date comparison in php

[svihas]

In PHP script how can I do date comparison?

I have 2 dates
$date1 = '2/2/00';
$date2 = '3-May-00';
I could change them to same format. then I want to check which is more?

Thanks
Satya

[brainiac]

Quote: "strtotime -- Parse about any english textual datetime description into a UNIX timestamp."

<?php
$unixdate1 = strtotime($date1);
$unixdate2 = strtotime($date2);
if ($unixdate1 > $unxidate2) {
echo "$date1 was after $date2 (bigger)";
}
elseif ($unixdate1 < $unxidate2) {
echo "$date1 was before $date2 (smaller)";
}
elseif ($unixdate1 == $unxidate2) {
echo "$date1 are the same as $date2 (smaller)";
}
?>

[Anon]

You can turn a date/time back into a unix timestamp:

http://www.phpbuilder.org/manual/function.mktime.php

Then compare the timestamps. if you are comparing dates only, use the same time for each date so comparisons are made on multiples of 24 hours.
There are 3600 seconds in an hour, 86400 in a day...

[svihas]

Thanks
- Satya

[Anon]

Note:
$unxidate2 in the comparisons should actually read $unixdate2.