How can I check if the current date/time is past a set date/time?

Question

I'm trying to write a script that will check if the current date/time is past the 05/15/2010 at 4PM

How can I use PHP's date() function to perform this check?

Answer 1

Since PHP >= 5.2.0 you can use the DateTime class as such:

if (new DateTime() > new DateTime("2010-05-15 16:00:00")) {
    # current time is greater than 2010-05-15 16:00:00
    # in other words, 2010-05-15 16:00:00 has passed
}

The string passed to the DateTime constructor is parsed according to these rules .

---

Note that it is also possible to use time and strtotime functions. See original answer .

Answer 2

There's also the DateTime class which implements a function for comparison operators.

// $now = new DateTime();
$dtA = new DateTime('05/14/2010 3:00PM');
$dtB = new DateTime('05/14/2010 4:00PM');

if ( $dtA > $dtB ) {
  echo 'dtA > dtB';
}
else {
  echo 'dtA <= dtB';
}

Answer 3

The dateTime object range is from about 292 billion years in the past to the same in the future. The timestamp function has a limit (starts from 1970 till 2038 if i remember correctly).

Answer 4

Check PHP's strtotime -function to convert your set date/time to a timestamp: http://php.net/manual/en/function.strtotime.php

If strtotime can't handle your date/time format correctly ("4:00PM" will probably work but not "at 4PM"), you'll need to use string-functions, eg substr to parse/correct your format and retrieve your timestamp through another function, eg mktime .

Then compare the resulting timestamp with the current date/time ( if ($calulated_timestamp > time()) { /* date in the future */ } ) to see whether the set date/time is in the past or the future.

I suggest to read the PHP-doc on date/time-functions and get back here with some of your source-code once you get stuck.

Answer 5

I had a problem with this date comparing and need some adjust

function getDatetimeNow() {
  $tz_object = new DateTimeZone('Europe/Belgrade');
  $datetime = new DateTime();
  $datetime->setTimezone($tz_object);
  return $datetime->format('Y\-m\-d\ h:i:s');
}

$currentDate = getDatetimeNow();

$dtA = new DateTime($currentDate);
$dtB = new DateTime($date);

if ( $dtA > $dtB ) {
  $active = 0;
  return $active;
}
else {
  $active = 1;
  return $active;
}

Answer 6

date_default_timezone_set('Asia/Kolkata');

$curDateTime = date("Y-m-d H:i:s");
$myDate = date("Y-m-d H:i:s", strtotime("2018-06-26 16:15:33"));
if($myDate < $curDateTime){
    echo "active";exit;
}else{
    echo "inactive";exit;
}