How to determine if date entered by the user is in future? - php

Question

How do I know in PHP that the date entered by the user in future than the current date.
i.e
if($current_date<$future_date)
{
//do all the success actions here
}
else
{
//show the user that they have selected a date in the past.
}

Answer 1

Well you first need to convert the date string using strtotime() function and then check if future date value is greater than current date value.
Here is the code snippet:
$today_date=date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
$current_date=strtotime($today_date);
$future_date=strtotime($future_date);//retrieved from user's input
Now you can call your function:
if($current_date<$future_date)
{
//do all the success actions here
}
else
{
//show the user that they have selected a date in the past.
}

Answer 2

I suppose you know the date format in which your users enters their date cos it will help you understand what date format you will be working with. But irrespective of whatever date format you are working with, you can always convert it to a more suitable one using:
strtotime()
Below is an example of checking a future date (working strictly with date)
$currentDate = date("Y-m-d");
$userFututeDate = "2014-05-08";
if($userFututeDate > $currentDate){
echo 'You have selected a date in the future';
}
else{
echo 'You have selected a date in the past.';
}
Below is another example of checking a future date (working with date and time)
$currentDateTime = date("Y-m-d H:i:s");
$userFututeDateTime = "2014-05-07 05:05:08";
if($userFututeDateTime > $currentDateTime){
echo 'You have selected a date in the future';
}
else{
echo 'You have selected a date in the past.';
}
Perhaps, you need to understand how to play around with strtotime(), find some sample below:
$dateVar = "25-07-2014 05:05:08";
echo date("F j Y", strtotime($dateVar));
echo '<br><br>';
echo date("Y-m-d", strtotime($dateVar));
echo '<br><br>';
echo date("F jS Y, g:i a", strtotime($dateVar));
Check out for more on strtotime()