compare date string in php with mm-dd-yy format

Question

i need to compare two date from string, my dates: first date: 11-11-19 second date: 11-24-17

so i try to

$firstdate = "11-11-19";
$seconddate = "11-24-17";

if($firstdate < $seconddate)
    {
        echo "firstdate is minor than the secondate";
    }
    else
    {
        echo "seconddate is major than the firstdate";
    }

if i change < or > the if statement should change, but i get always the firsdate... how to do to compare two dates in this forma mm-dd-yy ? Thanks

Answer 1

You can use strtotime to convert string to unix timestamp, and compare that.

$firstdate = strtotime("11-11-19");
$seconddate = strtotime("11-24-17");

if($firstdate < $seconddate)
    {
        echo "firstdate is minor than the secondate";
    }
    else
    {
        echo "seconddate is major than the firstdate";
    }

Answer 2

You can convert both dates to timestamp:

echo (strtotime($firstdate) < strtotime($seconddate)) ? "firstdate is minor than the secondate" : "seconddate is major than the firstdate";