mysql timestamp difference in timestamp

Question

I want to get the difference between timestamps, in timestamp format, using only MySQL and not using a programming language. Also not in seconds, hours, date, months or years. as an example.

timestamp1->2012-05-21 15:31:11
timestamp2->2012-05-21 15:32:11

I want to get the result in timestamp format.

So the result should be

result->0000-00-00 00:01:00

Answer 1

Use MySQL's TIMEDIFF() function:

TIMEDIFF() returns expr1 – expr2 expressed as a time value. expr1 and expr2 are time or date-and-time expressions, but both must be of the same type.

The result returned by TIMEDIFF() is limited to the range allowed for TIME values. Alternatively, you can use either of the functions TIMESTAMPDIFF() and UNIX_TIMESTAMP(), both of which return integers.

mysql> SELECT TIMEDIFF('2000:01:01 00:00:00',
    ->                 '2000:01:01 00:00:00.000001');
        -> '-00:00:00.000001'
mysql> SELECT TIMEDIFF('2008-12-31 23:59:59.000001',
    ->                 '2008-12-30 01:01:01.000002');
        -> '46:58:57.999999'