Code Explanation

[Radon3k]

I found some code and I was hoping someone could better explain to me why it was written this way. I know what the code is doing (obviously from the variable names) but I'm confused as to some of the way it was written.

$month = ($_GET['month'] == "" ? date("m") : $_GET['month']);
$year = ($_GET['year'] == "" ? date("Y") : $_GET['year']);

This is the beginning of a script so there are no links (yet). Why is the month variable inside of the _$GET[]? What does the ? mean and why is there a colon in the middle?

$num_days_in_month = date("t",mktime(12,0,0,$month,1,$year));
$monthname = date("F",mktime(12,0,0,$month,1,$year));

In this, I don't understand why the hour started with 12.

Is there any way that might be easier to write the above code?

Thanks for any help you all can provide. 🙂

[Installer]

Comparison Operators
Predefined Variables
date()

The hour starts with 12 to set the time in the middle of the day to avoid possible collision with daylight time changes.

[elementaluk]

are you tryin to recreate someone elses script? tut-tut you shouldn't be doing that.

Anyway here ya go:
conditional-expression ? true-value : false-value

basically a way of doing an IF statement.

$GET is what is sent by the browser e.g. script.php?month=jan
so guess what $GET['month'] is?

check MKTIME() in the PHP manual.

easier way to write it:

if($_GET['month'] == ""){
$month = date("m");
}elseif(!empty($_GET['month'])){
$month = $_GET['month'];
}
//same for year

[EDIT]
shit, wrong way round...