Problem with time before the epoch -- Strtotime function in a search script

[9999]

Hi, I'm using a delimiteed text file as a database.  It contains 4 fieds: $day, $month, $year, and $info.  I have a search script that searches the $info field against keywords a user can input then displays the results SORTED by $year.  Everything works fine except for any record that contains a $year value before 1970 (the epoch) it treats it as December 31, 1969 and wrecks my sort order.  Given the following script, what can I do to fix this?

[code]if($_REQUEST['usersearch'] == '1')  // Display Keyword Search Results
{
    $file = file('data.txt');
    $search = $_GET['search'];

    $file = file('data.txt');
    $keys = preg_split('/[\s,]+/', preg_replace('/([^a-z0-9\s])/i', '', trim($search) ) );

    if (sizeof($keys) > 5)
    {
        die("Please enter less keywords.");
    }
    else if (empty($keys[0]))
    {
        die("Please enter a valid keyword.");
    }

    $pattern = '/('. implode('|', $keys) .')/i';
    $matches = array();
    $matchcount = 0;

    foreach (array_values($file) AS $data)
    {
        list($month, $day, $year, $info) = explode('|', trim($data) );

        if (preg_match($pattern, $info))
        {
            $matches[strtotime("$day $month $year")][] = preg_replace($pattern, '<span style="color:red;">$1</span>', $info);
            $matchcount++;
        }
    }

    if (sizeof($matches) > 0)
    {
        ksort($matches);
        $count = 0;

        printf('<center><b><p>%d match%s found.</p></b></center>', $matchcount, $matchcount == 1 ? NULL : 'es');

        foreach ($matches AS $days => $event)
        {
            foreach ($event AS $result)
            {
                list($month, $day, $year) = explode('-', date('F-j-Y', $days) );
                $count++;

                echo '<b><font face="Times New Roman">' . $count . '--' . $month  . '&nbsp;' . $day . ',&nbsp;' . $year . '--' .'</font></b>';
                echo '<font face="Times New Roman" size="2px">' . $result .'</font>';
                echo "<p>";

                if ($count >= 200)
                {
                    break;
                }

            }

            if ($count >= 200)
            {
                break;
            }
        }
        printf('<center><b><p>%d match%s found.</p></b></center>', $matchcount, $matchcount == 1 ? NULL : 'es');
    }
    else
    {
        echo '<p><center><b>No results were found for your search--Please try again.</b></center></p>';
    }

}[/code]

Thanks in advance

[9999]

Is there a few lines of code that might make it recognize dates before 1970?

[Barand]

try

strtotime ("$year-$month-$day")

[9999]

That didn't work.  It just changed all my values to two-thousand and something.

This is the line from my above code that I am refering to:
[code]$matches[strtotime("$day $month $year")][] = preg_replace($pattern, '<span style="color:red;">$1</span>', $info);[/code]

[Barand]

I tried

[code]echo date ('jS F, Y', strtotime ('1949-01-22'));[/code]

and got --> 22nd January, 1949

[9999]

Thanks, I am a newbie and have had help with my code.  Given my code above, what changes would I make to make this work for me?

[Barand]

What does your data look like?

When you say day, month, year, is that

1, January, 1969
or
01, Jan, 69
or
or 1,1,1969

and how are keywords input?

[9999]

I use F j Y format so todays date would looklike this: August 30, 2006 and the date you mentioned would look this this: January 1, 1969

[9999]

This is the form where the keyword are inputted

[code]<form action="search.php" method="get">
  <input type="text" name="search" size="20">
  <input type="hidden" name="usersearch" value="1"/>
  <input type="submit" value="Search"/>
</form>[/code]

[Barand]

It worked as it was with with PHP5 as that supooerts dates pre 1970 but for version 4 I had to convert month names numbers for the sort, then back again for output

[code]<?php
$months = array (
    'January' => '01',
    'February' => '02',
    'March' => '03',
    'April' => '04',
    'May' => '05',
    'June' => '06',
    'July' => '07',
    'August' => '08',
    'September' => '09',
    'October' => '10',
    'November' => '11',
    'December' => '12',
);
if($_REQUEST['usersearch'] == '1')  // Display Keyword Search Results
{
#    $file = file('data.txt');
    $search = $_GET['search'];

    $file = file('data.txt');
    $keys = preg_split('/[\s,]+/', preg_replace('/([^a-z0-9\s])/i', '', trim($search) ) );

    if (sizeof($keys) > 5)
    {
        die("Please enter less keywords.");
    }
    else if (empty($keys[0]))
    {
        die("Please enter a valid keyword.");
    }

    $pattern = '/('. implode('|', $keys) .')/i';
    $matches = array();
    $matchcount = 0;

    foreach (array_values($file) AS $data)
    {
        list($month, $day, $year, $info) = explode('|', trim($data) );

        if (preg_match($pattern, $info))
        {
            $matches["$year {$months[$month]} $day"][] = preg_replace($pattern, '<span style="color:red;">$1</span>', $info);
            $matchcount++;
        }
    }

    if (sizeof($matches) > 0)
    {
        ksort($matches);
        $count = 0;

        printf('<center><b><p>%d match%s found.</p></b></center>', $matchcount, $matchcount == 1 ? NULL : 'es');
        $months = array_flip($months);                              // flip array toconvert months back to names
        foreach ($matches AS $days => $event)
        {
            foreach ($event AS $result)
            {
                list($year, $month, $day ) = explode(' ', $days );
                $month  = $months[$month];                        // convert back to month name
                $count++;

                echo '<b><font face="Times New Roman">' . $count . '--' . $month  . '&nbsp;' . $day . ',&nbsp;' . $year . '--' .'</font></b>';
                echo '<font face="Times New Roman" size="2px">' . $result .'</font>';
                echo "<p>";

                if ($count >= 200)
                {
                    break;
                }

            }

            if ($count >= 200)
            {
                break;
            }
        }
        printf('<center><b><p>%d match%s found.</p></b></center>', $matchcount, $matchcount == 1 ? NULL : 'es');
    }
    else
    {
        echo '<p><center><b>No results were found for your search--Please try again.</b></center></p>';
    }

}
?>
<form action="" method="get">
  <input type="text" name="search" size="20">
  <input type="hidden" name="usersearch" value="1"/>
  <input type="submit" value="Search"/>
</form>[/code]

[9999]

The output line:
[code]echo '<b><font face="Times New Roman">' . $count . '--' . $month  . '&nbsp;' . $day . ',&nbsp;' . $year . '--' .'</font></b>';[/code]

still shows, December 31, 1969 for all records that have a year value less than 1970.  I am using PHP 4.3.11

Do you think any other lines of code should be changed?  How does changing the months affect the script? 

[Barand]

I've tested the amended script that I posted using v4 and v5 and it works with both; at least it does with this data in "data.txt"

[pre]January|22|1984|Barand 1
January|2|1949|Barand 2
March|1|1980|Barand 3
July|4|2006|Independence Day[/pre]

Entering "ran" as search string gave

[pre]1--January 2, 1949--Barand 2
2--March 1, 1980--Barand 3
3--January 22, 1984--Barand 1[/pre]

[9999]

Intersting.  Let me double check everything I have snd I will get back with you.

Thanks

[9999]

Thank you.  It works well.  I did not copy and paste very well - lol.