How long time it is left? php + date

Question

//Example data
$current_time = 1318075950;
$unbanned_time = $current_time + strtotime('+1 minute');


if ($unbanned_time > $current_time) {
  $th1is = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $unbanned_time) - date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $current_time);
   echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $th1is);

I am trying to output how long time it is until the user is unbanned... year months, days, hours, minutes and seconds... But this is giving me some weird results..

Answer 1

You should check manual on how to work with date/time functions.

First of all, instead of

$current_time + strtotime('+1 minute')

use

strtotime('+1 minute', $current_time);

(see manual on strtotime ).

Secondly, date function returns a string. Subtracting two strings is not really useful in most cases.

if ($unbanned_time > $current_time) {
  $th1is = $unbanned_time - $current_time;
  echo $th1is/3600 . ' hours';
}

This will output the remaining time in hours but there are many functions available that will produce better formatting (or you can code one for yourself).

Answer 2

I would recommend to use DateTime

$DateTime = new DateTime();
$unbanned_DateTime = new DateTime();
$unbanned_DateTime = $unbanned_DateTime->modify('+1 minute');

if ( $unbanned_DateTime > $DateTime ) {
    $interval = $DateTime->diff($unbanned_DateTime);
    $years = $interval->format('%y'); 
    $months = $interval->format('%m'); 
    $days = $interval->format('%d'); 
    $hours = $interval->format('%h'); 
    $minutes = $interval->format('%i'); 
    $seconds = $interval->format('%s');
}

Instead of using every single value as variable you can use ->format() for one output. As you like.

Remember DateTime->format() needs a timezone setting up in your php.ini or with

date_default_timezone_set('....');

Answer 3

date() returns a string, substracting two strings makes no sense here. You can use basic maths to calculate the remaining time:

<?php
$current_time = time();
$unbanned_time = /* whatever */;
$seconds_diff = $unbanned_time - $current_time();
echo "You're unbanned at " . date("Y-m-d H:i:s", $unbanned_time) . " which is over ";
if ($seconds_diff <= 120) {
    echo "$seconds_diff seconds";
} else if ($seconds_diff <= 7200) {
    echo floor($seconds_diff / 60) . " minutes";
} else if ($seconds_diff <= 7200 * 24) {
    echo floor($seconds_diff / 3600) . " hours";
} else {
    echo floor($seconds_diff / 3600 / 24) . " days";
}
?>