Hi Sundog,
Can help you with dates (but no, if you want that kind you'll definitely not be
wanting my advice...)
- Original Message -
I am trying to determine if todays date ($today) is within a week
($startcheck) of a given date ($dob). This is what I have so far.
$todaydate = (date(Y-d-m));
$today = strtotime($todaydate);
// $today prior to strtotime = 2001-10-11
$startcheck = strtotime(2001-08-11);
$dob = strtotime(2001-15-11);
//$today is CLEARLY between the two dates I'm testing with but no is
always returned.
if($today = $dob $startcheck = $today) {
print yes;
}
else {
print no;
}
Here are the values assigned to the vars, why is $today so much smaller
than $startcheck and $dob?
1002783600 = today
1005452940 = startcheck
1005451980 = dob
win32 php4
Let's start with perceptions because there's a couple here that have the potential
to hold you on the
side-benches whilst everyone else has a date and has made it to the dance floor...
The manual (http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.strtotime.php) says, strtotime --
Parse about any english
[sic] textual datetime description into a UNIX timestamp. The key word is any and
the fact that it is not
all.
//$today is CLEARLY between the two dates I'm testing with but no is
always returned.
Er, no - it is not clear! A quick geography/horology lesson: the rest of the world
either do not use the same
date system or do not express the Gregorian calendar the way Americans do. Today no
one has a problem with a
date written as 11/11/2001, but when 10/11/2001 is written down, does it mean
yesterday (10-Nov-2001) or one
month back (11-Oct-2001)? In America, the two formats are known as American
(MM/DD/CCYY) and European
(DD/MM/CCYY) format.
Moving to the format used in the code above (2001). A format of this nature is
widely used because it
facilitates sorting/comparisons - ah but watch those perceptions, if you were
comparing/sorting/performing
arithmetic on two dates, one in Oct and one in Nov, then the convention will have to
be CCYYMMDD = century,
year, month, then day! BTW you will see the logical flow of this ever decreasing
period/increasing precision,
and how it can be kept going into CCYYMMDDHHMMSS and thereafter depending upon your
needs, time base/available
utility functions, etc!
The function is called 'string to time'. In other words, a series of alphanumeric
characters are passed, and a
date-time is returned (in the form of a UNIX timestamp). Given that there are many
perceptions involved in
interpreting what the incoming string of digits means, some dates cannot be
unambiguously expressed/resolved (eg
yesterday's date).
It's always a good idea to add some 'debug echoes' to new code, just to be sure that
your perceptions agree with
the computer's implacable logic - I added to your code:
echo Todaydate=$todaydate~;
echo brToday=$today~ Startcheck=$startcheck~ DoB=$dob~;
echo br.
Today=.date(Y-M-d,$today).
~ Startcheck=.date(Y-M-d,$startcheck).
~ DoB=.date(Y-M-d,$dob).~;
and this was returned:
Todaydate=2001-11-11~
Today=1005436800~ Startcheck=1005510600~ DoB=1005509700~
Today=2001-Nov-11~ Startcheck=2001-Nov-11~ DoB=2001-Nov-11~no
The last no is the original output, but before that you can see 'why' - if the date
values/definitions are
modified, the code works exactly as (I perceive, is) required.
Regards,
=dn
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