[SOLVED] How to count Emplyee Hours from 2 Rows.. ?

[techiefreak05]

The title is the best I could do to describe my problem.

I'm making an online Employee Time-Clock application for a client, and I'm getting progress, but I'm sorta stuck with something.

When an employee enters their ID and password, it inserts a row into a table called "timePunch" wit the data,

 

" ID - empID  -  activityID - timeYear - timeDate - timeMonth - timeHour - timeMinute - timeAP"

 

where empID is the ID of the employee. IF there is a row with their empID and activityID="In", then it inserts a row with their empID, and activityID="Out"

 

My question is, how can I calculate how many hours an employee has worked from counting the time from all the rows with their empID?

 

Thanks!

[revraz]

You have 5 columns that can be replaced with 1, unix timestamp.

[techiefreak05]

Yes I originally just had 1 column for the time, using time(), and it would work, BUT I need to allow to administrator to edit each time entry down to the minute. And The only way I knew how to be able to hold 5 areas of time, all of which are editable, is to have 5 separate columns....

[revraz]

You can edit unix time to the second.

 

Having it like you do makes things harder to work with.

[beebum]

I agree. You should be using unix timestamp, timestamp, or datetime.

[GingerRobot]

Im a little confused. What happens after data has been entered twice? So the first time data is entered, it's listed as activityID as being IN? And the second time, its OUT? Then what?

 

And i'll add the third opinion - a timestamp would be much easier. To edit, you can always make the php script to format the timestamp into a more human readable form.

[fenway]

DATE_FORMAT() is your friend.

[techiefreak05]

It just hit me on how to use date() instead of 5 different columns.. haha ill report back when i get it done.

 

Wait.. I know how to change the value of time() using date, inot a readble format, but how can i take a readable format and turn it into a value like time()

 

Because i will hold the time they punched in wit hthe time() function... but for the admin to edit it, they wil need to edit it in a readable form...

[fenway]

You shouldn't be storing readable format in the db.

[techiefreak05]

I got it. Using the time() value then making it readable by using date(A,$var), etc... and im combining the fields in the form using mktime() to make the unix timestamp. so its working!