How to Calculate Date Differences in PowerShell

Are you new to PowerShell and need to work with dates? Don't worry! In this post, I'll show you some simple ways to calculate the difference between dates using PowerShell. Whether you're tracking project timelines or calculating ages, these methods will help you get started.

The Basics: Simple Date Subtraction

The easiest way to find the difference between two dates is by using simple subtraction. Here's how:

$date1 = Get-Date "2025-01-01" $date2 = Get-Date "2025-03-15" $difference = $date2 - $date1

PowerShell does all the heavy lifting for you. To see how many days are between these dates, just use:

$difference.Days

A Cleaner Approach

There's an even cleaner way to do this using the New-TimeSpan cmdlet:

New-TimeSpan -Start "2025-01-01" -End "2025-03-15"

This method is great because it's more readable and straightforward. Want just the days? Add .Days at the end:

(New-TimeSpan -Start "2025-01-01" -End "2025-03-15").Days

Working with Today's Date

Need to know how many days since or until a specific date? Use Get-Date:

# Days since January 1, 2025 (New-TimeSpan -Start "2025-01-01" -End (Get-Date)).Days

# Days until December 31, 2025 (New-TimeSpan -Start (Get-Date) -End "2025-12-31").Days

Pro Tip: Different Date Formats

If you're working with dates in different formats (like DD/MM/YYYY), here's how to handle them:

$date1 = [DateTime]::ParseExact("01/01/2025", "dd/MM/yyyy", $null) $date2 = [DateTime]::ParseExact("15/03/2025", "dd/MM/yyyy", $null) ($date2 - $date1).Days

Date calculations in PowerShell don't have to be complicated! Start with the simple subtraction method, and as you get more comfortable, try out New-TimeSpan for cleaner code. Remember, PowerShell is here to make your life easier, not harder.

Try these examples in your PowerShell console and experiment with different dates. The more you practice, the more natural it will become.

Happy coding!

About this post

Posted: 2025-09-04
By: dwirch
Viewed: 3,507 times

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