102

I got this code from Stackoverflow and changed it slightly to work with today's date.

I want to check if today fits between two dates. But this is not working. What am I missing?

$paymentDate = date('d/m/Y');
echo $paymentDate; // echos today! 
$contractDateBegin = date('d/m/Y', '01/01/2001');
$contractDateEnd = date('d/m/Y', '01/01/2015');

if ($paymentDate > $contractDateBegin && $paymentDate < $contractDateEnd)
{
  echo "is between";
}
else
{
echo "NO GO!";  
}
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2
  • 2
    if youre on php5, check out datetime.diff on no2.php.net/manual/en/datetime.diff.php Commented Sep 28, 2013 at 18:12
  • Then you should read the formats that strtotime() accepts.... but date() is definitely the wrong function to use Commented Sep 28, 2013 at 18:17

16 Answers 16

Reset to default
231

Just use the strtotime() php function.

$paymentDate = date('Y-m-d');
$paymentDate=date('Y-m-d', strtotime($paymentDate));
//echo $paymentDate; // echos today! 
$contractDateBegin = date('Y-m-d', strtotime("01/01/2001"));
$contractDateEnd = date('Y-m-d', strtotime("01/01/2012"));
    
if (($paymentDate >= $contractDateBegin) && ($paymentDate <= $contractDateEnd)){
    echo "is between";
}else{
    echo "NO GO!";  
}

Note: Use <= or >= to count today's date.

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8 Comments

Thank you good sir! Maybe it might be good to remove your answer that you added at the top and just leave the one that works for me. Not sure.
@PapaDeBeau: You have to keep in mind that those 01/01/2001 dates in this solution are in m/d/Y format, not d/m/Y.
I would not use stric comparison, so this is the best $paymentDate >= $contractDateBegin and $paymentDate <= $contractDateEnd
if (($paymentDate > $contractDateBegin) && ($paymentDate < $contractDateEnd)) can be if (($paymentDate >= $contractDateBegin) && ($paymentDate <= $contractDateEnd)) So that it can check greater than equal to and less than equal to.
This solution, and every other solution on this page fails when you provide a date that starts before the unix epoch. Try it with 1942/07/28 and see what happens.
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43

You cannot compare date-strings. It is good habit to use PHP's DateTime object instead:

$paymentDate = new DateTime(); // Today
echo $paymentDate->format('d/m/Y'); // echos today! 
$contractDateBegin = new DateTime('2001-01-01');
$contractDateEnd  = new DateTime('2015-01-01');

if (
  $paymentDate->getTimestamp() > $contractDateBegin->getTimestamp() && 
  $paymentDate->getTimestamp() < $contractDateEnd->getTimestamp()){
  echo "is between";
}else{
   echo "NO GO!";  
}
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3 Comments

If you print $paymentDate->getTimestamp() and $contractDateEnd->getTimestamp() when $contractDateEnd is same as current date it will produce wrong result. example today is 01/05/2015 but if you change $contractDateEnd = new DateTime('2015-05-01'); then it will produce wrong timestamp. Instead of just $paymentDate = new DateTime(); you should use $paymentDate = new DateTime('2015-05-01') ie. pass current date to it
I am always wondering why people do not use DateTime more often?
You don't need getTimestamp() here
20

If hours matter:

$paymentDate = strtotime(date("Y-m-d H:i:s"));
$contractDateBegin = strtotime("2014-01-22 12:42:00");
$contractDateEnd = strtotime("2014-01-22 12:50:00");

if($paymentDate > $contractDateBegin && $paymentDate < $contractDateEnd) {
   echo "is between";
} else {
    echo "NO GO!";  
}
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Comments

6

Based on luttken's answer. Thought I'd add my twist :)

function dateIsInBetween(\DateTime $from, \DateTime $to, \DateTime $subject)
{
    return $subject->getTimestamp() > $from->getTimestamp() && $subject->getTimestamp() < $to->getTimestamp() ? true : false;
}

$paymentDate       = new \DateTime('now');
$contractDateBegin = new \DateTime('01/01/2001');
$contractDateEnd   = new \DateTime('01/01/2016');

echo dateIsInBetween($contractDateBegin, $contractDateEnd, $paymentDate) ? "is between" : "NO GO!";
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Comments

5

Another solution would have been to consider date written as Ymd.

