Field Data With ActiveForm

Question

Just wanted to find out what is the best way to calculate age from DOB on the fly using the Yii framework.

I have a model with the following fields.

        'id' => 'ID',
        'firstname' => 'Firstname',
        'surname' => 'Surname',
        'dob' => 'Dob',
        'age' => 'Age',

Then in my _form.php file I am trying to edit it so that the age is calculated on the fly

<?php $form = ActiveForm::begin(); ?>

<?php
    $currentDate=date('Y-m-d');
    $dob=$model->dob; //Careful with initialization???

    $model->age=$currentDate-$dob; 
?>

<?= $form->field($model, 'firstname')->textInput(['maxlength' => 50]) ?>

<?= $form->field($model, 'surname')->textInput(['maxlength' => 50]) ?>

<?= $form->field($model, 'dob')->widget(
    DatePicker::className(), [
    // inline too, not bad
    'inline' => false, 
    // modify template for custom rendering
    'template' => '<div class="well well-sm" style="background-color: #fff; width:250px">{input}</div>',
    'clientOptions' => [
        'autoclose' => true,
        'format' => 'yyyy-mm-dd'
    ]
]);?>

<?php echo Html::activeHiddenInput($model, 'age') ; 

<div class="form-group">
    <?= Html::submitButton($model->isNewRecord ? 'Create' : 'Update', ['class' => $model->isNewRecord ? 'btn btn-success' : 'btn btn-primary']) ?>
</div>

<?php ActiveForm::end(); ?>

Of course there is a problem here as to get the $model->dob, the form first has to be submitted, so when the calculation of age is done dob is uninitiated.

What I want to know is there someway I can read from the dob field first so that the age can be computed correctly?

Or is this best done by something like a trigger in the database?

Looking forward to hearing responses.

Cheers.

Why you are including hidden input with age in your form? And such calculations should be done in model instead of view. — arogachev, Mar 17 '15 at 10:09
You can do this calculation in beforeSave method. It gets called before the insert event. For detail here is the link: http://www.yiiframework.com/doc-2.0/yii-db-baseactiverecord.html#beforeSave%28%29-detail — Chinmay Waghmare, Mar 17 '15 at 10:16
Like @arogachev said, you should calculate the age in a function like "getAge()". It's not pertinent to store a calculable. — Timothée Planchais, Mar 17 '15 at 10:42
This is not yii specific and can be handled in your controller or model (depending on your choice) using pure php, look at the answer [here](http://stackoverflow.com/a/3923228/724913) for the code — arkoak, Mar 17 '15 at 11:19

Jørgen · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-17T15:44:34.190

In your user model, add:

public $age;

public function getAge()
{
    // age in format yyyy-mm-dd
    if(isset($this->age)) return $this->age;
    else {
        $dob = explode("-", $this->dob);
        $age = (date("md", date("U", mktime(0, 0, 0, $dob[1], $dob[2], $dob[0]))) > date("md")
            ? ((date("Y") - $dob[2]) - 1)
            : (date("Y") - $dob[2]));
        $this->age = $age;
        return $age;
    }
}

Then you can just call $model->getAge() where you need it. (If the $model is your user model ofcourse.)

Field Data With ActiveForm

1 Answers1