How to hide/show text content using PHP? - php

Question

I am confused and not sure why this code is not working.
Here is the original code :
//start date to end date
<?php if($show5 < $show6) { ?>
<a>show content</a>
<?php }?>
If 'start date' and 'end date' values are empty then I want to remove or hide <?php if($show5 < $show6) { ?> <?php }?> and 'show content'.
And if 'start date' and 'end date' values are not empty then I want to remove or hide <?php if($show5 != '' && $show6 != '') { ?> <?php }?> and show content. If start to end date are not expired and if start to end date are expired then hide the content.
<?php if($show5 != '' && $show6 != '') { ?>
//start date to end date
<?php if($show5 < $show6) { ?>
<?php } ?>
<a>show content</a>
<?php if($show5 != '' && $show6 != '') { ?>
<?php } ?>
<?php }?>

Answer 1

is this what you were trying to do?
<?php if ($show5 != '' && $show6 != '') { ?>
//start date to end date
<?php if (strtotime($show5) < strtotime($show6)) { ?>
<a>show5 content</a>
<?php } ?>
<?php if (strtotime($show5) > strtotime($show6)) { ?>
<a>show6 content</a>
<?php } ?>
<?php } ?>
The bottom code was not necessary and therefore it was throwing an error. Also the html had to be moved few lines top and you were missing one <?php } ?>

Answer 2

I am not sure at all what are you trying to do... BTW, you don't need to put each sentence between <?php ?> brackets, just until you turn to html:
<?php if($show5 != '' && $show6 != '') {
//start date to end date
if($show5 < $show6) {
}?>
<a>show content</a> <<<---- This is outside the php block, if you want it inside you can do it with echo "<a>show content</a>";
<?php if($show5 != '' && $show6 != '') {
}
}?>
Update
<?php if($show5 != '' && $show6 != '') {
echo "<a>show content</a>";
}
else{
$curDate = date(); //currentDate
if($show5 <= $curDate && $curdate < $show6) {
echo "<a>show another content</a>";
}
}?>
Notice that the date() function can be formatted as you want to match $show5 and $show6. And viceversa, this variables can be formatted to match the date() format: https://secure.php.net/manual/es/function.date.php.
If you modify this code a bit you can make it post some content depending on many different parameters. Also, you could store the content in some other variables, and then post it after all of the ifs block