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Bug #79452 DateTime::diff() generates months differently between time zones
Submitted: 2020-04-06 01:22 UTC Modified: 2021-04-06 19:56 UTC
From: corey dot taylor dot fl at gmail dot com Assigned: derick (profile)
Status: Closed Package: Date/time related
PHP Version: 7.4.4 OS:
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
 [2020-04-06 01:22 UTC] corey dot taylor dot fl at gmail dot com
Description:
------------
If you create DateTime instances in 'America/New_York' or 'UTC' time zone and compare them using DateTime::diff() the `months` value is different than using DateTime instances in 'Europe/Berlin' or 'Asia/Tokyo'.

date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');

$from = new DateTime('2019-06-01');
$to = new DateTime('2019-10-01');

var_dump($from->diff($to)->m);

-- int(4)

date_default_timezone_set('Asia/Tokyo');

$from = new DateTime('2019-06-01');
$to = new DateTime('2019-10-01');

var_dump($from->diff($to)->m);

-- int(3)

The generated `days` value is the same for both.

If this isn't determined to be an implementation error, then can the exepcation be documented for DateTime::diff()? Right now, it's impossible to tell how the DateTime objects are compared between time zones.



Expected result:
----------------
The generated difference in months is the same for 2 dates is the same regardless of the time zone they are in.


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 [2020-04-06 08:14 UTC] cmb@php.net
Before the actual diff is calculated, the DateTime objects are
converted to UTC; doing this in PHP shows the problem[1].

[1] <https://3v4l.org/gBtjX#v720>
 [2020-04-06 11:51 UTC] corey dot taylor dot fl at gmail dot com
I can see why php calculates the month value different for those UTC DateTime instances.

Is there no way to get a consistent calendar operation in different time zones? The only alternative here seems to be mimicking the same "date" in UTC for users in other time zones when calculating calendar changes.
 [2020-04-07 05:48 UTC] 1515888956 at qq dot com
calc error because timelib function apply time to gmttime.
so the different month is the gmt different month
l am alread motify this bug. but l don't not sure is right
https://github.com/derickr/timelib/pull/78
 [2020-05-06 14:38 UTC] antonino dot spampinato86 at gmail dot com
the error lies in the evaluation of +1 month from a date that begins at the end of May 31 since php calculates from the current month it takes initially 31 days on July 1 is the second month while it should be the third month. It should only calculate the time spent in months without days.
<?php
date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');

$from = new DateTime('2019-06-01');
$to = new DateTime('2019-10-01');

var_dump($from->diff($to)->m);

date_default_timezone_set('Asia/Tokyo');

$from = new DateTime('2019-06-01');
$from->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone('UTC'));
// 2019-05-31 15:00:00
$to = new DateTime('2019-10-01');
$to->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone('UTC'));
// 2019-09-30 15:00:00
// 4 month for php 2019-10-01 15:00:00
var_dump(($from->diff($to)->m), $from, $to);
 [2020-05-06 14:53 UTC] antonino dot spampinato86 at gmail dot com
correction July 1st is the first month while it should be the second month.
 [2021-04-06 19:56 UTC] derick@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Closed -Assigned To: +Assigned To: derick
 [2021-04-06 19:56 UTC] derick@php.net
The fix for this bug has been committed.
If you are still experiencing this bug, try to check out latest source from https://github.com/php/php-src and re-test.
Thank you for the report, and for helping us make PHP better.

Fixed for PHP 8.1.
 
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Last updated: Sat Apr 20 16:01:29 2024 UTC