Written in this "format" this is much easy to compare dates.

$paymentDate       = date('Ymd'); // on 4th may 2016, would have been 20160504
$contractBegin     = 20010101;
$contractEnd       = 20160101;
echo ($paymentDate >= $contractBegin && $paymentDate <= $contractEnd) ? "Between" : "Not Between";

It will always work for every day of the year and do not depends on any function or conversion (PHP will consider the int value of $paymentDate to compare with the int value of contractBegin and contractEnd).

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5

You are comparing the dates as strings, which won't work because the comparison is lexicographical. It's the same issue as when sorting a text file, where a line 20 would appear after a line 100 because the contents are not treated as numbers but as sequences of ASCII codes. In addition, the dates created are all wrong because you are using a string format string where a timestamp is expected (second argument).

Instead of this you should be comparing timestamps of DateTime objects, for instance:

 $paymentDate = date_create();
 $contractDateBegin = date_create_from_format('d/m/Y', '01/01/2001');
 $contractDateEnd = date_create_from_format('d/m/Y', '01/01/2015');

Your existing conditions will then work correctly.

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8 Comments

I must not be using php5? I got this error: Call to undefined function date_create_from_format()
Try just date_create
@PapaDeBeau: date_create_from_format was introduced in PHP 5.3, which has already reached end of life -- yet you are using an even earlier version. I suggest upgrading today if possible.
@OfirBaruch: Won't work because d/m/Y is not one of the supported formats.
Downvoter: Is there something wrong with this answer? Please help me improve it by leaving a comment.
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3

Because I'm lazy:

$paymentDate = new DateTime();
$contractStartDate = new Datetime('01/01/2001');
$contractEndDate = new Datetime('01/01/2015');
$payable = $paymentDate < $contractEndDate && $contractStartDate > $paymentDate; //bool

var_dump($payable)

Display:

bool(false)

As a function

function isPayable(DateTime $payDate, DateTime $startDate, DateTime $endDate):bool 
{
    return $payDate > $startDate && $payDate < $endDate;
}

var_dump(isPayable(new DateTime(), new Datetime('01/01/2001'), new DateTime('01/01/2015')));
var_dump(isPayable(new DateTime('2003-03-15'), new Datetime('2001-01-01'), new DateTime('2015-03-01')));

Display:

bool(false)
bool(True)
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Comments

2

It should be noted that you can compare Datetime() objects as is. So a simplified and cleaner version of @luttkens answer above:

$paymentDate       = new DateTime(); // Today
$contractDateBegin = new DateTime('2001-01-01');
$contractDateEnd   = new DateTime('2015-01-01');

if ($paymentDate >= $contractDateBegin && $paymentDate < $contractDateEnd) {
  // is in between
}
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Comments

1

Simple approach, works for dates and datetimes:

// Check if today falls between two dates
$start_date = strtotime('01/01/2001');
$end_date = strtotime('01/01/2015');
$today = strtotime('today');

if($today >= $start_date && $today <= $end_date) {
  // Today is between two dates
}
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Comments

0

If you need bracket dates to be dynamic ..

$todayStr = date('Y-m-d');
$todayObj=date('Y-m-d', strtotime($todayStr));
$currentYrStr =  date('Y');
$DateBegin = date('Y-m-d', strtotime("06/01/$currentYrStr"));
$DateEnd = date('Y-m-d', strtotime("10/01/$currentYrStr"));
if (($todayObj > $contractDateBegin) && ($paymentDate < $contractDateEnd)){
    $period="summer";
}else{
   $period="winter";  
}
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Comments

0

Simple solution:

function betweenDates($cmpDate,$startDate,$endDate){ 
   return (date($cmpDate) > date($startDate)) && (date($cmpDate) < date($endDate));
}
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2 Comments

Can you explain usage of this?
This definitely works if you parse it 3 unix time stamp values, thanks @Spock !
0

