Create dynamic <select> with PHP - php

Question

I have a $_SESSION variable $_SESSION['invoiceDate'] that is populated with a value representing YYYYMM.
I need to dynamically build a select element so that I have 6 options going back from the 'invoiceDate' e.g. if $_SESSION['invoiceDate'] = 201602 the output should be...
<select id="invoiceDate" name="invoiceDate">
<option value="201602">Feb 2016</option>
<option value="201601">Jan 2016</option>
<option value="201512">Dec 2015</option>
<option value="201511">Nov 2015</option>
<option value="201510">Oct 2015</option>
<option value="201509">Sep 2015</option>
</select>
My PHP is very basic... I can split the session value and assign the first 4 digits to $year and the other 2 to $month. Then loop 6 times... Each time I echo to output the <option> line concatenating the year and month to make the value and then subtracting 1 from the month and if month=0 then take 1 from year and make month 12. This gives me....
<option value="201602"></option>
<option value="201601"></option>
<option value="201512"></option>
<option value="201511"></option>
<option value="201510"></option>
<option value="201509"></option>
Now I can join the year and month with a hyphen to give
<option value="201602">2016-02</option>
<option value="201601">2016-01</option>
<option value="201512">2015-12</option>
<option value="201511">2015-11</option>
<option value="201510">2015-10</option>
<option value="201509">2015-09</option>
But how do I get a Month Year instead... e.g. Feb 2016 instead of 2016-02?

Answer 1

Why aren't you using DateTime?
$e = '201602';
$date = new DateTime($e);
echo $date->format('M');
outputs Feb
In your case it could be
$e = '201602';
$date = new DateTime($e);
$month = $date->format('n');
for($i=0;$i<6;$i++)
{
echo '<option value="'.$date->format('Ym').'">'.$date->format('M Y').'</option>';
$date = $date->sub(new DateInterval('P1M'));
}
This outputs
<option value="201602">Feb 2016</option>
<option value="201601">Jan 2016</option>
<option value="201512">Dec 2015</option>
<option value="201511">Nov 2015</option>
<option value="201510">Oct 2015</option>
<option value="201509">Sep 2015</option>
Just edit this as you need and don't use that infernal version of date with strtotime...

Answer 2

$date = "201602";
for($i=1;$i<=6;$i++){
echo date('M, Y',strtotime(date('Y-m-d',strtotime($date))." -$i month"));
}
In this loop we are deleting 1 month from your date.
Date Parameters

Answer 3

This is it:
<?php $session_val = "201602";?>
<select id="invoiceDate" name="invoiceDate">
<?php
for($i = 0; $i < 6; $i++){
//$text = date('Y-m', strtotime(date('Y-m-d', strtotime($session_val))." -$i month")); // for 2016-02
$text = date('M Y', strtotime(date('Y-m-d', strtotime($session_val))." -$i month")); //for Feb 2016
$val = date('Ym', strtotime(date('Y-m-d', strtotime($session_val))." -$i month"));
echo '<option value="'.$val.'">'.$text.'</option>';
}?>
</select>
I did this in my local, but when i am going to post i see some one
post similar thing. But I did so i post.