PHP Get recurring week from specific start date - php

Question

I'm looking into trying to set up and array that will look something like this:
$dates = array(
[0] => "07/11/2013",
[1] => "14/11/2013",
[2] => "21/11/2013",
[3] => "28/11/2013",
[4] => "05/12/2013",
[5] => "12/12/2013");
I'm willing to use this, but as I want this to reoccur again next year I'd prefer to have PHP do this and enter it into an array for me. I know how to limit it to a specific amount that I want, but I don't know how to add a week onto the current date or specific date if I wanted to start 08/11/2013 for example.
I've had a quick look and I can't seem to find anything that does this.
I just need a script to add a week to the current date, at the moment this is every Thursday, and then add that to the array.
My only problem is I'm not sure how to specify a date, and then add a week every time. I assume a for loop would be best here.

Answer 1

Use DateTime class. DateInterval and DatePeriod classes were introduced in PHP 5.3.0, so the below solution works for only PHP >= 5.3.0:
$start = new DateTime('2013-11-07');
$end = new DateTime('2013-12-31');
$interval = new DateInterval('P1W'); // one week
$p = new DatePeriod($start, $interval, $end);
foreach ($p as $w) {
$weeks[] = $w->format('d-m-Y');
}
Demo!
As Glavic notes in the comments below, this can also be done in previous versions of PHP using the modify() method:
$start = new DateTime('2013-11-07');
$end = new DateTime('2013-12-31');
$weeks = array();
while ($start < $end) {
$weeks[] = $start->format('d-m-Y');
$start->modify('+1 week');
}
Demo.

Answer 2

You can use strtotime('+1 week', $unixTimestamp) for this:
<?php
$startDate = '2013-11-07';
$endDate = '2013-12-31';
$startDateUnix = strtotime($startDate);
$endDateUnix = strtotime($endDate);
$dates = array();
while ($startDateUnix < $endDateUnix) {
$dates[] = date('Y-m-d', $startDateUnix);
$startDateUnix = strtotime('+1 week', $startDateUnix);
}
print_r($dates);
?>
Outputs:
Array
(
[0] => 2013-11-07
[1] => 2013-11-14
[2] => 2013-11-21
[3] => 2013-11-28
[4] => 2013-12-05
[5] => 2013-12-12
[6] => 2013-12-19
[7] => 2013-12-26
)
DEMO
(format the date() call in any way you want to get the format you want).

Answer 3

strtotime does what you need
$nextWeek = strtotime('08/11/2013 + 1 week');
If you need that 8 times, loop it 8 times. You can make a function with $start and $numWeek to return an array with $numWeeks+1 values (the start added)
function createDateList($start, $numWeeks){
$dates = array($start);// add first date
// create a loop with $numWeeks illiterations:
for($i=1;$<=$numWeeks; $i++){
// Add the weeks, take the first value and add $i weeks to it
$time = strtotime($dates[0].' + '.$i.' week'); // get epoch value
$dates[] = date("d/M/Y", $time); // set to prefered date format
}
return $dates;
}

Answer 4

would the strtotime() function work here?
$nextweek = strtotime('thursday next week');
$date = date('d/m/Y', $nextweek);
To create a 5 element array containing today (or this thursday) and the next 4:
for ($a = 0; $a < 5; $a++)
{
$thur = date('d/m/Y', strtotime("thursday this week + $a weeks"));
$dates[] = $thur;
}