RE: [PHP] counting with dates (help!)Hi Sander,
(and Chris, and Martin)
> $today = date("Ymd", mktime(0,0,0, date(m),date(d),date(Y)));
> $last_week = date("Ymd", mktime(0,0,0, date(m),date(d)-7,date(Y)));
> echo ($today - $last_week);
> The result is a number like 8876 (20020107-20011231 = 8876)
> But in date thinking it should be 7!
No, that's the difference in time represented by the number of seconds.
You still need to work with it a little more.
8876 / 60 = number of hours /* 60 = number of seconds in an hour */
8876 / 60 / 24 = number of days. /* 24 = number of hours in a day */
=I'm sorry but neither the above, nor the suggestion of Julian dates was correct (in
all cases). The two numbers
($today and $last_week) generated in the PHP code above are in CCYYMMDD format (as
used by MySQL to store dates,
BTW).
=So you are correct (Sander):
20020107 less
20011231 equals
00008876
=but this number is meaningless. If the formulae proposed above are applied, the
answer is not 7 days.
=Similarly (Julian dates = CCYYDDD format)
2002007 less
2001365 equals
0000642
=However let's jump forward in time, to tomorrow (hey what's 45 minutes between
friends?):
20020108 less
20020101 equals
00000007
=and:
2002008 less
2002001 equals
0000007
=woohoo! How come they 'work' tomorrow but not today? Because (using the first format)
whilst the last and
second to last digits represent days (hence it 'works' tomorrow), the preceding pair
of digits represent months,
and the procession of days into months is not a decimal progression. (smack your
forehead into the wall
now...but don't do it too often, because no matter how good it feels, it'll feel a
whole lot better when you
stop!)
=this is also the reason that using a Julian date format won't work - they look like
decimal numbers (look like
a duck), you can perform arithmetic on them (walk like a duck), but if your
calculation spans a year-break you
will discover that they are not really decimal numbers (and they bark like a dog).
=The three main date formats are:
1 CCYYMMDD (as mentioned above) because it is the way MySQL does things. You can't use
this for 'real
arithmetic' as we've just discussed, but you can do comparisons,
eg is 'today' > 'yesterday' (when I was young...)
2 dd-mmmmmm-ccyy (or variant) which is the way humans like to read their dates. This
is for appearances, and
once again not for arithmetic/logic.
PS never, never, never (did I say "never") use dd/mm/yy or mm/dd/yy because of the
ambiguities it causes -
particularly between Americans and the rest of the world (and date-guessing functions
- see your manual)
3 UNIX Epoch timestamp which is a count of the number of seconds since midnight 1 Jan
1970 (GMT). This is an
absolutely ugly way to look at dates (and times), but it is really easy to use for
arithmetic and after a while
you don't think it at all odd that without any effort you can recall that there are
86,400 seconds in one day.
=Now that piece of trivia, a pocket protector, and band-aid keeping your spectacle
frames together will make you
a babe-magnet in every bar (well those that serve Heineken anyway).
=Putting aside several HOURS to study the two manuals to get your head around date
functions is time well spent
(yes I know, it takes me a little longer...) - particularly the sheer number of SQL
date functions (the power of
which is all too frequently overlooked). Regarding the PHP functions, I made a page
list, and as I made notes
about each one, I annotated it with a 'purpose' so that I could keep them straight in
my mind. Well, enough of
me and there reasons why girls in bars don't talk to me...
=Let me do my usual frustrating thing and ask you what you are REALLY wanting to do.
You don't actually want to
subtract those two numbers/PHP variables, because you already know the answer in their
very creation...
=Regards,
=dn
--
PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/)
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To contact the list administrators, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
