Date based conditional

[croakingtoad]

I am starting with three chunks of code wrapped in a <li> and want to order it based on a date in a variable.  Here's what I have for variables in a separate file that is called in with require_once() -

$hkLongDate = "02/25/2008";
$vtLongDate = "02/27/2008";
$totLongDate = "02/29/2008";

 

The code that I want to sort based on the above date is basically three <li> items like below -

$hkList = "<li>Item Blue</li>";
$vtList = "<li>Item Orange</li>";
$totList = "<li>Item Green</li>";

 

I'm just not sure of the best way to associate the var from the first list with the var from the second list and then have it sort by the date value in the first var.

 

Advice?

[The Little Guy]

use strtotime

 

just an example:

<?php
$hkLongDate = strtotime("02/25/2008");
$vtLongDate = strtotime("02/27/2008");
$totLongDate = strtotime("02/29/2008");

if($hkLongDate > $vtLongDate){
     $hkList = "<li>Item Blue</li>";
}elseif($vtLongDate > $hkLongDate){
     $vtList = "<li>Item Orange</li>";
}else{
     $totList = "<li>Item Green</li>";
}
?>

[croakingtoad]

That's a good start but I need some logic in there to determine which was is the newest and order them to oldest.  An if/else strategy may not be the most efficient way to do that?

[discomatt]

strtotime returns a timestamp integer

 

Timestamps can be sorted greatest to least for latest to oldest and vice versa.

 

Put the results in an array and use sort()

[The Little Guy]

<?php
$hkLongDate = strtotime("02/25/2008");
$vtLongDate = strtotime("02/27/2008");
$totLongDate = strtotime("02/29/2008");
$now = strtotime("now");

// Compaire your strings agains the $now variable
?>

[obsidian]

Step #1: Change your dates to UNIX timestamps:

<?php
$hkLongDate = strtotime("02/25/2008");
$vtLongDate = strtotime("02/27/2008");
$totLongDate = strtotime("02/29/2008");
?>

 

Step #2: Create an associative array to tie the elements to their respective times:

<?php
$eles = array(
  array('time' => $hkLongDate, 'item' => $hkList),
  array('time' => $vtLongDate, 'item' => $vtList),
  array('time' => $totLongDate, 'item' => $totList)
);
?>

 

Step #3: Sort the list based on the time and output:

<?php
// Get the columns for multisort
foreach ($eles as $key => $row) {
  $times[$key]  = $row['time'];
  $items[$key] = $row['item'];
}

array_multisort($times, SORT_ASC, $items, SORT_ASC, $eles);

// Check the order:
echo "<pre>\n";
print_r($eles);
echo "</pre>\n";
?>

[croakingtoad]

Awesome, thanks for the help!  SOLVED