Setting time and date functions

[Anon]

Hello,

I am trying to set a deadline (date & time) for a basic football tipping competition. When the deadline arrives we want to prohibit people from entering this competition.

At the moment we are using the following code for date:
$date=date("H:i, jsF");

The server automatically inserts the correct date, however how do we compare the server date to our deadline in order to invoke a command?

Any thoughts appreciated.
Mark

[offnordberg]

What you are using for the date/time is good for people to read, but not very good for making comparisons in code. There is a function I've heard about (but never used) that converts a date() to the corresponding number of seconds that have passed since 01-01-1970 just for date calculations - I am sure you can find it in the manual under "Date and Time functions." Then I would just set up some logic like this (assuming the name of the function I am thinking of is "function"):

<pre>
<?php
$deadline = function(deadline_date); //convert the deadline date to # of seconds since 1-1-70
$current_time = function(date()); //convert current time using same system
if ($deadline > $current time) {
tipping code
} else {
echo "Sorry, the deadline has passed.";
}
</pre>