# DateTime in Minutes?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/datetime-in-minutes/130967>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 4, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/datetime-in-minutes/130967 "2008-03-04T20:47:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pete](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@pete](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pete)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/datetime-in-minutes/130967/1 "2008-03-04T20:47:11Z")

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Hi-

So, say I have 2 DateTimes and I want to display the difference in  
mm:ss, how would I do this without manipulating each individual  
component, while still displaying the true number of minutes and  
seconds (i/e/ not just t.min, or t.sec)?

Thanks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pete](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@pete](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pete)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2008, 5:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/datetime-in-minutes/130967/2 "2008-03-05T05:45:38Z")

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> Hi-
> 
> So, say I have 2 DateTimes and I want to display the difference in  
> mm:ss, how would I do this without manipulating each individual  
> component, while still displaying the true number of minutes and  
> seconds (i/e/ not just t.min, or t.sec)?

a\>\> a = 15.minutes.ago  
=\> Tue Mar 04 12:35:08 -0800 2008

> > b = Time.now  
> > =\> Tue Mar 04 12:50:10 -0800 2008
> 
> > b - a  
> > =\> 902.319528
> 
> > “%02d” % ((b - a) / 60).to\_i + ‘:’ + “%02d” % ((b - a) % 60).to\_i  
> > =\> “15:02”

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pete](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@pete](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pete)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2008, 9:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/datetime-in-minutes/130967/3 "2008-03-05T21:36:24Z")

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Thanks!