Expiration dates

[Eiolon]

I want to make it show that a card has expired if it's after the expiration date.  Dates are stored in DATETIME format in the database so this is what I have done:

 

<?php $today = date("Y-m-d"); ?>

Status: <?php if ($ExpirationDate < $Today) {
echo 'The card has expired.';
} else {
echo 'Active.';
}
?>

 

It seems that my card is never expired even though I set the date in the database to be: 2010-02-26 00:00:00

 

Thanks!

[ialsoagree]

Not surprising, you're not comparing integers, you're comparing formatted dates. PHP can't handle that comparison with <.

 

Instead, use strtotime on the variables and then compare:

 

<?php $today = time(); $CompareExpirationDate = strtotime($ExpirationDate); ?>

Status: <?php if ($CompareExpirationDate < $Today) {
echo 'The card has expired.';
} else {
echo 'Active.';
}
?>

[jl5501]

@ialso agree, you are correct that the formatted date is the problem but not about the comparison operator.  The operator will work perfectly well but will do a string compare not a numeric compare, which will not deliver the required results.

 

The solution to convert dates to timestamps before conversion is, however, the way to go to ensure accuracy.