How can I compare two dates in PHP?

user_451725 0
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How can I compare two dates in PHP?

The date is stored in the database in the following format

2011-10-2

If I wanted to compare today's date against the date in the database to see which one is greater, how would I do it?

I tried this,

$today = date("Y-m-d");
$expire = $row->expireDate //from db

if($today < $expireDate) { //do something; }

but it doesn't really work that way. What's another way of doing it?

compare date php
13 Answers

Here's my spin on how to get the difference in days between two dates with PHP. Note the use of '!' in the format to discard the time part of the dates, thanks to info from DateTime createFromFormat without time.

$today = DateTime::createFromFormat('!Y-m-d', date('Y-m-d'));
$wanted = DateTime::createFromFormat('!d-m-Y', $row["WANTED_DELIVERY_DATE"]);
$diff = $today->diff($wanted);
$days = $diff->days;
if (($diff->invert) != 0) $days = -1 * $days;
$overdue = (($days < 0) ? true : false);
print "<!-- (".(($days > 0) ? '+' : '').($days).") -->\n";
user_9932510

If you want a date ($date) to get expired in some interval for example a token expiration date when performing a password reset, here's how you can do:

$date = $row->expireDate;

$date->add(new DateInterval('PT24H')); // adds 24 hours

$now = new \DateTime();

if($now < $date) { /* expired after 24 hours */ }

But in your case you could do the comparison just as the following:

$today = new DateTime('Y-m-d');

$date = $row->expireDate;

if($today < $date) { /* do something */ }
user_92693440

This works because of PHP's string comparison logic. Simply you can check...

if ($startdate < $date) {// do something} 
if ($startdate > $date) {// do something}

Both dates must be in the same format. Digits need to be zero-padded to the left and ordered from most significant to least significant. Y-m-d and Y-m-d H:i:s satisfy these conditions.

user_69154120

first of all, try to give the format you want to the current date time of your server:

  1. Obtain current date time

    $current_date = getdate();

  2. Separate date and time to manage them as you wish:

$current_date_only = $current_date[year].'-'.$current_date[mon].'-'.$current_date[mday]; $current_time_only = $current_date['hours'].':'.$current_date['minutes'].':'.$current_date['seconds'];

  1. Compare it depending if you are using donly date or datetime in your DB:

    $today = $current_date_only.' '.$current_time_only;

    or

    $today = $current_date_only;

    if($today < $expireDate)

hope it helps

user_97259240
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