Symfony 3 find closest date from now - php

Question

I have three database tables. user, meeting, group. The meetings and group table are manytomany associations from the user table. So I can do user->getmeetings(), or user->getgroups().
I want to get just the next meeting comping up for the user, and I don't know how to achieve this. Whether by SQL Query or simply in the controller. Here is what I have done so far.
$loggedInUser = $em->getRepository('AppBundle\Entity\User')
->find($id);
foreach ($loggedInUser->getMeetings() as $userMeetings) {
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['id'] = $userMeetings->getId();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['group'] = $userMeetings->getGroup();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['name'] = $userMeetings->getName();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['info'] = $userMeetings->getInfo();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['bring'] = $userMeetings->getBring();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['summary'] = $userMeetings->getSummary();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['files'] = $userMeetings->getFiles();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['meetingDate'] = $userMeetings->getMeetingDate();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['meetingAddress'] = $userMeetings->getMeetingAddress();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['time_diff'] = date_diff($userMeetings->getMeetingDate(), new \DateTime());
}
I have added a time_diff field in the new array to calculate the time from now to the meeting time. All I need to do now is select the smallest one.How can I do this? Thank you.
UPDATE - Below is my User Repository
namespace AppBundle\Repository;
use AppBundle\Entity\User;
use AppBundle\Entity\Meeting;
use Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository;
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\Criteria;
class UserRepository extends EntityRepository
{
public function getComingMeeting()
{
$criteria = Criteria::create()
->where(Criteria::expr()->gte("meetingDate", new \DateTime('now')))
->orderBy(array("meetingDate" => Criteria::ASC))
->setMaxResults(1);
$this->getMeetings()->matching($criteria);
}
}
Below is my User Entity
namespace AppBundle\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;
/**
* #ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="AppBundle\Repository\UserRepository")
* #ORM\Table(name="user")
*/
class User
{
/**
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
* #ORM\Column(type="integer")
*/
private $id;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", nullable=false)
*/
private $first_name;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", nullable=false)
*/
private $last_name;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", nullable=false, unique=true)
*/
private $email_address;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", nullable=true)
*/
private $phone_number;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", nullable=false)
*/
private $password;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="datetime", nullable=true)
*/
private $last_login;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", nullable=true)
*/
private $reset_password;
/**
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="Meeting", inversedBy="users")
*/
private $meetings;
/**
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="Group", inversedBy="users")
*/
private $groups;
public function __construct()
{
$this->groups = new arrayCollection();
$this->meetings = new arrayCollection();
}
/**
* #return mixed
*/
public function getFirstName()
{
return $this->first_name;
}
/**
* #param mixed $first_name
*/
public function setFirstName($first_name)
{
$this->first_name = $first_name;
}
/**
* #return mixed
*/
public function getLastName()
{
return $this->last_name;
}
/**
* #param mixed $last_name
*/
public function setLastName($last_name)
{
$this->last_name = $last_name;
}
/**
* #return mixed
*/
public function getEmailAddress()
{
return $this->email_address;
}
/**
* #param mixed $email_address
*/
public function setEmailAddress($email_address)
{
$this->email_address = $email_address;
}
/**
* #return mixed
*/
public function getPhoneNumber()
{
return $this->phone_number;
}
/**
* #param mixed $phone_number
*/
public function setPhoneNumber($phone_number)
{
$this->phone_number = $phone_number;
}
/**
* #return mixed
*/
public function getPassword()
{
return $this->password;
}
/**
* #param mixed $password
*/
public function setPassword($password)
{
$this->password = $password;
}
/**
* #return mixed
*/
public function getLastLogin()
{
return $this->last_login;
}
/**
* #param mixed $last_login
*/
public function setLastLogin($last_login)
{
$this->last_login = $last_login;
}
/**
* #return mixed
*/
public function getResetPassword()
{
return $this->reset_password;
}
/**
* #param mixed $reset_password
*/
public function setResetPassword($reset_password)
{
$this->reset_password = $reset_password;
}
/**
* #return arrayCollection|Meeting[]
*/
public function getMeetings()
{
return $this->meetings;
}
/**
* #return ArrayCollection|Group[]
*/
public function getGroups()
{
return $this->groups;
}
/**
* #return mixed
*/
public function getId()
{
return $this->id;
}
}
below is my HomeControlller.php
class HomeController extends Controller
{
/**
* #Route("/home", name="home_show")
*/
public function showAction()
{
$em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
//logged in user
$id = 1;
$loggedInUser = $em->getRepository('AppBundle\Entity\User')
->find($id);
foreach ($loggedInUser->getMeetings() as $userMeetings) {
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['id'] = $userMeetings->getId();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['group'] = $userMeetings->getGroup();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['name'] = $userMeetings->getName();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['info'] = $userMeetings->getInfo();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['bring'] = $userMeetings->getBring();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['summary'] = $userMeetings->getSummary();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['files'] = $userMeetings->getFiles();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['meetingDate'] = $userMeetings->getMeetingDate();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['meetingAddress'] = $userMeetings->getMeetingAddress();
$nextMeeting[$userMeetings->getId()]['time_diff'] = date_diff($userMeetings->getMeetingDate(), new \DateTime());
}
$groups = $em->getRepository('AppBundle\Entity\Group')
->findAll();
return $this->render('home/show.html.twig', [
'loggedInUser' => $loggedInUser,
'groups' => $groups,
]);
}
}

Answer 1

You can add a method in your UserEntity with a matching criteria on meeting collection
namespace AppBundle\Entity;
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\Criteria;
....
public function getComingMeeting()
{
$criteria = Criteria::create()
->where(Criteria::expr()->gte("meetingDate", new \DateTime('now')))
->orderBy(array("meetingDate" => Criteria::ASC))
->setMaxResults(1);
return $this->getMeetings()->matching($criteria);
}
see http://doctrine-orm.readthedocs.io/projects/doctrine-orm/en/latest/reference/working-with-associations.html