Calculate difference between two datetimes in MySQL

I am storing the last login time in MySQL in, datetime-type filed. When users logs in, I want to get the difference between the last login time and the current time (which I get using NOW()).

How can I calculate it?

USE TIMESTAMPDIFF MySQL function. For example, you can use:

SELECT TIMESTAMPDIFF(SECOND, '2012-06-06 13:13:55', '2012-06-06 15:20:18')

In your case, the third parameter of TIMSTAMPDIFF function would be the current login time (NOW()). Second parameter would be the last login time, which is already in the database.

my two cents about logic:

syntax is "old date" - :"new date", so:

SELECT TIMESTAMPDIFF(SECOND, '2018-11-15 15:00:00', '2018-11-15 15:00:30')

gives 30,

SELECT TIMESTAMPDIFF(SECOND, '2018-11-15 15:00:55', '2018-11-15 15:00:15')

gives: -40

If your start and end datetimes are on different days use TIMEDIFF.

SELECT TIMEDIFF(datetime1,datetime2)

if datetime1 > datetime2 then

SELECT TIMEDIFF("2019-02-20 23:46:00","2019-02-19 23:45:00")

gives: 24:01:00

and datetime1 < datetime2

SELECT TIMEDIFF("2019-02-19 23:45:00","2019-02-20 23:46:00")

gives: -24:01:00

I don't think the accepted answer is appropriate. For example, if the difference between last login time and current time is 8 hours then getting the difference in seconds is illogical. The correct format will be in hours, minutes and seconds. I have illustrated this as follows -

Here, I create a table login_info table to store login information of users.

CREATE TABLE login_info (
    -> user_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
    -> last_login DATETIME NOT NULL,
    -> PRIMARY KEY (user_id)
    -> );

Then I populate the table using some random values -

INSERT INTO login_info (last_login) VALUES 
    -> ("2021-09-22 09:32:44"),
    -> ("2021-09-22 13:02:57"),
    -> ("2021-09-21 23:43:21"),
    -> ("2021-09-22 04:43:39"),
    -> ("2021-09-22 17:23:21");

Now I calculate the difference between last_login and current_time as follows:

CREATE TABLE login_dur_in_sec AS 
    -> SELECT user_id,
    -> TIMESTAMPDIFF(SECOND, last_login, NOW()) AS diff
    -> FROM login_info;

SELECT * FROM login_dur_in_sec;
+---------+-------+
| user_id | diff  |
+---------+-------+
|       1 | 28580 |
|       2 | 15967 |
|       3 | 63943 |
|       4 | 45925 |
|       5 |   343 |
+---------+-------+

CREATE TABLE hour_section AS 
    -> SELECT user_id,
    -> FLOOR (diff / 3600) AS hour_part 
    -> FROM login_dur_in_sec;

CREATE TABLE minute_section AS 
    -> SELECT user_id, 
    -> FLOOR (MOD (diff, 3600)/ 60) AS minute_part
    -> FROM login_dur_in_sec;

CREATE TABLE second_section AS
    -> SELECT user_id,
    -> MOD (MOD (diff, 3600), 60) AS second_part
    -> FROM login_dur_in_sec;

CREATE TABLE login_dur AS 
    -> SELECT h.user_id, h.hour_part, m.minute_part, s.second_part
    -> FROM hour_section AS h INNER JOIN minute_section AS m
    -> ON h.user_id = m.user_id
    -> INNER JOIN second_section AS s
    -> ON m.user_id = s.user_id;

CREATE TABLE login_dur_trunc AS 
    -> SELECT user_id,
    -> CONCAT (hour_part, ":", minute_part, ":", second_part) AS login_duration
    -> FROM login_dur;

SELECT * FROM login_dur_trunc;
+---------+----------------+
| user_id | login_duration |
+---------+----------------+
|       1 | 8:14:46        |
|       2 | 4:44:33        |
|       3 | 18:4:9         |
|       4 | 13:3:51        |
|       5 | 0:24:9         |
+---------+----------------+

Here, the answer given by @Adi won't work always as pointed out by @CaiusJard.