Calculate Difference between 2 Dates in C++ using Boost Library

In this article we will discuss how to calculate difference between two dates and how to iterate over a date range using C++ Boost Date Time Library.

date_duration

Boost Date Time Library provides a duration type to represent the duration between two dates i.e.

boost::gregorian::date_duration

With this date_duration object we can get the duration between 2 dates in days i.e.

// Initializing Date object with 21st March 2016
boost::gregorian::date dateObj1 { 2016, 3, 21 };

// Initializing Date object with 1st October 2016
boost::gregorian::date dateObj2 { 2016, 10, 1 };

// Get the Duration between 2 Dates
boost::gregorian::date_duration dur = dateObj2 - dateObj1;

// Fetch Days from date_duration object
std::cout<<"Difference b/w 2 Dates in days : "<<dur.days()<<std::endl;

We can also add and subtract this date_duration object from a date object. For example, let’s add 3 week duration in a date object i.e.

// Create Duration object representing 3 week duration
boost::gregorian::weeks_duration weekdur(3);

// Add 3 week Duration in Date (1-Oct-2016)
boost::gregorian::date dateObj3 = dateObj2 + weekdur;

Complete Example is as follows,

#include <boost/date_time/gregorian/gregorian.hpp>
#include <iostream>

int main() {

	// Initializing Date object with 21st March 2016
	boost::gregorian::date dateObj1 { 2016, 3, 21 };

	// Initializing Date object with 1st October 2016
	boost::gregorian::date dateObj2 { 2016, 10, 1 };

	// Get the Duration between 2 Dates
	boost::gregorian::date_duration dur = dateObj2 - dateObj1;

	std::cout << "Date 1 : " << dateObj1 << std::endl;
	std::cout << "Date 2 : " << dateObj2 << std::endl;

	// Fetch Days from date_duration object
	std::cout << "Difference b/w 2 Dates in days : " << dur.days() << std::endl;

	// Create Duration object representing 3 week duration
	boost::gregorian::weeks_duration weekdur(3);

	// Add 3 week Duration in Date (1-Oct-2016)
	boost::gregorian::date dateObj3 = dateObj2 + weekdur;

	std::cout << "Date after adding 3 weeks in 1-Oct-2016 : " << dateObj3
			<< std::endl;

}

Output:

Date 1 : 2016-Mar-21
Date 2 : 2016-Oct-01
Difference b/w 2 Dates in days : 194
Date after adding 3 weeks in 1-Oct-2016 : 2016-Oct-22

Date Period

Boost Date Time Library provides a type boost::gregorian::date_period to represents a period between two Dates i.e.

// Initializing Date object with 21st March 2016
boost::gregorian::date dateObj1 { 2016, 3, 21 };

// Initializing Date object with 1st October 2016
boost::gregorian::date dateObj2 { 2016, 10, 1 };

// Creating a date period from 03/21/2016 to 10/1/2016
boost::gregorian::date_period dp(dateObj1, dateObj2);

We can fetch days, months and years in this date period and can also iterate over it.

Fetching date_duration object from date_period,

dp.length() ;

Iterate over the Date Period

date_period provides month, week and day iterators to iterate over a date period. Let’s see a a monthly iterator to iterate between 2 dates i.e.

// Iterate Over the Date Period using Month Iterator
boost::gregorian::month_iterator it = dp.begin();

while (*it < dp.end()) 
{
	++it;
	std::cout << (*it).month() << std::endl;
}

Similarly date_period provides week and day iterators to iterate over a date period i.e.

boost::gregorian::week_iterator
boost::gregorian::day_iterator

Complete Example is as follows,

#include <boost/date_time/gregorian/gregorian.hpp>
#include <iostream>

int main() {

	// Initializing Date object with 21st March 2016
	boost::gregorian::date dateObj1 { 2016, 3, 21 };

	// Initializing Date object with 1st October 2016
	boost::gregorian::date dateObj2 { 2016, 10, 1 };

	// Creating a date period from 03/21/2016 to 10/1/2016
	boost::gregorian::date_period dp(dateObj1, dateObj2);

	// Get the Duration object from date period
	// It will print Number of Days in Date Period
	std::cout << dp.length() << std::endl;

	std::cout << "Months in Date period : " << std::endl;
	// Iterate Over the Date Period using Month Iterator
	boost::gregorian::month_iterator it = dp.begin();

	while (*it < dp.end()) {
		++it;
		std::cout << (*it).month() << std::endl;
	}
}

Output:

194
Months in Date period : 
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct

Let’s see a practical example of day_iterator of date_period i.e.

Iterate Over last 20 Years and print how many times 1st Jan was on Sunday

#include <boost/date_time/gregorian/gregorian.hpp>
#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>

int main() {

	// Initializing Date object with 1 Jan 1996
	boost::gregorian::date dateObj1 { 1996, 1, 1 };

	// Initializing Date object with 1st Jan 2016
	boost::gregorian::date dateObj2 { 2016, 1, 1 };

	// Creating a date period from 1/1/1996 to 1/1/2016
	boost::gregorian::date_period dp(dateObj1, dateObj2);

	std::cout << "All Sundays on 1st Jan : " << std::endl;
	boost::gregorian::day_iterator dayit = dp.begin();

	while (*dayit <= dp.end()) {
		// Check if day of week is SUNDAY and Date is 1 and months is January
		if (dayit->day_of_week() == boost::gregorian::Sunday
				&& dayit->day() == 1 && dayit->month() == 1)
			std::cout << "Sunday = " << (*dayit) << std::endl;
		++dayit;
	}

}

Output:

All Sundays on 1st Jan : 
Sunday = 2006-Jan-01
Sunday = 2012-Jan-01

To compile the above examples in Linux, use following command,

g++ –std=c++11 example.cpp -lboost_date_time