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 from my own library, will return the difference of months between two dates.

public static int MonthDiff(DateTime d1, DateTime d2)
{
    int retVal = 0;

    // Calculate the number of years represented and multiply by 12
    // Substract the month number from the total
    // Substract the difference of the second month and 12 from the total
    retVal = (d1.Year - d2.Year) * 12;
    retVal = retVal - d1.Month;
    retVal = retVal - (12 - d2.Month);

    return retVal;
}

Answer 2

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 },
};

Answer 3

Based on the excellent DateTimeSpan work done above, I've normalized the code a bit; this seems to work pretty well:

public class DateTimeSpan
{
  private DateTimeSpan() { }

  private DateTimeSpan(int years, int months, int days, int hours, int minutes, int seconds, int milliseconds)
  {
    Years = years;
    Months = months;
    Days = days;
    Hours = hours;
    Minutes = minutes;
    Seconds = seconds;
    Milliseconds = milliseconds;
  }

  public int Years { get; private set; } = 0;
  public int Months { get; private set; } = 0;
  public int Days { get; private set; } = 0;
  public int Hours { get; private set; } = 0;
  public int Minutes { get; private set; } = 0;
  public int Seconds { get; private set; } = 0;
  public int Milliseconds { get; private set; } = 0;

  public static DateTimeSpan CompareDates(DateTime StartDate, DateTime EndDate)
  {
    if (StartDate.Equals(EndDate)) return new DateTimeSpan();
    DateTimeSpan R = new DateTimeSpan();
    bool Later;
    if (Later = StartDate > EndDate)
    {
      DateTime D = StartDate;
      StartDate = EndDate;
      EndDate = D;
    }

    // Calculate Date Stuff
    for (DateTime D = StartDate.AddYears(1); D < EndDate; D = D.AddYears(1), R.Years++) ;
    if (R.Years > 0) StartDate = StartDate.AddYears(R.Years);
    for (DateTime D = StartDate.AddMonths(1); D < EndDate; D = D.AddMonths(1), R.Months++) ;
    if (R.Months > 0) StartDate = StartDate.AddMonths(R.Months);
    for (DateTime D = StartDate.AddDays(1); D < EndDate; D = D.AddDays(1), R.Days++) ;
    if (R.Days > 0) StartDate = StartDate.AddDays(R.Days);

    // Calculate Time Stuff
    TimeSpan T1 = EndDate - StartDate;
    R.Hours = T1.Hours;
    R.Minutes = T1.Minutes;
    R.Seconds = T1.Seconds;
    R.Milliseconds = T1.Milliseconds;

    // Return answer. Negate values if the Start Date was later than the End Date
    if (Later)
      return new DateTimeSpan(-R.Years, -R.Months, -R.Days, -R.Hours, -R.Minutes, -R.Seconds, -R.Milliseconds);
    return R;
  }
}

Answer 4

You can use Noda Time https://nodatime.org/

LocalDate start = new LocalDate(2010, 1, 5);
LocalDate end = new LocalDate(2012, 6, 1);
Period period = Period.Between(start, end, PeriodUnits.Months);
Console.WriteLine(period.Months);

Answer 5

Here is a simple solution that works at least for me. It's probably not the fastest though because it uses the cool DateTime's AddMonth feature in a loop:

public static int GetMonthsDiff(DateTime start, DateTime end)
{
    if (start > end)
        return GetMonthsDiff(end, start);

    int months = 0;
    do
    {
        start = start.AddMonths(1);
        if (start > end)
            return months;

        months++;
    }
    while (true);
}

Answer 6

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);