Surpassing MySQL's TIME value limit of 838:59:59 - mysql

Question

The title might be a bit confusing so allow me to explain. I'm using a table to record my work logs. Every day I'll create an entry stating from what time to what time I have worked and I'll add a comment describing what I did.
I then use a query to compare the timestamps to figure out exactly how many hours and minutes I have worked that day. Additionally, I use a query to calculate the sum of hours and minutes I have worked the entire year. That's where I'm running into a problem. My query is as follows.
SELECT TIME_FORMAT(SEC_TO_TIME(SUM(TIME_TO_SEC(TIMEDIFF(entry_end_time, entry_start_time)))), '%H:%i')
AS total FROM entry
WHERE entry_date BETWEEN '2012-01-01' AND '2012-12-31' AND user_id = 3
By default, MySQL TIME fields allow a time range of '-838:59:59' to '838:59:59'. I have currently logged more than 900 hours of work this year though, and I want the result of my query to reflect this. Instead, the result is 838:59:59, which makes sense because that is the limit.
Is there any way around this so the result of the query can go beyond 839 hours, or would I have to use something like PHP to go over the entire table and add it all up? I kind of want to avoid that if possible.

Answer 1

I'd just retrieve the total number of seconds worked, and convert to hours/minutes as required in the presentation layer of my application (it is, after all, a simple case of division by 60):
<?
$dbh = new PDO("mysql:dbname=$dbname", $username, $password);
$dbh->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES, FALSE);
$qry = $dbh->prepare('
SELECT SUM(TIME_TO_SEC(entry_end_time)-TIME_TO_SEC(entry_start_time))
FROM entry
WHERE entry_date BETWEEN :start_date AND :end_date
AND user_id = :user_id
');
$qry->execute([
':start_date' => '2012-01-01',
':end_date' => '2012-12-31',
':user_id' => 3
]);
list ($totalMins, $remngSecs) = gmp_div_qr($qry->fetchColumn(), 60);
list ($totalHour, $remngMins) = gmp_div_qr($totalMins, 60);
echo "Worked a total of $totalHour:$remngMins:$remngSecs.";
?>

Answer 2

Have a look at timestampdiff which doesn't have the TIME limitation.
I.e. something like (untested):
SELECT CONCAT(
TIMESTAMPDIFF(HOURS, entry_end_time, entry_start_time),
":",
MOD(TIMESTAMPDIFF(MINUTES, entry_end_time, entry_start_time),60)
)
AS total FROM entry
WHERE entry_date BETWEEN '2012-01-01' AND '2012-12-31' AND user_id = 3
The concats not ideal, I'm sure there will be a more elegant solution.

Answer 3

Some simple math can do the trick,I hardcoded a random number of seconds(10000000)
SELECT CONCAT(FLOOR(10000000/3600),':',FLOOR((10000000%3600)/60),':',(10000000%3600)%60)
Fiddle
2777:46:40

Answer 4

Counting the days separately is enough.
Here's the concatenation I used.
I illustrated with a fully copy/pastable example to ease the understanding of the limit we hit (TIME format's max value)
A free unicorn is bundled to simplify comma management
SELECT 'pq7~' AS unicorn
#######################
## Expected result ##
#######################
## Total, formatted as days:hh:mm:ss ##
,CONCAT(
FLOOR(TIMESTAMPDIFF(SECOND, '2017-01-01 09:17:45', '2017-03-07 17:06:24') / 86400)
, ':'
, SEC_TO_TIME(TIMESTAMPDIFF(SECOND, '2017-01-01 09:17:45', '2017-03-07 17:06:24') % 86400)
) AS Real_expected_result
#########################
## Calculation details ##
#########################
## Extracted days from diff ##
,FLOOR(TIMESTAMPDIFF(SECOND, '2017-01-01 09:17:45', '2017-03-07 17:06:24') / 86400) AS Real_days
## Extracted Hours/minutes/seconds from diff ##
,SEC_TO_TIME(TIMESTAMPDIFF(SECOND, '2017-01-01 09:17:45', '2017-03-07 17:06:24') % 86400) AS Real_hours_minutes_seconds
###################################
## Demo of wrong values returned ##
###################################
,TIMESTAMPDIFF(SECOND, '2017-01-01 09:17:45', '2017-03-07 17:06:24') AS Real_seconds_diff
## WRONG value returned. 5.64M is truncated to 3.02 ! ##
,TIME_TO_SEC(SEC_TO_TIME(5644119)) AS WRONG_result
## Result is effectively limited to 838h59m59s ##
,SEC_TO_TIME(TIMESTAMPDIFF(SECOND, '2017-01-01 09:17:45', '2017-03-07 17:06:24')) AS Limit_hit
## Lights on said limit ##
,SEC_TO_TIME( 3020398) AS Limit_value_check1
,SEC_TO_TIME( 3020400) AS Limit_value_check2

Answer 5

Take a look at these functions. Credits:( https://gist.github.com/NaWer/8333736 )
DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS BIG_SEC_TO_TIME;
DELIMITER $$
CREATE FUNCTION BIG_SEC_TO_TIME(SECS BIGINT)
RETURNS TEXT
READS SQL DATA
DETERMINISTIC
BEGIN
DECLARE HEURES TEXT;
DECLARE MINUTES CHAR(5);
DECLARE SECONDES CHAR(5);
IF (SECS IS NULL) THEN RETURN NULL; END IF;
SET HEURES = FLOOR(SECS / 3600);
SET MINUTES = FLOOR((SECS - (HEURES*3600)) / 60);
SET SECONDES = MOD(SECS, 60);
IF MINUTES < 10 THEN SET MINUTES = CONCAT( "0", MINUTES); END IF;
IF SECONDES < 10 THEN SET SECONDES = CONCAT( "0", SECONDES); END IF;
RETURN CONCAT(HEURES, ":", MINUTES, ":", SECONDES);
END;
$$
DELIMITER ;
DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS BIG_TIME_TO_SEC;
DELIMITER $$
CREATE FUNCTION BIG_TIME_TO_SEC(TIME TEXT)
RETURNS BIGINT
DETERMINISTIC
READS SQL DATA
BEGIN
DECLARE HEURES TEXT;
DECLARE MINUTES CHAR(5);
DECLARE SECONDES CHAR(5);
IF (TIME IS NULL) THEN RETURN NULL; END IF;
SET HEURES = SUBSTRING_INDEX(TIME, ":", 1);
SET MINUTES = SUBSTRING(TIME FROM -5 FOR 2);
SET SECONDES = SUBSTRING(TIME FROM -2 FOR 2);
RETURN CAST(HEURES AS UNSIGNED INTEGER)*3600 + CAST(MINUTES AS UNSIGNED INTEGER)*60 + CAST(SECONDES AS UNSIGNED INTEGER);
END;
$$
DELIMITER ;

Answer 6

select concat(truncate(sum(time_to_sec(TIMEDIFF(hora_fim, hora_ini)))/3600,0), ':',
TIME_FORMAT(sec_to_time(sum(time_to_sec(TIMEDIFF(hora_fim, hora_ini))) - truncate(sum(time_to_sec(TIMEDIFF(hora_fim, hora_ini)))/3600,0)*3600), '%i:%s'))
as hms from tb_XXXXXX

Answer 7

First calculating the days difference then multiply it with 24*60*60 to convert it into seconds then add to it time_to_sec value result
DATEDIFF(start_date,end_date)*24*60*60 + TIME_TO_SEC(TIMEDIFF(TIME(start_date),TIME(end_date)))
AS sec_diff
For more details check codebucket- Surpassing time_to_sec() function maximum limit