Why is my date comparison function throwing errors?

Question

I have an if statement that will compare the input date with the system date.

$Date > date('m/d/Y')

The problem is that when I input 12/16/2012 it will throw an error that the date is greater than the date today. I don’t know what the problem in my if statement is. I have a try and catch inside that function that will catch any InputException.

You're comparing strings, not dates – John Conde Dec 15 '14 at 12:42 — John Conde, Dec 15 '14 at 12:42
Try using strtotime when comparing the dates – Syed Qarib Dec 15 '14 at 12:44 — Syed Qarib, Dec 15 '14 at 12:44
`date_diff( date_create($Date), time());` – adeneo Dec 15 '14 at 12:45 — adeneo, Dec 15 '14 at 12:45

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 15 '14 at 12:44

0

Comparing strings will not give you the desired output. You could use strtotime to compare the dates like this: strtotime($date) > date('m/d/Y',time())

answered Dec 15 '14 at 12:44

Aditya

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You are comparing numbers (`strtotime()`) with strings (`date()`). – axiac Dec 15 '14 at 12:50

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 15 '14 at 12:45

0

strtotime($date) > strtotime(date('m/d/Y'));

answered Dec 15 '14 at 12:45

I'm Geeker

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Why format the current time using `date()` then parse the formatted string using `strtotime()`? – axiac Dec 15 '14 at 12:46

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 15 '14 at 12:49

Use strtotime() to parse the value you store in $Date to get a timestamp (i.e. the number of seconds passes since Jan 1, 1970). Then you compare it against the current timestamp, retrieved using the function time()

if (strototime($Date) > time()) {
    echo($Date.' is in the future.');
} else {
    echo($Date.' is in the past.');
}

Why is my date comparison function throwing errors?

3 Answers3