You can use the mktime(hour, minute, seconds, month, day, year) function

$paymentDate = mktime(0, 0, 0, date('m'), date('d'), date('Y'));
$contractDateBegin = mktime(0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2001); 
$contractDateEnd =  mktime(0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2012);

if ($paymentDate >= $contractDateBegin && $paymentDate <= $contractDateEnd){
    echo "is between";
}else{
    echo "NO GO!";  
}
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Comments

-1

The above methods are useful but they are not full-proof because it will give error if time is between 12:00 AM/PM and 01:00 AM/PM . It will return the "No Go" in-spite of being in between the timing . Here is the code for the same:

$time = '2019-03-27 12:00 PM';

$date_one = $time; 
$date_one = strtotime($date_one);
$date_one = strtotime("+60 minutes", $date_one);
$date_one =  date('Y-m-d h:i A', $date_one);

$date_ten = strtotime($time); 
$date_ten = strtotime("-12 minutes", $date_ten); 
$date_ten = date('Y-m-d h:i A', $date_ten);

$paymentDate='2019-03-27 12:45 AM';

$contractDateBegin = date('Y-m-d h:i A', strtotime($date_ten)); 
$contractDateEnd = date('Y-m-d h:i A', strtotime($date_one));

echo $paymentDate; 
echo "---------------"; 
echo $contractDateBegin; 
echo "---------------"; 
echo $contractDateEnd; 
echo "---------------";

$contractDateEnd='2019-03-27 01:45 AM';

if($paymentDate > $contractDateBegin && $paymentDate < $contractDateEnd)  
{  
 echo "is between";
} 
else
{  
  echo "NO GO!";  
}

Here you will get output "NO Go" because 12:45 > 01:45.

To get proper output date in between, make sure that for "AM" values from 01:00 AM to 12:00 AM will get converted to the 24-hour format. This little trick helped me.

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Comments

-1

I had some glitches due to locale probably. That's worked for me. To be concise variable declaration omitted. Both time() and strtotime() returns int so integers are compared

if (time()>=strtotime("27.07.2022") && time()<strtotime("29.07.2022")){
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Comments

-1

Use directly

$paymentDate = strtotime(date("d-m-Y"));
$contractDateBegin = strtotime("01-01-2001");
$contractDateEnd = strtotime("01-01-2015");

Then comparison will be ok cause your 01-01-2015 is valid for PHP's 32bit date-range, stated in strtotime's manual.

Example:

<?php

//$paymentDate = strtotime(date("d-m-Y"));
$paymentDate = strtotime("21-06-2023");
$contractDateBegin = strtotime("01-01-2023");
$contractDateEnd = strtotime("01-01-2024");

echo $paymentDate . PHP_EOL;
echo $contractDateBegin . PHP_EOL;
echo $contractDateEnd . PHP_EOL;

if ($paymentDate >= $contractDateBegin && $paymentDate <= $contractDateEnd) {
    echo "Valid" . PHP_EOL;
} else {
    echo "Expired" . PHP_EOL;
}

exit();

WARNING! DO NOT USE strtotime() within the following condition:

in_array($paymentDate, range($contractDateBegin, $contractDateEnd), true)

even on 1 year interval, it will eat all available memory (for example in 3v4l.org online PHP shell, it gives this fatal error:

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 67108864 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 536870920 bytes)

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Comments

-3 
function get_format($df) {

    $str = '';
    $str .= ($df->invert == 1) ? ' - ' : '';
    if ($df->y > 0) {
        // years
        $str .= ($df->y > 1) ? $df->y . ' Years ' : $df->y . ' Year ';
    } if ($df->m > 0) {
        // month
        $str .= ($df->m > 1) ? $df->m . ' Months ' : $df->m . ' Month ';
    } if ($df->d > 0) {
        // days
        $str .= ($df->d > 1) ? $df->d . ' Days ' : $df->d . ' Day ';
    } 

    echo $str;
}

$yr=$year;
$dates=$dor;
$myyear='+'.$yr.' years';
$new_date = date('Y-m-d', strtotime($myyear, strtotime($dates)));
$date1 = new DateTime("$new_date");
$date2 = new DateTime("now");
$diff = $date2->diff($date1);
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