Comparing actual date with other date - php

Question

I have this
$fecha_actual = strtotime('now');
$fechaactual = date("d/m/Y",$fecha_actual);
$fechatope = $fila1['fechatope'];
if($fechatope < $fechaactual) {
echo "Fecha Actual: $fechaactual y Fecha Tope: $fechatope ";
}
The result I obtain:
Fecha Actual: 03/10/2018 y Fecha Tope: 03/02/2019
Why enter on the if when $fechatope is bigger than $fechaactual?
I dont understand...

Answer 1

Try to compare them with
strtotime($fechatope) < strtotime($fechaactual)
This way it just compares integers, less error chances.

Answer 2

In PHP, the date function returns a string. So your variable $fechaactual is the string
"03/10/2018"
Now I'm guessing your variable $fechatope is the string
"03/02/2019"
If you do a string comparison, $fechaactual is greater!
This is why most programmers these days do not use country-specific date formats. If you are going to compare strings, use the international date format, ISO 8601, and not a country's specific format. ISO 8601 allows sorting on strings, because it is YYYY-MM-DD. Formats that are day-first or month-first are bad for programming. (End of rant! :) )
Alternatively, you can compare date objects themselves, or reduce each date to an epoch time.
Dates are hard.

Answer 3

Try this
$fecha_actual = strtotime('now');
$fechaactual = date("d/m/Y",$fecha_actual);
$fechatope = date("d/m/Y",strtotime($fila1['fechatope']));
if($fechatope < $fechaactual) {
echo "Fecha Actual: $fechaactual y Fecha Tope: $fechatope ";
}

Answer 4

date() returns a string. So you are comparing if a string is less than another string (I'm assuming the type of the second parameter since we don't see it).
There are many special rules when it comes to comparison of strings with < and > in PHP. It will compare strings based upon alphabetical order. If a string starts with a number that number will use in the comparison and so on.
No matter what, this is most likely not what you expect.
Either, you could turn both times into timestamps which are both numerical and can be compared as in your code. Or you could turn the strings into DateTime objects and use the DateTime::diff function or boolean operators like <, > and == to compare the dates.

Answer 5

Assuming you have a string 03/02/2019 and you want to compare it with current time:
$fechaactual = new DateTime(); // current date and time
$fechatope = DateTime::createFromFormat("m/d/Y|", "03/02/2019"); // 2019-03-02 00:00:00
var_dump($fechaactual < $fechatope); // true
var_dump($fechaactual == $fechatope); // false (warning: dont use ===)
var_dump($fechaactual > $fechatope); // false
This looks far more complicated solution that others but it is the most versatile. It leaves no ambiguity as long as you know the date format(s) involved.

Answer 6

This is because in your given example, by comparison your Fecha Tope IS smaller than your Fecha Actual.
WHY?
Because of your date format. Imagine the PHP code working out whether one date is bigger or smaller than the other. It does so by calculating it like an integer.
So let's convert our dates to integers:
Fecha Actual = 03102018
Fecha Tope = 03022019
Now because your date is formatted as day, month, year - it doesn't matter much if there is a year difference, because that will be the smallest unit in our integer value. Whereas a difference in a day will result in the largest unit changes.
If you reorganise your code, and from now on use "Y-m-d" then you will avoid this problem when comparing dates.

Answer 7

Since date() returns a string, you will have to format it. You will also need to abide by the programmatical standards for time, which is Y-m-d, and not your country-specific standards.
Assuming you are fetching another date (the one you compare it with) from the database, you will have to format that string to time as well, using the strtotime() function.
Example:
$dateExample=date('d/m/Y'); // your date() string
$format = "d/m/Y"; // current string format to change.
$timedate = DateTime::createFromFormat($format, $dateExample); //creates the format and changes the string to a dateTime object.
$dateExample = $timedate->format('Y-m-d'); //perform the format, changing the standard to Y-m-d format.
$anotherDateFromDataBase = $row['dateColumn']; //date variable fetched from the database
$anotherDateFromDataBase = strtotime($anotherDateFromDataBase); //converts the string to time
You can now compare the two dates.
if($anotherDateFromDataBase < $dateExample) {
//do something
}