Error when submitting form with two date fields and using date_diff() in PHP

Question

Hello everyone, I am submitting a form containing two fields "time_in" and "time_out"

I'm trying to get the difference between two dates using date_diff() I made sure that time_in in the database is in DATE formant and time_out in DATE format and both are not strings

I get this error: Fatal error: Uncaught type error: date_diff0: Parameter #1 (SbaseObject) must be of type DateTimeInterface, string in C:\ampp\htdocs\aicAdmin\scripts\backend-script.php: Trace given in 97Stack: #0 C:ilxampp\htdocs\aicAdmin\scripts\backend-script.php(97):date_diff(°2023-05-19,2023-05-23#1(main) throwinC:\xampp\htdocs\aicAdmin\scripts\backend -script.phponline97

And my code is

<div class="col">
            <div class="form-group">
                <input type="date"  class="form-control"  placeholder="Enter Time in" name="time_in" value="<?php echo $time_in; ?>">
            </div>
        </div> 

    <div class="col">
            <div class="form-group">
                <input type="date"  class="form-control"  placeholder="Enter Time out" name="time_out" value="<?php echo $time_in; ?>">
            </div>
        </div>

and backend code

if(empty($_GET['id']) && !empty($_GET['name']) && $_GET['name']=='current_job'){
   extract($_POST);
  if(!empty($jobnumber)){
   

      $data= [
        'jobnumber'=>$jobnumber,
       'revison' =>$revison,
       'groupp'=>$groupp,
       'checker'=>$checker,
       'releasedate'=> $releasedate,
       'quote_number'=> $quote_number,
       'building_number'=>$building_number,
       'task'=>$task,
       'designer_ca'=>$designer_ca,
       'designer_name'=>$designer_name,
       'time_in'=>$time_in,
       'time_schedule'=>$time_schedule,
       'time_out'=>$time_out,
       'spent_time'=>date_diff($time_out,$time_in),   
       'quote_weight'=>$quote_weight,
       'job_weight'=>$job_weight,
       'cycle_time'=>$cycle_time,
       'chk_time'=>$chk_time,
       'wd'=>$wd,
       'remarks'=>$remarks

       
     ];
  

    $tableName=$_GET['name']; 

    if(!empty($data) && !empty($tableName)){
       $insertData=insert_data($data,$tableName);
       if($insertData){
         echo "<span class='success'>Current Job Was saved sucessfully</span>";
       }else{
         echo "<span class='fail'>Error!.. check your query</span>";
       }
    }

}else{
  echo "<span class='fail'>Current Job field is empty</span>";
}

}

I did not copy the entire form code, just a snippet How can I solve this problem? ?

I double checked that time_in and time_out in the database are stored as DATE format, I hope everything is working properly

Answer 1

There isn't enough information here to really answer this question.

But from the error, the problem seems to be that your time_in and time_out are not DateTime objects.

You must first push them via DateTime:CreateFromFormat. This will make them DateTime objects. Then date_diff will give you a DateInterval object that still cannot be stored cleanly in the database.

Consider utilizing unix epoch timestamps.

$datetime_in = DateTime::createFromFormat('h:i a', $form_time_in); 
$datetime_out = DateTime::createFromFormat('h:i a', $form_time_out);
$seconds_elapsed = $datetime_out->format('U') - $datetime_in->format('U');

Note: "h:i a" requires the format "1:30 am", see other options here.