Incorrect compare of strings in PHP with MySQl - php

Question

So I am trying to compare today's date and the date of the last entry in the database. For some reason the code isn't working, and the comparison is always wrong.
$recentMood = mysqli_query($db_connection, "SELECT * FROM DemoUser ORDER BY date DESC LIMIT 1'");
$today = date('Y-m-d');
if($recentMood['date'] != $today){
mysqli_query($db_connection, "INSERT INTO DemoUser (Mood, date) VALUES('$mood' , NOW())");
echo "Mood recorded!";
}
else{
echo "Mood already recorded.";
}
P.S: When I try to echo either $today or $recentMood['date'], then I get an error. Any reason why that is?

Answer 1

You are comparing inside the if a resource to a date string.
if($recentMood['date'] != $today){
Fetch the results first:
$query = mysqli_query($db_connection, "SELECT * FROM DemoUser ORDER BY date DESC LIMIT 1");
if($query->num_rows > 0) {
$recentMood = $query->fetch_assoc(); // fetch it, you skipped this step
$today = date('Y-m-d');
$mood = $db_connection->real_escape_string($mood);
if($recentMood['date'] != $today){
mysqli_query($db_connection, "INSERT INTO DemoUser (Mood, date) VALUES('$mood' , NOW())");
echo "Mood recorded!";
} else {
echo "Mood already recorded.";
}
}

Answer 2

I believe that to make this work properly, you need to convert the date from the database into a usable timestamp.
if ($recentMood['date']) {
$past_mood = date('Y-m-d', strtotime($recentMood['date']));
}
$today = date('Y-m-d');
if($past_mood != $today){
mysqli_query($db_connection, "INSERT INTO DemoUser (Mood, date)
VALUES('$mood' , NOW())");
echo "Mood recorded!";
}