birth year

[searls03]

so I want to make a drop down list with the current year all the way down to 1900.  so lets say this year it lists 1900-2011, next year to 2012.  I want it to do this automatically without anybody changing it.  does anyone know how to do this?

[Pikachu2000]

Here's a start:

 

for( $i = 1900; $i <= date('Y', strtotime( '+ 1 year')); $i++ ) {

[searls03]

so how do I make a it a drop down list?

[Pikachu2000]

Echo the <select> tag, then echo each value in the for() loop into the <option></option> tags, then echo the </select> tag.

[searls03]

like?

<?php 
for( $i = 1900; $i <= date('Y', strtotime( '- 1 year')); $i++ ) {echo '<select>';
echo '<option>';
echo $i;
echo '</option>';
echo '</select>'; }
?>

[Pikachu2000]

Did it work when you tried it?

[searls03]

nope came up with a different select box for each year.

[xyph]

@Pikachu - This may be nitpicking, but PHP's date function is EXTREMELY slow. When you put it in a for loop, it will be executed at the start of each iteration, to verify the functions return value hasn't changed. Instead, use this

 

$year = date('Y');
for( $i = 1900; $i <= $year; $i++ ) // ... 

[premiso]

nope came up with a different select box for each year.

 

So re-arrange to figure out why it is not working...that is like all of coding, trial and error till you get it right or give up.

 

<?php 
$dt = date('Y', strtotime( '- 1 year'));

echo '<select name="birthyear">';

for( $i = 1900; $i <= $dt; $i++ ) {
    echo '<option value="'.$i.'">';
    echo $i;
    echo '</option>';
}

echo '</select>';
?>

 

[Pikachu2000]

@Pikachu - This may be nitpicking, but PHP's date function is EXTREMELY slow. When you put it in a for loop, it will be executed at the start of each iteration, to verify the functions return value hasn't changed. Instead, use this

 

$year = date('Y');
for( $i = 1900; $i <= $year; $i++ ) // ... 

 

No, you're absolutely right. I should have assigned the value to a variable first then used the variable.

[Psycho]

You should put the years in reverse order. 90% of your users are going to have a birth year in the last 55 years rather than the first 55 years, and that is pretty much an industry standard in my opinion. Also, the code provided previously would exclude the current year.

 

Here is my suggestion.

$thisYear = date('Y');
$firstYear = 1900;

echo '<select name="birthyear">';

for($year=$thisYear; $year>=$firstYear; $year++)
{
    echo "<option value=\"{$year}\">{$year}</option>\n";
}

echo '</select>';

[Pikachu2000]

I'm sure you meant to decrement $year, rather than increment it . . .

[Pikachu2000]

It may even be easier to use range() with a foreach() loop and still end up with the same result.

 

$years = range( date('Y'), 1900 );

[Psycho]

I'm sure you meant to decrement $year, rather than increment it . . .

 

Yes I did.

 

It may even be easier to use range() with a foreach() loop and still end up with the same result.

 

$years = range( date('Y'), 1900 );

Interesting, I would have thought that using range() would choke on that since the larger number is given as the first parameter and the step value (the optional third parameter) defaults to "1". I was surprised that it was "smart" enough to use a -1 step value.