Time Comparisons PHP Nightmare - php

Question

I'm having an issue with time comparisons with PHP - I think I must be doing something stupid but I've been trying different things for hours now and I'm just hitting a brick wall.
I'm pulling data from EVE's API and then doing a check for whither there is still subscription there and whither there is a skill in training - with both of these there is a particular time frame (1 week for subscription and 12 hours for skills) that I'd like to flag up a warning - however I can't seem to get it working at all. The output of all the dates and times seems to be the right format I just can't get the comparison to work.
I'm wondering if anyone can point what's most likely my stupid mistake and give me a push in the right direction.
thanks for taking a look,
<?php
// ---- For Skill Queue
$apiSection = "char/SkillQueue";
$urlChar = "https://api.eveonline.com/$apiSection.xml.aspx?keyID=$keyID&vCode=$vCode&characterID=$charID";
$data = file_get_contents($urlChar);
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($data);
foreach ($xml->result->rowset->row as $row){
$charQueueEndTemp = $row{'endTime'};
}
$charQueueEnd = date("d-m-Y H:m", strtotime($charQueueEndTemp));
//echo "Skill Test" . $charQueueEnd;
// --- Account API
$apiSection = "account/AccountStatus";
$urlAccount = "https://api.eveonline.com/$apiSection.xml.aspx?keyID=$keyID&vCode=$vCode";
$data = file_get_contents($urlAccount);
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($data);
$accSubsTemp = $xml->result->{'paidUntil'}->{0};
$accSubs = date("d-m-Y H:m", strtotime($accSubsTemp));
date_default_timezone_set('Europe/Paris');
$currentDate = date("d-m-Y H:m");
$lessWeek = date("d-m-Y H:m", strtotime("-1 week"));
$plusWeek = date("d-m-Y H:m", strtotime("+1 week"));
$plus12Hour = date("d-m-Y H:m", strtotime("+12 hour"));
//Date Tests
//echo "</br> Curent Date: ".$currentDate;
//echo "</br> Plus Week: ".$plusWeek;
//echo "</br>Acc Subs: ".$accSubs;
//echo "</br>Acc +12: ".$plus12Hour;
// -- Account Subscribed Check
if($currentDate > $accSubs){
echo "Account is not Subscribed";
}
elseif($plusWeek > $accSubs){
echo "Account has less than 1 week Subscription";
}
else{
echo "Account is Subscribed";
}
// -- Skill Training Check
if($charQueueEnd = null){
echo "Skill Queue Ended";
}
elseif($plus12Hour > $charQueueEnd){
echo "Skill Queue ending in less than 12 Hours";
}
else{
echo "Skill Queue Active";
}
?>

Answer 1

Start using DateTime class for date/time manipulation/compare :
If you change your code to this :
$currentDate = new DateTime();
$lessWeek = new DateTime("-1 week");
$plusWeek = new DateTime("+1 week");
$plus12Hour = new DateTime("+12 hour");
... then your IF statements will start to work.

Answer 2

You are doing the date comparisons completely WRONG. You're comparing date STRINGS, e.g. using some dates formatted the same way you're doing:
$plusWeek = '26-08-2013 8:30'; Aug 26th, 2013
$accSubs = '9-08-2013 10:45'; Aug 9th, 2013
Since these are strings, string comparison rules apply. That means the strings are compared character by character, and (string)26 is actually LESS than string(9), because 2 is smaller than 9.
You need to keep things as the raw timestamps, e.g. the strtotime() output:
$plusWeek = strtotime('2013-08-26 08:30'); // 1377527400
$accSubs = strtotime('2013-08-09 10:45').; // 1376066700
Comparing these integer values will work as you want.
The main problem is also that you're not formatted your data strings in "most significant data" order. If they were formatted with the year first, e.g.
yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss
then a string comparison WOULD work as a side effect.

Answer 3

If you want to compare dates you have to compare arguments returned by strtotime() function, for example:
elseif(strtotime($plus12Hour) > strtotime($charQueueEnd)){