Check if date is within range in PHP strtotime

Question

I have searched through SO but the answers that I've tried doesn't seem to solve my problem. I have this simple code snippet where the user will input a numeric date, and a month, and the app will return the corresponding Zodiac Sign.

$birthdate = $_POST["birthdate"];
$birthmonth = (ucwords(strtolower($_POST["month"])))

//validations here. . .

    $tmp = $birthmonth . " " . $birthdate;
    $tmp2 = date_create_from_format('M j', $tmp);

    $formatted_dob = date_format($tmp2, 'm-d-Y'); 
    $dob = strtotime($formatted_dob);

    echo $formatted_dob;

    if ($dob >= strtotime('01-20-2016') && $dob <= strtotime('02-18-2016')) {
        echo "Aquarius"; 
    } elseif ($dob >= strtotime('02-19-2016') && $dob <= strtotime('03-20-2016')){          
        echo "Pisces";
    } 

Those echo stuff outside the if-else block are working fine, however if I input a value of 25 and February (which later on results to 02-25-2016 ), it always output Aquarius . How do you compare two strtotime values?

I've tried using DateTime object but it only gives me an error, which is another story. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Edited: Change the order of your date (*your format on your date 01-20-2016 mdY that's why when you convert it it becomes 1970-01-01 'Ymd' but if you change it into 2016-01-20 'Ymd' on your date range the code will work just fine in else-if.

$birthdate = $_POST["birthdate"];
$birthmonth = (ucwords(strtolower($_POST["month"])))

//validations here. . .

    $tmp = $birthmonth . " " . $birthdate;
    $tmp2 = date_create_from_format('M j', $tmp);

    $formatted_dob = date_format($tmp2, 'm-d-Y'); 
    $dob = strtotime($formatted_dob);

    echo $formatted_dob;
$dobcompare = date_create(date('m/d/Y', $dob));
$aqstartdate = date_create(date('m/d/Y', strtotime('2016-01-20')));
$aqenddate = date_create(date('m/d/Y', strtotime('2016-02-18')));
$pistartdate = date_create(date('m/d/Y', strtotime('2016-02-19')));
$pienddate = date_create(date('m/d/Y', strtotime('2016-03-20')));

    if ($dobcompare >= $aqstartdate && $dobcompare <= $aqenddate) {
        echo "Aquarius"; 
    }
    elseif ($dobcompare >= $pistartdate && $dobcompare <= $pienddate) {
        echo "Pisces"; 
    } else {          
        echo "IDK";
    } 

Modify it in your need.

This is the example enter link description here