Calculating differences

[Jolten]

Hi,

I'm trying to build a simple countdown and I'm hitting a snag when comparing dates.

I've got db fields for dates that appear like this: 01-14-2005.
I can split the date to 01/14/2005 or 2005-01-14 all with no problem. By default they are 2005-01-14 and I've split them to 01-14-2005. I want to compare that date with the date("m-d-Y") php function and print the difference on a page

I've tried a simply subtraction command:


$dt1 = $row23['dt1'];
list($year,$month, $day) = split('[/.-]', $dt1);
$dt1=$month.'-'.$day.'-'.$year;

$dtm=date("m-d-Y");

$ct = ($dt1 - $dtm);


The $dt1 and $dtm variables do print the dates correctly:


print "$dt1<br />$dtm");


Results in:

01-21-2005
01-14-2005

But the $ct variable returns 0 instead of the 7 I'd expect.

Any help would be appreciated.


Also, since my db field does not track time (hour minute seconds) is there a way I can get a constant like 12:00 am to compare to the current time with mktime(); ?

Thanks

[Jolten]

Okay no help there so how about splitting a string?

I've worked out the calculation but I'm having trouble splitting the result string.

My string returns 7 digits 101023454 - 1 digit day, 2 digit hour, 2 digit minute and 2 digit second.

I need to add a leading 0 for the one digit day if it's not a 2 digit number. Then I need to split the string every 2 digits

here's the code I'm using:


$now = date(YmdHis);
$down= ($dtmsubend - $now);


$dtmsubend returns date at time like this: 20050115235959. So $down results in 1011521. (year and month match so they disappear. Can I get just padding zeros there?)

Can someone tell me how to split that string please? I don't know how to split strings without it already delimitated. I'm still searching php.net and google but I'm having little luck.

Thanks

[Jolten]

Nevermind. Got it all worked out.

[Carnage]

considered converting your date to a unix timestamp doing your calculation and converting back?

[Jolten]

uhmm. no. I'm not that proficient yet. Would that be more efficient?