PHP Loop for Year Dropdown - php

Question

I am trying to create a HTML select input based on months/years and I am not sure the best approach for it.
While creating a standard loop of years was the first place I started, I wasn't sure how to get the last days of each of the month/years in order to create the values.
Is there any built in PHP functions that can accomplish something close to what I am looking for?
Logic:
Must be able to provide a starting year (ex. 2014).
Must start at the starting year and go 1 year past the current year (ex. If Start = 2014, it will show 2014, 2015, 2016.
The value of the option must be the last day of the month in date format (ex. <option value="01/31/2015">January 2015</option>
Output:
<select class="s2 span4" name="desiredCompletion" placeholder="Select a Desired Completion Date">
<optgroup label="2016">
<option value="01/31/2016">Janurary 2016</option>
<option value="02/28/2016">Feburary 2016</option>
<option value="03/31/2016">March 2016</option>
...
</optgroup>
<optgroup label="2015">
<option value="01/31/2015">Janurary 2015</option>
<option value="02/28/2015">Feburary 2015</option>
<option value="03/31/2015">March 2015</option>
...
</optgroup>
<optgroup label="2014">
<option value="01/31/2014">Janurary 2014</option>
<option value="02/28/2014">Feburary 2014</option>
<option value="03/31/2014">March 2014</option>
...
</optgroup>
</select>

Answer 1

This function should do:
function createYearSelect($from) {
// open select
echo "<select class=\"s2 span4\" name=\"desiredCompletion\" placeholder=\"Select a Desired Completion Date\">";
// for each year from the one specified to the one after current
foreach(range($from, date('Y') + 1) as $year) {
// open optgroup for year
echo "<optgroup label=\"$year\">";
// foreach month
foreach (range(1, 12) as $month) {
// timestamp of first day
$time = strtotime("$year-$month-01");
// create option with date() formatting
echo "<option value=\"".date("m/t/Y", $time)."\">".date("F Y", $time)."</option>";
}
// close optgroup for year
echo "</optgroup>";
}
// close select
echo "</select>";
}

Answer 2

Here's a bit more elegant way
foreach(range(2014, 2015) as $year){
foreach(range(1, 12) as $month){
echo date('Y.m.d', strtotime('Last day of ' . date('F', strtotime($year . '-' . $month . '-01')) . $year)) . PHP_EOL;
}
}
This outputs the list of the last days of months for the years in specified range.
2014.01.31
2014.02.28
2014.03.31
2014.04.30
...

Answer 3

Using the DateTime class you can create dates using natural language.
Eg,
$date = new DateTime("-1 Year");
echo $date->format('F Y'); // Prints 'December 2014'
You can use a decrementing for loop to create many dates going back in time.

Answer 4

Check for the function below which gives the total number of days in a month
date("t");
Further details are available at http://php.net/manual/en/function.date.php