storing dob into database

[runnerjp]

i have got the code as follows for a user to select their date of birth

 

<?php  
   $months = array (1 => 'January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June','July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December');
$weekday = array('Sunday','Monday','Tuesday','Wednesday','Thursday','Friday','Saturday');
$days = range (1, 31);
$years = range (1910, 2015);

//**********************************************

echo "Day: <select name='day'>";
foreach ($days as $value) {
   echo '<option value="'.$value.'">'.$value.'</option>\n';
} echo '</select>';

echo "Month: <select name='month'>";
foreach ($months as $value) {
   echo '<option value="'.$value.'">'.$value.'</option>\n';
} echo '</select>';

echo "Year: <select name='year'>";
foreach ($years as $value) {
   echo '<option value="'.$value.'">'.$value.'</option>\n';
} 
?>

 

but what would be the method in which i stored it into my db?  would i have to join it ??  i was thinkin of storing it as "date" rather then "int"

[Snart]

Formatted dates can be a huge pain in the back to work with, especially on db-level.  I'd convert the date into a timestamp with mktime() and store it as an INT.

[Yesideez]

I've always used INT for storing all my dates and times and after a little persuasion have started to play with DATETIME and DATE.

 

Definitely worth taking a look at.

 

MySQL has some very handy functions for handling dates so why not pass as much date handling onto that instead of PHP doing all the work?

[GingerRobot]

Indeed. Store it in a DATE field. And yeah, just implode it.

[RichardRotterdam]

use date or timestamp. it will safe you the pain later if you need calculations

[runnerjp]

ok guys so would i just dooo

 

$birthyear =  mysql_real_escape_string( $_POST['year']);

$birthmonth =  mysql_real_escape_string( $_POST['month']);

$birthday =  mysql_real_escape_string( $_POST['day']);

$dob = $birthday.'-'.$birthmonth.'-'.$birthyear;

 

and stor it like that?

[RichardRotterdam]

Your code could still product an error

 

assume someone would have these values posted

$birthyear ="some string";
$birthmonth ="some other string";
$birthday = "and yet another one";

that would result in

$dob="some string-some other string-and yet another one";

once you insert or update that into the db that would produce an error if the field type would be a date or timestamp

 

you could parse them all to integers or you could use a regex to validate if it is a valid date

[PFMaBiSmAd]

A Unix timestamp is not usable for birthdays because of the 1970 limitation (depending on operating system and php version.)

 

After you validate the entered date, form a yyyy-mm-dd DATE from the individual pieces and store it in a DATE data type in the database.

[runnerjp]

ok im abit lost then on how to get from whre i am...to convert it into a date and insert it into my date field?

[Snart]

Negative unix timestamps can be created with strtotime() and stored in unsigned INTs.  And an INT only takes up half as much space as a datetime.

[RichardRotterdam]

oh i have to take that back from parsing it to ints to have a valid date you could still do

$dob='9999-99-99';

but you could use checkdate() to validate for a valid date and then turn it into date type for the database

http://nl.php.net/checkdate

[runnerjp]

ok so why not store the date in int as say 1984-09-04 by just doing

 

<?php $birthyear =  mysql_real_escape_string( $_POST['year']);
$birthmonth =  mysql_real_escape_string( $_POST['month']);
$birthday =  mysql_real_escape_string( $_POST['day']);
$dob = $birthday.'-'.$birthmonth.'-'.$birthyear; ?>

storing $dob into table...

 

then i could work out the age like so...

 

<?php
$dob = '1984-09-04';
$age = date('Y') - date('Y', strtotime($dob));
if (date('md') < date('md', strtotime($dob))) {
    $age--;
}
?>

[RichardRotterdam]

ok so if i have the following form and the values already filled in

<form>
  <input type="text" name="year" value="string" />
  <input type="text" name="month" value="string" />
  <input type="text" name="day"" value="string" />
  <input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit" />
</form>

then echo out your $dob when you submited the form

it would give you

echo $dob;//gives string-string-string

 

why not do something like this

 

if(checkdate($_POST['month'],$_POST['day'], $_POST['year'])){
  $dob = $birthyear.'-'.$birthmonth.'-'.$birthday;
}else{
  //not a valid input action
}

[runnerjp]

ok i attempted it and got this as an error

 

Warning: checkdate() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /home/runningp/public_html/members/include/update.php on line 68

 

<?php  
$months = array (1 => 'January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June','July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December');
$weekday = array('Sunday','Monday','Tuesday','Wednesday','Thursday','Friday','Saturday');
$days = range (1, 31);
$years = range (1910, 2015);

