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

Answer 1

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 2

Here is my contribution to get difference in Months that I've found to be accurate:

namespace System
{
     public static class DateTimeExtensions
     {
         public static Int32 DiffMonths( this DateTime start, DateTime end )
         {
             Int32 months = 0;
             DateTime tmp = start;

             while ( tmp < end )
             {
                 months++;
                 tmp = tmp.AddMonths( 1 );
             }

             return months;
        }
    }
}

Usage:

Int32 months = DateTime.Now.DiffMonths( DateTime.Now.AddYears( 5 ) );

You can create another method called DiffYears and apply exactly the same logic as above and AddYears instead of AddMonths in the while loop.

Answer 3

Assuming the day of the month is irrelevant (i.e. the diff between 2011.1.1 and 2010.12.31 is 1), with date1 > date2 giving a positive value and date2 > date1 a negative value

((date1.Year - date2.Year) * 12) + date1.Month - date2.Month

Or, assuming you want an approximate number of 'average months' between the two dates, the following should work for all but very huge date differences.

date1.Subtract(date2).Days / (365.25 / 12)

Note, if you were to use the latter solution then your unit tests should state the widest date range which your application is designed to work with and validate the results of the calculation accordingly.

---

Update (with thanks to Gary)

If using the 'average months' method, a slightly more accurate number to use for the 'average number of days per year' is 365.2425.

Answer 4

You could do

if ( date1.AddMonths(x) > date2 )

Answer 5

Public Class ClassDateOperation
    Private prop_DifferenceInDay As Integer
    Private prop_DifferenceInMonth As Integer
    Private prop_DifferenceInYear As Integer


    Public Function DayMonthYearFromTwoDate(ByVal DateStart As Date, ByVal DateEnd As Date) As ClassDateOperation
        Dim differenceInDay As Integer
        Dim differenceInMonth As Integer
        Dim differenceInYear As Integer
        Dim myDate As Date

        DateEnd = DateEnd.AddDays(1)

        differenceInYear = DateEnd.Year - DateStart.Year

        If DateStart.Month <= DateEnd.Month Then
            differenceInMonth = DateEnd.Month - DateStart.Month
        Else
            differenceInYear -= 1
            differenceInMonth = (12 - DateStart.Month) + DateEnd.Month
        End If


        If DateStart.Day <= DateEnd.Day Then
            differenceInDay = DateEnd.Day - DateStart.Day
        Else

            myDate = CDate("01/" & DateStart.AddMonths(1).Month & "/" & DateStart.Year).AddDays(-1)
            If differenceInMonth <> 0 Then
                differenceInMonth -= 1
            Else
                differenceInMonth = 11
                differenceInYear -= 1
            End If

            differenceInDay = myDate.Day - DateStart.Day + DateEnd.Day

        End If

        prop_DifferenceInDay = differenceInDay
        prop_DifferenceInMonth = differenceInMonth
        prop_DifferenceInYear = differenceInYear

        Return Me
    End Function

    Public ReadOnly Property DifferenceInDay() As Integer
        Get
            Return prop_DifferenceInDay
        End Get
    End Property

    Public ReadOnly Property DifferenceInMonth As Integer
        Get
            Return prop_DifferenceInMonth
        End Get
    End Property

    Public ReadOnly Property DifferenceInYear As Integer
        Get
            Return prop_DifferenceInYear
        End Get
    End Property

End Class

Answer 6

There's 3 cases: same year, previous year and other years.

If the day of the month does not matter...

public int GetTotalNumberOfMonths(DateTime start, DateTime end)
{
    // work with dates in the right order
    if (start > end)
    {
        var swapper = start;
        start = end;
        end = swapper;
    }

    switch (end.Year - start.Year)
    {
        case 0: // Same year
            return end.Month - start.Month;

        case 1: // last year
            return (12 - start.Month) + end.Month;

        default:
            return 12 * (3 - (end.Year - start.Year)) + (12 - start.Month) + end.Month;
    }
}