Days between two dates - american format?

[hedgehead]

Hi, Ive seen a previous thread that has a script that can count
the days between a date...

function days_between($date1, $date2) {
$date1 = strtotime($date1);
$date2 = strtotime($date2);
return ceil(abs($date1 - $date2) / 86400 + 1);

}

echo days_between('2005-01-02', '2005-05-05');

This works perfectly, but I have american dates all stored within
my mysql db, e.g. Days between 06-06-2005 and 06-07-2005 is
1. But when I use the script above it is reading is as a change in
month, and therefore outputting 31 as the result...
could any1 help me?
thanks in advance

[leatherback]

Did you store your dates in a textfield then?

Otherwise it should not be a problem, I think.

If it is date, you could probably use a date_format() for re-ordering, or convert to unix timestamp.

Otherwise.. If it is a textfield.. I would createa new field, and make this of timestamp or date, and re-insert all the dates there.

J.

[hedgehead]

Hey, thanks for that, I tried it, but I also found that
mktime works for the american format as opposed to
the totime one.

thanks

[Installer]

leatherback's last suggestion is the best way to go. Store your data in the form that gives you the most flexibility; then you can have your query extract the data in a form already usable, rather than having to manipulate it later.

Otherwise (and sub-optimally) you could have your function alter the date input:

function days_between($date1, $date2) 
{ 
    $date1 = str_replace('-', '/', $date1);
    $date2 = str_replace('-', '/', $date2);
    $date1 = strtotime($date1); 
    $date2 = strtotime($date2); 
    return ceil(abs($date1 - $date2) / 86400 + 1); 
}

BTW, your function doesn't exactly do what you say; it would better be called "days_between_inclusive()", since, for example, it will return 2 for 2005-06-06 and 2005-06-07.