how to compare between two dates

davidklonski

I have two date strings thata were generated using:

$date1= date("Y-m-d");
$date2= date("Y-m-d");

Assuming that I am know looking at $date1 & $date2, how can I compare between them?
That is:
return >0 if $date1 comes before $date2
return <0 if $date1 comes after $date2
return 0 if $date1 is exactly the same date as $date2

thanks in advance

kellog

I didn't see any fucntion that does this for you, so unless someone know's of an easier way to do this, you could explode() both dates, then compare the parts. If year1 is < or > year2, then you'd instantly know which date was older. If they are =, then compare the months in the same way, etc.

TheDefender

First of all, your code would always produce the exact same value for date1 and date2.

Can you change it so the date uses this:

$date1 = date("U");

instead?

Then you could use the UNIX timestamps to compare. Much easier to do.....

IF($date1>$date2):
 echo "Bigger";

ELSEIF($date1<$date2):
 echo "Smaller";

ELSE:
 echo "Equal";

ENDIF;

Weedpacket

Or, if the format really is that returned by date('Y-m-d') you could just go

if($date1>$date2):
    echo "Later";
elseif($date1<$date2)
    echo "Before";
else
    echo "Equal";

No, really. Think about it.

$date1 = date('Y-m-d', strtotime('last week'));
$date2 = date('Y-m-d', strtotime('next year'));
echo $date1.' '.$date2.': Date 1 is ';
echo ($date1>$date2)
     ? "later"
     : ($date1<$date2)
       ? "earlier"
       : "equal";

That's one reason the format is ISO standard.