Check a date interval with strtotime in php - php

Question

I need a little help with this code:
$key['time_stamp'] = '2016-09-02 16:56:25';
$datetime1 = strtotime(date($key['time_stamp']));
$datetime2 = strtotime(date('Y-m-d H:m:s'));
$interval = $datetime2 - $datetime1;
$val = 45 * 60 * 1000;
if ($interval > $val) { }
My purpose is to check if the $interval between two dates is greater than 45 mins.
$key['time_stamp'] is 2016-09-02 16:56:25 and datetime2 is the current date time. Why the if condition is never true?!
Did I miss something stupid or what?!

Answer 1

If $key['time_stamp'] is '2016-09-02 16:56:25', shouldn't it be
$datetime1 = strtotime ( $key['time_stamp'] );
Instead of
$datetime1 = strtotime ( date ($key['time_stamp']) );
?

Answer 2

This line:
$val = 45*60*1000;
gives 45 minutes in millisecond, I guess you want:
$val = 45*60;

Answer 3

I find working with DateTime() objects easier to reason about, and they are transparently comparable in an if statement.
I'd like to suggest an alternative approach:
<?php
$key['time_stamp'] = '2016-09-02 16:56:25';
$then = new DateTime($key['time_stamp']);
$interval = new DateTime('-45 minutes');
if ($then < $interval) {
echo 'interval passed';
} else {
echo 'interval not passed';
}
This yields:
interval passed
Hope this helps :)
One caveat that's not applicable in your case but it's worth mentioning: If you create a DateTime() object with a UNIX timestamp using DateTime::createFromFormat() be sure to check that both DateTime() objects have the same timezone.

Answer 4

You made two mistakes:
the minutes in the $format parameter of the date function have to be expressed as i (and not m, as you did).
$interval is measured in seconds (so you don't have to multiply by 1000, as if they were milliseconds).
So your code should be written as follows:
$key['time_stamp'] = '2016-09-02 16:56:25';
$datetime1 = strtotime(date($key['time_stamp']));
$datetime2 = strtotime(date('Y-m-d H:i:s'));
$interval = $datetime2 - $datetime1;
$val = 45 * 60;
if ($interval > $val) { }

Answer 5

Here is the solution of your query.
$key['time_stamp'] = "2016-09-02 16:56:25";
$datetime1 = strtotime ( date ($key['time_stamp']) );
$datetime2 = strtotime ( date('Y-m-d H:i:s'));
$interval = round(($datetime2 - $datetime1)/ 60); //interval in minutes
$val = 45; //45 minutes
if ($interval > $val) {
echo "Success";
}