Background

I have read many forum posts regarding how to calculate duration between two dates, such as year, months, days and hours but no single post provided the proper solutions so I decided to. So let us start creating a web application as:
  1. "Start" - "All Programs" - "Microsoft Visual Studio 2010".
  2. "File" - "New WebSite" - "C#" - "Empty WebSite" (to avoid adding a master page).
  3. Provide the website a name such as "CalculateDuration"or another as you wish and specify the location.
  4. Then right-click on Solution Explorer - "Add New Item" - Add Web Form.
  5. Drag and drop one button and two textBoxes on the <form> section of the Default.aspx page.
  6. Add Ajax Calender Extender for two text boxes (optional). (If do not want to use a calendar then enter date manually.)
  7. Now the default.aspx Page source code will look such as follows.
  1. <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="_Default" %>
  3. <%@ Register Assembly="AjaxControlToolkit" Namespace="AjaxControlToolkit" TagPrefix="asp" %>
  4. <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
  5. <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  6. <head runat="server">
  7. <title></title>
  8. </head>
  9. <body style="background-color: #000080">
  10. <form id="form1" runat="server">
  11. <asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1" runat="server">
  12. </asp:ScriptManager>
  13. <table style="padding: 30px; color: White; margin-top: 30px">
  14. <tr>
  15. <td>
  16. From Date
  17. </td>
  18. <td>
  19. <asp:TextBox ID="FromYearTxt" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
  20. <asp:CalendarExtender ID="FromYearTxt_CalendarExtender" runat="server" Enabled="True"
  21. TargetControlID="FromYearTxt" Format="dd/MM/yyyy">
  22. </asp:CalendarExtender>
  23. </td>
  24. <td>
  25. To Date
  26. </td>
  27. <td>
  28. <asp:TextBox ID="ToYearTxt" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
  29. <asp:CalendarExtender ID="ToYearTxt_CalendarExtender" runat="server" Enabled="True"
  30. TargetControlID="ToYearTxt">
  31. </asp:CalendarExtender>
  32. </td>
  33. </tr>
  34. </table>
  35. <div style="margin-left: 180px">
  36. <asp:Button ID="btncalculate" runat="server" Text="Calculate" OnClick="btncalculate_Click" />
  37. </div>
  38. <table style="background-color: #0000FF; color: White; padding: 30px; margin-top: 20px;
  39. margin-left: 15px" id="tblResults" runat="server">
  40. <tr>
  41. <td>
  42. Years
  43. </td>
  44. <td id="tdYear" runat="server">
  45. </td>
  46. </tr>
  47. <tr>
  48. <td>
  49. Total Months
  50. </td>
  51. <td id="tdMonths" runat="server">
  52. </td>
  53. </tr>
  54. <tr>
  55. <td>
  56. Total Days
  57. </td>
  58. <td id="tdDays" runat="server">
  59. </td>
  60. </tr>
  61. <tr>
  62. <td>
  63. Total Hours
  64. </td>
  65. <td id="tdHrs" runat="server">
  66. </td>
  67. </tr>
  68. <tr>
  69. <td>
  70. Total Minutes
  71. </td>
  72. <td id="tdminuts" runat="server">
  73. </td>
  74. </tr>
  75. <tr>
  76. <td>
  77. Total Seconds
  78. </td>
  79. <td id="tdseconds" runat="server">
  80. </td>
  81. </tr>
  82. <tr>
  83. <td>
  84. Total MileSesonds
  85. </td>
  86. <td id="tdmileSec" runat="server">
  87. </td>
  88. </tr>
  89. </table>
  90. </form>
  91. </body>
  92. </html>

Now switch to design mode; it will look such as follows.

