Changing Values Based on Dates

WebmasterJoe

Anyone know how I can change values of my database once a certain date has passed? I'd like to be able to 'set removed=1 where a certain date has passed'. I can use a cronjob to run the script nightly, but I'm not sure how the SQL would look for a script like this one.

Thanks

jeremuck

You would need to use UPDATE syntax.
Documentation is at mysql site.

________

If your webhotel allows Cron Jobs you can make it open a php script every day - and make the script search your DB for the dates that is to old and update the field in your table.

For more information about how to update or delete a row in mysql, go to this link:
http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/phpmysql/7

WebmasterJoe

Yeah, I know how to perform an 'update' query and I plan to use a cronjob, but I suck at using dates 😉 I just need to do something like:

UPDATE table_name
SET column_name = expression
WHERE date is earlier than currentdate

Any ideas?

jeremuck

Actually, it all depends on how you stored your dates. Did you store your dates as UNIX epoch timestamp? MySQL timestamp? ISO format?

Does it look like dd/mm/yyyy ? mm/dd/yyyy?
305893987123?

Generally, dates that occur later, or in the future are greater than dates than occured earlier or in the past.

So "yesterday is less than today" is a true statement.
"Tomorrow is greater than today" is a true statement.
This is the language reference related to dates:
http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/Date_and_time_types.html

Personally, I usually store the UNIX timestamp in an INT field. I'll take care of all the translation myself, thankyouverymuch. This lets me compare it without worries and very easily.