(
        "year" => $interval->y,
        "month" => $interval->m,
        "day" => $interval->d,
        "hour" => $interval->h,
        "minute" => $interval->i,
        "second" => $interval->s
    );

    $return = "";
    foreach ($output AS $key => $value) {

        if ($value == 1)
            $return .= $value . " " . $key . " ";
        elseif ($value >= 1)
            $return .= $value . " " . $key . "s ";

        if ($key == $limit)
            return trim($return);
    }
    return trim($return);
}

像这样使用

回波时间差（$time_1，$time_2，“天”）；

将返回2年8个月2天

查看以下链接。这是迄今为止我找到的最好的答案

function dateDiff ($d1, $d2) {

    // Return the number of days between the two dates:    
    return round(abs(strtotime($d1) - strtotime($d2))/86400);

} // end function dateDiff

当你通过日期参数。函数使用PHP ABS（）绝对值始终返回正数作为两者之间的天数日期。请记住，两个日期之间的天数不是包括两个日期。因此，如果您正在寻找天数由输入日期之间的所有日期表示，您需要向该函数的结果添加一（1）。例如，差异（由上述函数返回）2013-02-09和2013-02-14之间的值为5。但天数或日期范围2013-02-09-2013-02-14表示的日期为6。

http://www.bizinfosys.com/php/date-difference.html

$date = '2012.11.13';
$dateOfReturn = '2017.10.31';

$substract = str_replace('.', '-', $date);

$substract2 = str_replace('.', '-', $dateOfReturn);



$date1 = $substract;
$date2 = $substract2;

$ts1 = strtotime($date1);
$ts2 = strtotime($date2);

$year1 = date('Y', $ts1);
$year2 = date('Y', $ts2);

$month1 = date('m', $ts1);
$month2 = date('m', $ts2);

echo $diff = (($year2 - $year1) * 12) + ($month2 - $month1);

对于php版本>=5.3：创建两个日期对象，然后使用date_diff（）函数。它将返回phpDateInterval对象。请参阅文档

$date1=date_create("2007-03-24");
$date2=date_create("2009-06-26");
$diff=date_diff($date1,$date2);
echo $diff->format("%R%a days");

前段时间，我编写了一个format_date函数，因为它提供了许多关于日期的选项：

function format_date($date, $type, $seperator="-")
{
    if($date)
    {
        $day = date("j", strtotime($date));
        $month = date("n", strtotime($date));
        $year = date("Y", strtotime($date));
        $hour = date("H", strtotime($date));
        $min = date("i", strtotime($date));
        $sec = date("s", strtotime($date));

        switch($type)
        {
            case 0:  $date = date("Y".$seperator."m".$seperator."d",mktime($hour, $min, $sec, $month, $day, $year)); break;
            case 1:  $date = date("D, F j, Y",mktime($hour, $min, $sec, $month, $day, $year)); break;
            case 2:  $date = date("d".$seperator."m".$seperator."Y",mktime($hour, $min, $sec, $month, $day, $year)); break;
            case 3:  $date = date("d".$seperator."M".$seperator."Y",mktime($hour, $min, $sec, $month, $day, $year)); break;
            case 4:  $date = date("d".$seperator."M".$seperator."Y h:i A",mktime($hour, $min, $sec, $month, $day, $year)); break;
            case 5:  $date = date("m".$seperator."d".$seperator."Y",mktime($hour, $min, $sec, $month, $day, $year)); break;
            case 6:  $date = date("M",mktime($hour, $min, $sec, $month, $day, $year)); break;
            case 7:  $date = date("Y",mktime($hour, $min, $sec, $month, $day, $year)); break;
            case 8:  $date = date("j",mktime($hour, $min, $sec, $month, $day, $year)); break;
            case 9:  $date = date("n",mktime($hour, $min, $sec, $month, $day, $year)); break;
            case 10: 
                     $diff = abs(strtotime($date) - strtotime(date("Y-m-d h:i:s"))); 
                     $years = floor($diff / (365*60*60*24));
                     $months = floor(($diff - $years * 365*60*60*24) / (30*60*60*24));
                     $days = floor(($diff - $years * 365*60*60*24 - $months*30*60*60*24)/ (60*60*24));
                     $date = $years . " years, " . $months . " months, " . $days . "days";
        }
    }
    return($date);
}    

function showTime($time){

    $start      = strtotime($time);
    $end        = strtotime(date("Y-m-d H:i:s"));
    $minutes    = ($end - $start)/60;


    // years 
    if(($minutes / (60*24*365)) > 1){
        $years = floor($minutes/(60*24*365));
        return "From $years year( s ) ago";
    }


    // monthes 
    if(($minutes / (60*24*30)) > 1){
        $monthes = floor($minutes/(60*24*30));
        return "From $monthes monthe( s ) ago";
    }


    // days 
    if(($minutes / (60*24)) > 1){
        $days = floor($minutes/(60*24));
        return "From $days day( s ) ago";
    }

    // hours 
    if(($minutes / 60) > 1){
        $hours = floor($minutes/60);
        return "From $hours hour( s ) ago";
    }

    // minutes 
    if($minutes > 1){
        $minutes = floor($minutes);
        return "From $minutes minute( s ) ago";
    }
}

echo showTime('2022-05-05 21:33:00');