//**********************************************

echo "Day: <select name='day'>";
foreach ($days as $value) {
echo '<option value="'.$value.'">'.$value.'</option>\n';
} echo '</select>';

echo "Month: <select name='month'>";
foreach ($months as $value) {
echo '<option value="'.$value.'">'.$value.'</option>\n';
} echo '</select>';

echo "Year: <select name='year'>";
foreach ($years as $value) {
echo '<option value="'.$value.'">'.$value.'</option>\n';
} 

$year =  mysql_real_escape_string( $_POST['year']);
$month =  mysql_real_escape_string( $_POST['month']);
$day =  mysql_real_escape_string( $_POST['day']);
$dob = $day.'-'.$month.'-'.$year;
if(checkdate($_POST['day'],$_POST['month'], $_POST['year'])){
  $dob = $birthday.'-'.$birthmonth.'-'.$birthyear;
}else{
echo 'error!';
}
?>

[nadeemshafi9]

i don't use make time, i put it together into a timestamps knowing the order of a timestamps then i insert it into the database, if you have mysql 4 it will automatically put - in for you.

 

<?php
if($users_expires_day && $users_expires_month && $users_expires_year) $this_users->users_expires = mktime($h, $m, $s, $users_expires_month, $users_expires_day, $users_expires_year);
?>

 

ok i lied i do use maketime, somtimes

 

$this_users->users_expires is now a timestamp, if you insert it into mysql 5 it will add the dashes and colons etc so on re reading it from teh databse you will need to work with these, ereg replace them dashes and then substring get the -4, 4 = year -6, 2 = day -8, 2 = month etc etc.

[runnerjp]

sadly i use php myadmin... would i be able to use that?

[nadeemshafi9]

ok guys so would i just do

 

$birthyear =  mysql_real_escape_string( $_POST['year']);

$birthmonth =  mysql_real_escape_string( $_POST['month']);

$birthday =  mysql_real_escape_string( $_POST['day']);

$dob = $birthday.'-'.$birthmonth.'-'.$birthyear;

 

and store it like that?

 

you need the h,s,m ,

 

$dob = "000000".$birthday.$birthmonth.$birthyear;

 

mysql 5 will add teh dashes for you

[nadeemshafi9]

ok so if i have the following form and the values already filled in

<form>
  <input type="text" name="year" value="string" />
  <input type="text" name="month" value="string" />
  <input type="text" name="day"" value="string" />
  <input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit" />
</form>

then echo out your $dob when you submited the form

it would give you

echo $dob;//gives string-string-string

 

why not do something like this

 

if(checkdate($_POST['month'],$_POST['day'], $_POST['year'])){
  $dob = $birthyear.'-'.$birthmonth.'-'.$birthday;
}else{
  //not a valid input action
}

 

i had alot of issues with this you dont need to add the dashes when its going in, i work with mysql 4 and 5 so i had a major issue because mysql 4 dosent store it with dashes.

[runnerjp]

ok i stored it into the db liek this

 

i used

<?php
$year =  mysql_real_escape_string( $_POST['year']);
$month =  mysql_real_escape_string( $_POST['month']);
$day =  mysql_real_escape_string( $_POST['day']);
$dob = $day.'-'.$month.'-'.$year; 

$months = array (1 => 'January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June','July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December');
$weekday = array('Sunday','Monday','Tuesday','Wednesday','Thursday','Friday','Saturday');
$days = range (1, 31);
$years = range (1910, 2015);

//**********************************************

echo "Day: <select name='day'>";
foreach ($days as $value) {
echo '<option value="'.$value.'">'.$value.'</option>\n';
} echo '</select>';

echo "Month: <select name='month'>";
foreach ($months as $value) {
echo '<option value="'.$value.'">'.$value.'</option>\n';
} echo '</select>';

echo "Year: <select name='year'>";
foreach ($years as $value) {
echo '<option value="'.$value.'">'.$value.'</option>\n';
} 
?>

but how  could i echo the allready selected value in the db ???

[nadeemshafi9]

store it as timstamp 14 its easy to break up, maybe there are things you can do with Date data type that the seniors know calculations etc. You havent stated what data type your using

[runnerjp]

how would istore it as timestamp 14??  im storing it as varchar

[nadeemshafi9]

how would istore it as timestamp 14??   im storing it as varchar

go into phpmyadmin click the table name into structure view and edit the field and change it to timestamp then in the limitations section type 14, you can now insert it throgh your SQL as

 

 

$dob = "000000".$birthday.$birthmonth.$birthyear;