Counting number of days

[storm197]

Hello there,

I have a question,

I work on a system with a MSSQL database for DB server and PHP.

The MSSQL server date format is the following :
Feb 3 2005 12:00AM

I have two date fields and I just want to calculate the number of days between those two dates.

I tried with the following code :
$bla=strtotime('$date_created')-strtotime('$date_resolved')) /86400;

But it always gives me a 0 value.

Anyone can help me on this ?

 

[sleipnir214]

Is $date_created later than $date_resolved? If not, you're going to get a negative value from your addition. That wouldn't give you a zero, though -- just a negative answer.

Also, in your example your parentheses do not balance. But you do not report a parse error, so I'll interpret that as a typo.

My test script:

<?php
print date ('Y-m-d H:i:s', strtotime('Feb 3 2005 12:03AM'));
?>

returns "2005-02-03 00:03:00", which tells me that strtotime() can handle a date of that format.

And this script:

<?php
print (strtotime('Feb 3 2005 12:03AM') - strtotime('Jan 20 2005 12:03AM'))/86400;
?>

returns "14", so I don't see a flaw in your methodology. Have you verified the values are getting into your variables?



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[storm197]

Ok, I tried with your example and everything works fine if I put the dates mannually in the code.

But if I try to use the variables, it just doesn't work. Here is my code :

$nb_days =(strtotime('$date_resolved') - strtotime('$date_created'))/86400;

Both strtotime return -1. I've enter manually the real dates of these variables, and it works fine.

I've alse tried with " " and If give me the following error :function.strtotime]: Called with an empty time parameter.

 

[kenrbnsn]

You are using single quotes where you shouldn't be:

$nb_days =(strtotime('$date_resolved') - strtotime('$date_created'))/86400;

should be written:

$nb_days =(strtotime($date_resolved) - strtotime($date_created))/86400;

The single quotes around the variable names are turning them into strings which strtotime can't understand.

Ken

 

[storm197]

Yeah, I thought about this one. But when I remove the Quotes, if gives me this error :

Warning: strtotime() [function.strtotime]: Called with an empty time parameter. in c:\Inetpub\

http://wwwroot\inv-dev\administrator\list_laptops_cases.php

on line 247

If I just echo my variable $date_created and $date_resolved, they seems to be ok.

$date_resolved = Jan 18 2005 4:20PM
$date_created = Jan 31 2005 3:30PM

 

[sleipnir214]

Ken's right. You must NOT have those quotes, as information inside of singlequotes is not interpolated. In short, you're passing strtotime() the literal strings '$date_resolved', not a reference to the value of the variable $date_resolved.


Where are the values in $date_resolved and $date_created coming from? Could this be a problem with register_globals?


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[storm197]

The variables come from a MSSQL query which is done just before the function.

For the query, I do the usual code :

While ($ligne_students_quitted = mssql_fetch_array($result_students_quitted))
{
extract ($ligne_students_quitted);
$nb_days =(strtotime($date_resolved) - strtotime($date_created))/86400;


}



Register Global is set to ON, i'm on a test environment.

 

[sleipnir214]

If you change:

$nb_days =(strtotime($date_resolved) - strtotime($date_created))/86400;

to read:

print "'" . $date_resolved . "'\t'" . $date_created . "'";
$nb_days =(strtotime($date_resolved) - strtotime($date_created))/86400;


Do you see the two dates?


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[kenrbnsn]

This code works fine for me:

<?
$date_resolved = "Jan 31 2005 4:20PM";
$dr = strtotime($date_resolved);
$date_created = "Jan 18 2005 3:30PM";
$dc = strtotime($date_created);
$nb_days =(strtotime($date_resolved) - strtotime($date_created))/86400;
echo '$date_resolved: ' . $date_resolved . "\n";
echo 'strtotime($date_resolved): ' . $dr . "\n";
echo '$date_created: ' . $date_created . "\n";
echo 'strtotime($date_created): ' . $dc . "\n";
echo '$nb_days: ' . $nb_days."\n";
?>

Giving the results:

$ php -q strtotime.php
$date_resolved: Jan 31 2005 4:20PM
strtotime($date_resolved): 1107206400
$date_created: Jan 18 2005 3:30PM
strtotime($date_created): 1106080200
$nb_days: 13.034722222222

$ php -v
PHP 4.3.10

Echo your variables just before your calculation.

BTW, development or production, register_globals should be set to OFF.

If it's set to ON, write your code as if it's set to OFF.

Ken

 

[storm197]

Really really strange here....

It works fine if I put the following code :

echo "<td bgcolor=\"$row_color\" align=\"center\" class=\"texte\">$date_created<br>$date_resolved";

$nb_days =(strtotime($date_resolved) - strtotime($date_created))/86400;

echo "<br>".$nb_days;

echo "</td>";


Doesn't work If I put it like this :

$nb_days =(strtotime($date_resolved) - strtotime($date_created))/86400;

echo "<td bgcolor=\"$row_color\" align=\"center\" class=\"texte\">$date_created<br>$date_resolved";

echo "<br>".$nb_days;

echo "</td>";