PHP date format for comparing date and time?

Question

I am wondering what would be the best date and time format that php can compare later to other dates?

I am trying to do 3 things. Get the date and time, Add 24 hours to the date and time, and later compare that number to the current date and time to verify t has not been 24 hours.

//GET CURRENT DATE AND TIME
$date = date('m/d/Y h:i:s a', time());
//ADD 24 HOURS
$end_date = $date + 24;

//LATER COMPARE THE CURRENT DATE AND TIME TO MY END_DATE
if (date('m/d/Y h:i:s a', time()) > $end_date){
ehco "YOU ARE PAST YOUR TIME";
}else{
echo "still time left";
}

Marcx · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-02 22:50:26Z

1

// now + 1 day (24h)
$end_date = strtotime("+1 day");


    //LATER COMPARE THE CURRENT DATE AND TIME TO MY END_DATE
    if (strtotime("now") > $end_date){
    ehco "YOU ARE PAST YOUR TIME";
    }else{
    echo "still time left";
    }

you can see the reference strtotime

If you need to print the value in a readable format you can use the function DATE

date("d-m-Y h:i:s",$end_date);

answered Nov 2, 2011 at 22:50

Marcx

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Comments

Mārtiņš Briedis · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-02 22:47:02Z

1

Why not parse the time in to a timestamp, then just compare. There is a magical function called strtotime()

answered Nov 2, 2011 at 22:47

Mārtiņš Briedis

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Yes Barry · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-02 22:55:45Z

1

I would recommend using unix timestamps and you can add 24 hours like so:

$date = time();
$endDate = mktime(0, 0, 0, date('m'), date('d') + 1, date('Y'));
//LATER COMPARE THE CURRENT DATE AND TIME TO MY END_DATE
if ($date > $endDate) {
    ehco "YOU ARE PAST YOUR TIME";
} else {
    echo "still time left";
}

By using timestamps it's just a matter of comparing two integers to see which one is greater than the other.

edited Nov 2, 2011 at 22:55

answered Nov 2, 2011 at 22:47

Yes Barry

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troelskn · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-02 22:49:57Z

0

If you use ISO standard date time, they will sort alphabetically. E.g.:

date("Y-m-d H:i:s", $timestamp);

answered Nov 2, 2011 at 22:49

troelskn

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