Compare times and dates in laravel 5.4 - php

Question

I need to check if a time is after or before some time string. The database I have been given has times in multiple formats like 00:00:00 and 1970-01-01 07:00:00. Here is what I am trying to do:
data = {some_id:1, time_1:'1970-01-01 07:00:00', time_2:'1970-01-01 07:00:00'}
$results = $this->model->select(
'table.value as value'
)
->where('table.some_id', '=', $data['some_id'])
->where('table.time_1', '=>', $data['time_1'])
->orWhere('table.time_2', '<=', $data['time_2'])
->get();
But, this just returns every single value in the table. How do I compare dates like this when they are not technically dates?

Answer 1

Of course it will return all records.
Because logic of query is not correct.
For Your query sql will be like:
SELECT table.value AS value
FROM table
WHERE
table.some_id = 1
AND
table.time_1 <= '1970-01-01 07:00:00' OR table.time_2 => '1970-01-01 07:00:00'
But it should be:
SELECT table.value AS value
FROM table
WHERE
table.some_id = 1
AND
(table.time_1 <= '1970-01-01 07:00:00' OR table.time_2 => '1970-01-01 07:00:00')
To achieve this do nested where:
$results = $this->model->select(
'table.value as value'
)
->where('table.some_id', '=', $data['some_id'])
->where(function($q) use ($data) {
return $q->where('table.time_1', '=>', $data['time_1'])
->orWhere('table.time_2', '<=', $data['time_2']);
})
->get();
p.s. if it does not return proper response, I recommend to check dates that You request.

Answer 2

This would be the regular query
data = {some_id:1, time_1:'1970-01-01 07:00:00', time_2:'1970-01-01 07:00:00'}
$results = $this->model->select('table.value as value')
->where([
['table.some_id', '=', $data['some_id']],
[function($query) use($data){
query->where('table.time_1', '=>', $data['time_1'])
->orWhere('table.time_2', '<=', $data['time_2']);
}]
])->get();
If you need to transform the date there's a function called date() this transforms timestamps into date with the given format. Ex:
$date = 1497454883;
$date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s',$date);
date will be "2017-06-14 23:00:00"
If you have any questions let me know.