[SOLVED] Comparing Dates

[Lytheum]

In my comments system, I'm trying to restrict people to only post comments within 10 minutes from each other. So basicly what I did was make a table in a database, and when someone posts, it adds the current time to a field called "firstdate" and a time 10 minutes from now to a field called "lastdate".

 

Now the problem is, I do not know how to compare those dates. Most likely because I used a DateAdd() function that I found on the net, and the return value is in this format:

 

$temptime = time();
$firstdate = strftime('%Hh%M %A %d %b',$temptime);
// Would return 013h25 Sunday 25 Mar
$temptime = DateAdd('n',10,$temptime);
$lastdate = strftime('%Hh%M %A %d %b',$temptime);
// Would return 13h35 Sunday 25 Mar  

 

Does anybody understand what I'm asking for? Maybe a solution beyond all of this, an easier way if it's possible.

[JakeD]

if you could get it in minutes maybe

 

<?

$lastpost = (pulls it from the database);

 

$lpost = $lastpost *10;

if ($posttime >= $lpost)

{

    echo "you can post now";

}

?>

 

i dk.....maybe something along the lines...

[Barand]

In the comments table, store NOW() in a DATETIME field when the comment is posted.

 

When they post a comment,

 

<?php
$sql = "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM comments
        WHERE userid = '$id'
        AND posttime > NOW() - INTERVAL 10 MINUTE";
$res = mysql_query($sql);
if (mysql_result($res, 0) > 0) {
    // there was a post during last 10 mins
}
else {
    // ok to post
} 
?>

[Lytheum]

Awesome Barannd, just what I was looking for. I knew there would be a straight-forward way to do it. Thanks for the help, appreciate it.

 

Thanks JakeD for the help. It seemed you were on the right path, but Barand posted a better way.

[Lytheum]

Awesome Barannd, just what I was looking for. I knew there would be a straight-forward way to do it. Thanks for the help, appreciate it.

 

Thanks JakeD for the help. It seemed you were on the right path, but Barand posted a better way.

 

As an edit to this, I'd like it to display something such as:

 

You can not post another comment for (5) minutes, where (5) is a variable telling them how long they have until they can post again.

 

So something like a now() - posttime ? The thing is, how can I do it with php rather than mysql, because I don't plan on entering it into the DB. And php's time() function is a bit different than the now().

 

Will it work if I use time() and make it exactly like the Datetime field (0000-00-00 00:00:00) and then do arithmetic operations on it?

[Barand]

If you want to do it in php, get the time of the user's last post

 

<?php
/**
* get users last post
*/
$sql = "SELECT posttime FROM comments
        WHERE userid = '$id'
        ORDER BY posttime DESC
        LIMIT 1";
$res = mysql_query($sql);
if (mysql_num_rows($res) > 0) {
    // there was a post
    $time_last_post = strtotime(mysql_result($res,0));
}
else {
    $time_last_post = 0;
}

$time_limit = 5; // mins

if ((time() - $time_last_post) > $time_limit * 60) {
    // ok to post
}
else {
    echo "You must wait $time_limit minutes between posts";
} 
?>

 

 

[Lytheum]

Thanks again dude, you've been great!