dd/mm/YYYY format date - while loop problems adding 1 day - php

Question

I am creating a while loop in PHP to iterate through all the days between two dates.
$startdate = "17/12/2022"; // my dd/mm/YYYY format start date
$startdate = str_replace('/', '-',$startdate); // convert the slashes to dashes to signify european date format
$startdate = strtotime($startdate); // convert the date into a date object
$enddate = "16/12/2023"; // my dd/mm/YYYY format start date
$enddate = str_replace('/', '-',$enddate); // convert the slashes to dashes to signify european date format
$enddate = strtotime($enddate); // convert the date into a date object
echo(date('d/m/Y',$startdate)."<br/>");
echo(date('d/m/Y',$enddate)."<br/>");
while($startdate <= $enddate) {
$dayofweek = date('w',$startdate); // a task
echo($dayofweek)."<br/>");
//I need to increment the $startdate by one day here?
}
?>
I believe that changing the slashes to dashes effectively instructs PHP to recognise the date as dd/mm/YYYY rather than mm/dd/YYYY. There are references (in many examples) to the PHP documentation outlining this functionality but the PHP documentation no longer shows this; nor does it show that it is depleted or has been changed. It is simply omitted. My tests show that it works but I cannot find reference to an alternative.
I then convert both dates to a date object using strtotime so that they can be compared.
I then need to add 1 day to the $startdate and loop, but it is the adding one day that is foxing me.
All the examples I can find are using todays date or a string not formatted dd/mm/YYYY.
I freely admit that I may have got the whole premise wrong but any pointers for good practise would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Using the DateTime class and the DateInterval Class and the DatePeriod class you get quite a bit of the heavy lifting done for you
$startdate = "17/12/2022"; // my dd/mm/YYYY format start date
$enddate = "31/12/2022"; // my dd/mm/YYYY format start date
$sDate = ( new Datetime() )->createFromFormat('d/m/Y', $startdate);
$eDate = ( new Datetime() )->createFromFormat('d/m/Y', $enddate);
$oneDay = new DateInterval('P1D');
$daterange = new DatePeriod($sDate, $oneDay ,$eDate);
foreach ( $daterange as $dat) {
echo $dat->format('d/m/y - w D') . PHP_EOL;
}
RESULTS using a smaller range of dates
17/12/22 - 6 Sat
18/12/22 - 0 Sun
19/12/22 - 1 Mon
20/12/22 - 2 Tue
21/12/22 - 3 Wed
22/12/22 - 4 Thu
23/12/22 - 5 Fri
24/12/22 - 6 Sat
25/12/22 - 0 Sun
26/12/22 - 1 Mon
27/12/22 - 2 Tue
28/12/22 - 3 Wed
29/12/22 - 4 Thu
30/12/22 - 5 Fri