PHP | Time calculation

Question

I am creating a script for a client of mine, that has a charge of "x" from 5:00 the morning until 24:00 the night. Then from 12:00 to 5:00 the morning, the charge is "y".

Let's say, the charges are the following:

05:00 to 24:00 -> 1.00 $
24:00 to 05:00 -> 2.00 $

and a client buy a service at 23:00. The purchased service require two hours to be completed, so I like to change the charge for the expensive period like that:

The service is total 2 Hours long, and it starts at 23:00, so the charge must be as following:

23:00 to 24:00 = 1 Hour x 1.00 $
24:00 to 01:00 = 1 Hour x 2.00 $

Total : 3.00 $

Also the clients are able to set the start time manualy of the service manualy, at the time of purchase.

The question is, how can I calculate the time in the low cost period and the time in the expensive time period ?

Any idea will be highly appreciated :)

PN: Also must be considered the case that a client get a service at 23:00 and the service will finish at the 06:00. That means that the client must be charged for 2 hours in low cost and 5 hours in high rate.

Kind regards Merianos Nikos

Take a look at PHP's date() function

Jeffrey
– Jeffrey

2013-01-02 17:53:10 +00:00
Commented Jan 2, 2013 at 17:53 — Jeffrey
– Jeffrey, Commented Jan 2, 2013 at 17:53

Halcyon · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-02 18:12:13Z

3

You just need to know about time boundaries. I don't think you even need date, other than perhaps getting the current server-time.

You need to look at the boundaries of the charge slots.

This seems to work:

function get_charge($starttime, $proctime) {

    $slots = array(
        array(
            "begin" => 5,
            "end" => 24,    // any number larger than 23 will do
            "charge" => 1
        ),
        array(
            "begin" => 0, // 0 is 24, there will never be 24 (like on a clock)
            "end" => 5,
            "charge" => 2
        )
    ); // make sure you have no overlapping slots, and no missing slots either

    $charge = 0;
    for ($i = 0; $i < $proctime; $i += 1) { // get the charge for each hour
        $time = ($starttime + $i) % 24; // modulo 24 here so we go from 0 to 23
        foreach($slots as $slot) {
            if ($slot["begin"] <= $time && $time < $slot["end"]) {
                $charge += $slot["charge"];
            }
        }
    }

    return $charge;
}

var_dump(get_charge(23, 2)); // 3
var_dump(get_charge(7, 2)); // 2
var_dump(get_charge(1, 3)); // 6
var_dump(get_charge(23, 50)); // 50 hour job, because we can

edited Jan 2, 2013 at 18:12

answered Jan 2, 2013 at 18:06

Halcyon

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3 Comments

kevingreen Over a year ago

This might be tough if they want more than 2 charge rates. If it's supposed to be user editable anyway.

Halcyon Over a year ago

The clients can't change the charge slots I would assume. Adding more charge slots should be easy enough, just make sure they don't overlap or leave a gap. You could even modify it to work with more granular timeslots: half hours, minutes or even seconds. The concept remains the same, the total charge is the combined charge for each 'step'.

kevingreen Over a year ago

I read Also the clients are able to set the start time manualy of the service manualy, at the time of purchase. so I assumed that they could create/update time slots. I think I just skimmed too fast. I do like your approach however.

Jeffrey · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-02 18:03:55Z

3

Try something like this:

<?php

$currentHour = date('G'); //gets the Hour of the day 24hour format 0-23
$currentMin = date('i'); //gets the minute
if ($currentHour > 5 && $currentHour < 23) {
    //code to charge X
}
//repeat for other times
//Probably use a external DB or file to track the times/rates

?>

edited Jan 2, 2013 at 18:03

Jeffrey

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answered Jan 2, 2013 at 17:56

kevingreen

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3 Comments

KodeFor.Me Over a year ago

Thanks @kevingreen. I already using a database table to track the rates for the time periods :)

kevingreen Over a year ago

yeah, that code is pretty basic, but I think you get the gist ? You can also do the work in SQL too, have it look up records for rate in between time periods too. SELECT rate FROM rates WHERE time>=NOW() AND time<=NOW()

kevingreen Over a year ago

Eh, actually there's a little more involved in the SQL, but that's the idea.

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