Comparing todays date to a stored date in php

Question

I am trying to compare two dates (one stored in the db) and today's date using PHP and outputing a "print" statement based on the result of the comparison. My expiration date is stored as "datetime" in the db. It is called through a query and assigned to the variable $expire. The code I have for the comparison is below, but it always returns false, regardless of the date.

<? 
  $todays_date = date("m-d-Y"); 
  $today = strtotime($todays_date); 
  $expired = strtotime($expire); 

  if ($today > $expired) {
    print "<a target='_blank' href='/pdfwriter/generate_certificate.php?member=".$memberID."'>Print Membership Certificate</a>";
  } 
  else 
  {
    print "<a href='registration/registration.aspx?registerType=1'>Membership Expired - Renew Today</a>";
  } 
?>

Answer 1

This is easier to do with DateTime() since it make comparing the dates easier. No need to convert to timestamps or anything plus it takes daylight savings time into account. I also think your comparison operator is backwards.

$today = new DateTime();
$expires = new DateTime($expire);
if ($today < $expires)
{
    print "<a target='_blank' href='/pdfwriter/generate_certificate.php?member=".$memberID."'>Print Membership Certificate</a>";
}
else
{
    print "<a href='registration/registration.aspx?registerType=1'>Membership Expired - Renew Today</a>";
}

Answer 2

An other solution can be simple PHP date class.

It provides comparison methods as well as date addition subtraction and other useful functions all together.

For example, for date comparison:

$date = new simpleDate();
if($date->now()->compare($other_date)->isBefore())
{ ... }
else { ... }

You can check the library tutorial page for more examples . Please click here .