How to Calculate Total Time from Date-Time Intervals in MySQL?

Calculating Total Time from Date-Time Intervals in MySQL

When working with date-time values, calculating time differences can be a common task. In MySQL, you can encounter challenges when attempting to sum time intervals. This article addresses a solution to this issue.

Consider a table containing date-time values in the following format:

START
1/13/2009 7:00:00AM

END
1/13/2008 2:57:00PM

To calculate the difference between these date-time values, you can use the TIMEDIFF() function. However, directly summing the results of TIMEDIFF() does not provide an accurate total.

Instead, a more efficient approach is to convert the time intervals into seconds and then sum them. This can be achieved using the following query:

SELECT
  SEC_TO_TIME( SUM( TIME_TO_SEC( `time` ) ) ) AS total_time
FROM time_table;

This query converts the time intervals stored in the time column into seconds and then sums the results. Finally, it converts the total seconds back into a time format, resulting in a total time value.

In the example provided, the query would calculate the total time spent between the START and END times and display the result in hours and minutes (e.g., "40:53"). This method allows for accurate summation of time intervals, providing the desired information.

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