PHP Compare datetime values - php

Question

In my PHP application I'm trying to compare date time values like the following:
if($datetime_from_db < date('Y-m-d H:i:s'))
{
// then do something
}
Both values are in the same format. What I can't figure out is why it only compares the date and ignores the time. Both the date and the time values are important for me but I don't know how to make it work.

Answer 1

Comparing a string like "2011-02-14 15:46:00" to another string doesn't actually compare dates, it compares two strings according string parsing numeric rules. You will need to compare actual numeric timestamps:
strtotime($datetime_from_db) < time()

Answer 2

If you want this to work with dates past 2038, you can't use strtotime() or time().
See this question for the explanation.
A better approach:
new DateTime($datetime_from_db) < new DateTime();

Answer 3

This may help you.
$today = date("m-d-Y H:i:s");
$thisMonth =date("m");
$thisYear = date("y");
$expectedDate = $thisMonth."-08-$thisYear 23:58:00";
//pr($today);
//pr($expectedDate);
if (strtotime($expectedDate) > strtotime($today)) {
echo "Expected date is greater then current date";
return ;
} else
{
echo "Expected date is lesser then current date";
}

Answer 4

Here is a solution where we use strtotime. I give two examples.
First one comparing the whole timestamp. Second one is just compare the date.
<?php
$date = "2022-10-06 17:49:10"; // string. can set any current timestamp
#example 1 - compare the date and time Y-m-d H:i:s
if(date("Y-m-d H:i:s" , strtotime($date)) >= date("Y-m-d H:i:s")){
echo "the date checked is bigger than today";
}else{
echo "the date checked is smaller than today";
}
#example 2 - compare the date only Y-m-d
if(date("Y-m-d" , strtotime($date)) == date("Y-m-d")){
echo "same day is true";
}else{
echo "same day is false";
}