Check which datetime is older if they have different format PHP

Question

How to check which date is older if they have different format, for example :

$date1 = "2018-05-09 12:31:51"; // "Y-m-d H:i:s" format
$date2 = "06/09/2018"; // "d/m/Y" format

Is the time important? Because `2018-05-09 12:00:00` is before `2018-05-09 13:00:00`, but has the same date. — Michel, Sep 07 '18 at 09:57
you can assume the time variable in `$date2` equal to `00:00:00` — nortonuser, Sep 07 '18 at 09:59

Atural · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-07T10:01:51.083

3

DateTime::createFromFormat is pretty handy here

Try this:

$date1 = "2018-05-09 12:31:51"; // "Y-m-d H:i:s" format
$date2 = "06/09/2018"; // "d/m/Y" format

$objDateA = DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d H:i:s', $date1);
$objDateB = DateTime::createFromFormat('d/m/Y', $date2);


if ($objDateA < $objDateB)
{
    ...
}

edited Sep 07 '18 at 10:01

answered Sep 07 '18 at 09:59

Atural

5,389
5
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where should i put my `$date1` and `$date2` variable? – nortonuser Sep 07 '18 at 10:01
i've updated my answer – Atural Sep 07 '18 at 10:02
how to make the `$date2` variable has the same `$date1` `H:i:s` – nortonuser Sep 07 '18 at 10:06
for the same format ? do this `echo $objDateB->format('Y-m-d H:i:s')` , if you want the same time `$objDateB->setTime($objDateA->format('H'), $objDateA->format('i'), $objDateA->format('s'));` – Atural Sep 07 '18 at 10:09

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 07 '18 at 09:59

0

The easiest way is to use a library called Carbon. (https://carbon.nesbot.com/docs/)

You can do it like this:

use Carbon\Carbon;
$date1 = "2018-05-09 12:31:51";
$date1 = Carbon::createFromFormat('Y-d-m H:i:s', $date1);

$date2 = "06/09/2018"; // "d/m/Y" format
$date2 = Carbon::createFromFormat('d-m-Y', $date2);

if ($date1 < $date2) {
     echo "Date 1 is older than Date 2";
else {
     echo "Date 1 is newer than Date 2";
}

answered Sep 07 '18 at 09:59

Vitor Villar

1,855
18
35

1

The entire API you're using is inherited from PHP's DateTime class, so even easier is not using Carbon for this case. – Evert Sep 07 '18 at 10:01
I recommended this library because it has useful methods to use with dates. – Vitor Villar Sep 07 '18 at 10:27

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 07 '18 at 10:02

Try this.

$date1_dt = new DateTime($date1);
$date2_dt = new DateTime($date2);

if ($date1_dt > $date2_dt) 
 { /* Do something */ }

It might possible that the date string is not supported by DateTime parser so you can initialize your dates like this.

$date1_dt = DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d H:i:s', $date1);
$date2_dt = DateTime::createFromFormat('d/m/Y', $date2);

 if ($date1_dt > $date2_dt) 
 { /* Do something */ }

Check which datetime is older if they have different format PHP

3 Answers3