Has date passed?

[Shit4Brains]

$expires_on = "04/02/2004";

If ( date("d/m/Y") == $expires_on ) {

$sql = "UPDATE tbl_seekers SET payment_ok='0' WHERE user_id=$user_id";	

$result = mysql_query( $sql ) or die ( 'Unable to execute query.' );  

$expires_on = "<font color='red'><b>$expires_on</font> - RENEW TODAY!</b>";

$renew = "1";

}

heres my code. i cant seem to compare the 2 dates correctly. if the expire date has passed or is today, i want the if statement to execute. how do i do it?

i've tried > but that dont work

[superwormy]

Change your dates to times in seconds ( www.php.net/strtotime ) and compare them that way. Comparing strings like you're doing just ain't gonna work.

The only other way you can compare dates it if they're stored in a format like this: 2004-02-04 ( which is Feburary 4th, 2004 )

[devinemke]

just giving an example of superwormy's suggestion:

$expires_on = '04/02/2004';

if (time () >= strtotime ($expires_on))
{
echo 'expired';
}

else
{
echo 'not yet expired';
}

[Weedpacket]

Why not do that in the query?

UPDATE ..... WHERE user_id ... AND NOW()>='$expires_on'

Then see if anything happened with mysql_affected_row.

[Weedpacket]

Originally posted by devinemke
just giving an example of superwormy's suggestion:

$expires_on = '04/02/2004';

if (time () >= strtotime ($expires_on))
{
echo 'expired';
}

else
{
echo 'not yet expired';
}

[/B]

Won't work: strtotime() doesn't recognise ambiguous date formats like that (it can't tell if it's American or otherwise.)

That's why the international standard is YYYY-MM-DD: it's unambiguous and can dates can be compared as strings.

[devinemke]

Won't work: strtotime() doesn't recognise ambiguous date formats like that

yes, strtotime() does recognise dates in that format:

$timestamp = strtotime ('04/02/2004');
echo date ('m/d/Y', $timestamp); // outputs 04/02/2004