Now open the default.aspx page and add the following code in the calculate button click event.
Read two input TextBox texts and assign them to a DateTime data type variable as in the following:
  1. //Storing input Dates
  2. DateTime FromYear = Convert.ToDateTime(FromYearTxt.Text);
  3. DateTime ToYear = Convert.ToDateTime(ToYearTxt.Text);
To calculate the Years between the two dates use:
  1. //years
  2. int Years = ToYear.Year - FromYear.Year;
To calculate the months between the two dates use:
  1. //months
  2. int month = ToYear.Month - FromYear.Month;
To calculate the Total months between the two dates use:
  1. //Total Months
  2. int TotalMonths = (Years * 12) + month;
To calculate the Total days, hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds between two dates use:
  1. //Creating object of TimeSpan Class
  2. TimeSpan objTimeSpan = ToYear - FromYear;
  3. //Total Hours
  4. double TotalHours = objTimeSpan.TotalHours;
  5. //Total Minutes
  6. double TotalMinutes = objTimeSpan.TotalMinutes;
  7. //Total Seconds
  8. double TotalSeconds = objTimeSpan.TotalSeconds;
  9. //Total Mile Seconds
  10. double TotalMileSeconds = objTimeSpan.TotalMilliseconds;
To assign result values back to the td tags use the following code:
  1. //Assining values to td tags
  2. tdYear.InnerText = Years + " Year " + month + " Months";
  3. tdMonths.InnerText = Convert.ToString(TotalMonths);
  4. tdDays.InnerText = Convert.ToString(Days);
  5. tdHrs.InnerText = Convert.ToString(TotalHours);
  6. tdminuts.InnerText = Convert.ToString(TotalMinutes);
  7. tdseconds.InnerText = Convert.ToString(TotalSeconds);
  8. tdmileSec.InnerText = Convert.ToString(TotalMileSeconds);
Now in default.aspx.cs the entire code will look such as follows:
  1. using System;
  2. using System.Collections.Generic;
  3. using System.Linq;
  4. using System.Web;
  5. using System.Web.UI;
  6. using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
  8. public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
  9. {
  10. protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
  11. {
  12. tblResults.Visible = false;
  13. }
  14. protected void btncalculate_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
  15. {
  16. if (FromYearTxt.Text != "" && ToYearTxt.Text != "")
  17. {
  18. //Storing input Dates
  19. DateTime FromYear = Convert.ToDateTime(FromYearTxt.Text);
  20. DateTime ToYear = Convert.ToDateTime(ToYearTxt.Text);
  22. //Creating object of TimeSpan Class
  23. TimeSpan objTimeSpan = ToYear - FromYear;
  24. //years
  25. int Years = ToYear.Year - FromYear.Year;
  26. //months
  27. int month = ToYear.Month - FromYear.Month;
  28. //TotalDays
  29. double Days = Convert.ToDouble(objTimeSpan.TotalDays);
  30. //Total Months
  31. int TotalMonths = (Years * 12) + month;
  32. //Total Hours
  33. double TotalHours = objTimeSpan.TotalHours;
  34. //Total Minutes
  35. double TotalMinutes = objTimeSpan.TotalMinutes;
  36. //Total Seconds
  37. double TotalSeconds = objTimeSpan.TotalSeconds;
  38. //Total Mile Seconds
  39. double TotalMileSeconds = objTimeSpan.TotalMilliseconds;
  40. //Assining values to td tags
  41. tdYear.InnerText = Years + " Year " + month + " Months";
  42. tdMonths.InnerText = Convert.ToString(TotalMonths);
  43. tdDays.InnerText = Convert.ToString(Days);
  44. tdHrs.InnerText = Convert.ToString(TotalHours);
  45. tdminuts.InnerText = Convert.ToString(TotalMinutes);
  46. tdseconds.InnerText = Convert.ToString(TotalSeconds);
  47. tdmileSec.InnerText = Convert.ToString(TotalMileSeconds);
  48. tblResults.Visible = true;
  49. }
  50. }
  51. }
Now enter a From date and To date using the calendar as in the following:
I have entered the following dates:
Now click on the Calculate button. It will display the following output:
Now from all the preceding examples, we have learned how to calculate the years, months, days, minutes, seconds & milliseconds between two dates
Note:
  • For detailed code please download the sample Zip file.
  • Do Proper Validation such as date input values when implementing.
  • Use the ScriptManager if you are using the Ajax Calender Extender that I used in the preceding demo application.
Summary

From all the examples above, we have learned how to calculate the duration between two dates. I hope this article is useful for all readers, if you have a suggestion then please contact me.