[RESOLVED] Date Function Problems

[kebbelj]

I created a class named Date_Helper.class.php that would handle all my date tasks for me. My very first function was supposed to generate a list of dates in MySQL format for all the weekdays between a start date and an end date. All I get is 1969-12-31, which I assume is the base date for PHP. I've (1) pulled public off the function descriptor so it will run outside the class and (2) commented out the looping part of the function so you won't get stuck running an infinite loop generated by the wrong date data.

Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong with mktime or date?

	function generateList_weekdays ( $month1, $date1, $year1, $month2, $date2, $year2 )
	{

	$rawCurrentDate = mktime( 0, 0, 0, $month1, $date1, $year1 );
	$sqlCurrentDate = date( "Y m j", $rawCurrentDate );		
	echo "Start Date: ".$sqlCurrentDate."<br />";

	$rawEndDate = mktime( 0, 0, 0, $month2, $date2, $year2 );
	$endDate = date( "Y-m-j", $rawEndDate );
	echo "End Date: ".$endDate."<br />";

	/*
	$theDate = $date1;
	$dateList = array();

	while ( $sqlCurrentDate != $endDate )
	{
		$currentDate = mktime(0, 0, 0, $month1, $theDate++ ,$year1);
		$dow = date('N', $currentDate);
		if ( $dow < 6 )
		{
			$thisDay =  date( "Y-M-j", $currentDate );
			echo $thisDay."<br />";
			$dateList[] = $thisDay;
		}
	}
	*/

	return $dateList;		
}

generateList_weekdays ( 3, 12, 2008, 5, 31, 2008 )

[NogDog]

One thing I see is an inconsistency in the date format strings. Before the loop starts you use the format "Y-m-j", but within the while loop you use "Y-M-j". (PS: it might be more consistent to use "Y-m-d", so that you get "2008-03-01" instead of "2008-03-1".)

[kebbelj]

I will fix the inconsistency you noticed between the Y-m-d and Y-m-j, but it's kind of a moot point till I get the date initialization problem solved. As long as I keep getting 1969-12-31 for both $sqlCurrentDate and $endDate, it's pointless to run the loop.

[NogDog]

My brain didn't feel like wrapping itself around your code, so I wrote this function up. Hope it at least gives you some ideas:

<?php
function generateList_weekdays ( $month1, $date1, $year1, $month2, $date2, $year2 )
{
   $dateList = array();
   $format = 'Y-m-d';
   $start = mktime(0, 0, 0, $month1, $date1, $year1);
   $end = mktime(0, 0, 0, $month2, $date2, $year2);
   if($start > $end)
   {
      user_error(__FUNCTION__."(): date 1 greater than date 2");
      return $dateList; // change to return false if you prefer
   }
   while($start <= $end)
   {
      $dateList[] = date($format, $start);
      $start = strtotime('+1 day', $start);
   }
   return $dateList;
}
//-----TEST-----//
$result = generateList_weekdays ( 3, 12, 2008, 5, 31, 2008 );
echo "<pre>".print_r($result,1)."</pre>";

[kebbelj]

When I plugged your code into the class, I got the same 1969-12-31. I thought it was some obscure date issue till I ... uh ... checked the line of code calling the function (not the same line that I posted). I had the arguments in the wrong order, which resulted in generating a non-existent date. I apologize for your time, but (1) your code did help me pinpoint my real problem and (2) I picked up a slick new trick from your code.

$format = 'Y-m-d';
$dateList[] = date($format, $start);

[NogDog]

Might be a good idea to use the [man]checkdate/man function to test each set of inputs to help trap such errors.

Glad you got it figured out, anyway.