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

You can have a function something like this.

For Example, from 2012/12/27 to 2012/12/29 becomes 3 days. Likewise, from 2012/12/15 to 2013/01/15 becomes 2 months, because up to 2013/01/14 it's 1 month. from 15th it's 2nd month started.

You can remove the "=" in the second if condition, if you do not want to include both days in the calculation. i.e, from 2012/12/15 to 2013/01/15 is 1 month.

public int GetMonths(DateTime startDate, DateTime endDate)
{
    if (startDate > endDate)
    {
        throw new Exception("Start Date is greater than the End Date");
    }

    int months = ((endDate.Year * 12) + endDate.Month) - ((startDate.Year * 12) + startDate.Month);

    if (endDate.Day >= startDate.Day)
    {
        months++;
    }

    return months;
}

Answer 2

I wrote a function to accomplish this, because the others ways weren't working for me.

public string getEndDate (DateTime startDate,decimal monthCount)
{
    int y = startDate.Year;
    int m = startDate.Month;

    for (decimal  i = monthCount; i > 1; i--)
    {
        m++;
        if (m == 12)
        { y++;
            m = 1;
        }
    }
    return string.Format("{0}-{1}-{2}", y.ToString(), m.ToString(), startDate.Day.ToString());
}

Answer 3

Use Noda Time:

LocalDate start = new LocalDate(2013, 1, 5);
LocalDate end = new LocalDate(2014, 6, 1);
Period period = Period.Between(start, end, PeriodUnits.Months);
Console.WriteLine(period.Months); // 16

(example source)

Answer 4

You can use the DateDiff class of the Time Period Library for .NET:

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------
public void DateDiffSample()
{
  DateTime date1 = new DateTime( 2009, 11, 8, 7, 13, 59 );
  DateTime date2 = new DateTime( 2011, 3, 20, 19, 55, 28 );
  DateDiff dateDiff = new DateDiff( date1, date2 );

  // differences
  Console.WriteLine( "DateDiff.Months: {0}", dateDiff.Months );
  // > DateDiff.Months: 16

  // elapsed
  Console.WriteLine( "DateDiff.ElapsedMonths: {0}", dateDiff.ElapsedMonths );
  // > DateDiff.ElapsedMonths: 4

  // description
  Console.WriteLine( "DateDiff.GetDescription(6): {0}", dateDiff.GetDescription( 6 ) );
  // > DateDiff.GetDescription(6): 1 Year 4 Months 12 Days 12 Hours 41 Mins 29 Secs
} // DateDiffSample

Answer 5

public static int PayableMonthsInDuration(DateTime StartDate, DateTime EndDate)
{
    int sy = StartDate.Year; int sm = StartDate.Month; int count = 0;
    do
    {
        count++;if ((sy == EndDate.Year) && (sm >= EndDate.Month)) { break; }
        sm++;if (sm == 13) { sm = 1; sy++; }
    } while ((EndDate.Year >= sy) || (EndDate.Month >= sm));
    return (count);
}

This solution is for Rental/subscription calculation, where difference doesn't means to be subtraction, it's meant to be the span in within those two dates.

Answer 6

The most precise way is this that return difference in months by fraction :

private double ReturnDiffereceBetweenTwoDatesInMonths(DateTime startDateTime, DateTime endDateTime)
{
    double result = 0;
    double days = 0;
    DateTime currentDateTime = startDateTime;
    while (endDateTime > currentDateTime.AddMonths(1))
    {
        result ++;

        currentDateTime = currentDateTime.AddMonths(1);
    }

    if (endDateTime > currentDateTime)
    {
        days = endDateTime.Subtract(currentDateTime).TotalDays;

    }
    return result + days/endDateTime.GetMonthDays;
}