Checking Dates

[obrienkev]

Hi all,

I have two textfields for entering dates - a start date and an end date.

The end date cannot be a date earlier than the start date.

Here's my check...

if($date_start > $date_end)
{
        $error_message['date_error'] = 'Date End cannot be earlier than Date Begin';	 
}

However, if the day of the end date is less than the day of the start date then the above check takes effect.

Why is this?

Start Date: 29/06/2006

End Date: 01/07/2006

Thanks.

[qadeer_ahmad]

Hi,
First you need to convert date in time and for converting into time you need to explode it

$stdate="29/06/2006";
$exp_stdate=explode("/",$stdate);
$stday=$exp_stdate[0];
$stmonth=$exp_stdate[1];
$styear=$exp_stdate[2];
$newstdate  = mktime(0, 0, 0, $stmonth,  $stday, $styear);

apply same this method to end date and then these new dates use for if conditions

Hope it will help you.

[obrienkev]

Hi guys,

Tried srtotime but didnt work properly - if start date is 30th June and End Date is 01 July it sees the 30th June as later than 1st July...

		 // Check Start Date Before End Date
		 function datesOK($date_start, $date_end)
		 {
        $date_start = strtotime($date_start);
    		$date_end = strtotime($date_end);
    		return ( $date_end > $date_start ) ? true : false;
     }
		 if (datesOK($date_start, $date_end))
		 {
     // OK
		 } else 
		 {
        $error_message['date_error'] = 'End Date cannot be earlier than Start Date';
     }

[pete_bisby]

Have a look at the following URL and what date formats strtotime() can accept - it looks like dd/mm/yyyy isn't a format it likes: http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/html_node/tar_109.html

Also, it maybe assuming that 01/07/2006 is 7th January, and not 1st July. Separate the day, month and year as qadeer_ahmad has advised, and you should be OK.

[MarkR]

Do not use strtotime() for anything as it is too flexible and won't interpret things (necessarily correctly).

Use the appropriate date format for your region (e.g. dd/mm/yyyy here in the UK) and use that throughout the entire application.

Create a pair of functions to convert to/from that format to timestamps. Create a second pair of functions to convert to/from database date/time format and timestamps. Makes sure these functions have known timezone behaviour and are consistent (if necessary make GMT versions of some them too).

Then you can just convert both dates into timestamps and compare them (as they're now integers).

PHP < 5 does not handle dates before 1970 correctly (e.g. negative timestamps) - which is problematic for a (non-teens only) networking site's date of birth field.

But PHP 5.1 handles it fine for me for the date range I'm interested in.

Mark

[qadeer_ahmad]

Hi,
Just use my above defined code and if you make it a function then it will better to you and use any where.

function DateInSec($stdate)
{
  $exp_stdate=explode("/",$stdate); 
  $stday=$exp_stdate[0]; 
  $stmonth=$exp_stdate[1]; 
  $styear=$exp_stdate[2]; 
  $newstdate  = mktime(0, 0, 0, $stmonth,  $stday, $styear); 
  return $newstdate;
}

Now use this method in your script

$date_start1 ="25/5/2006";
$date_end1 ="27/5/2006";

$date_start =DateInSec($date_start1);
$date_end =DateInSec($date_end1 );
if($date_start > $date_end) 
{ 
        $error_message['date_error'] = 'Date End cannot be earlier than Date Begin';     

}