Question

I am trying to check if a MySQL stored datetime object is within 2 hours of right now and just either show certain links or not based on if the ride_hour more than 2 hours in the future of the current hour. Here’s what i’ve tried:

$now = date('Y-m-d');
$now_hour = date('h');
$ride_date = date('Y-m-d',strtotime($ride['Ride']['date']));
$full_ride_hour =  date('h',strtotime($ride['Ride']['date']));
$ride_hour = $full_ride_hour-2;

So I’m comparing the day first to see if it is even happing today, if so i don’t need to check the hour. otherwise, I’m trying to compare $ride_hour with $now_hour. The day is obviously working but the hour comparison does not seem to be working.

The other thing I am trying to do, is in the cakePHP controller, is limit the results based on a sort value. I am trying to limit the results to either, ALL, Results with a date in the future, or results in the past, and paginate. Here’s how I’m trying which isn’t working:

switch ($sort) {
case 0:
$rides = $this->paginate('Ride',array('Ride.user_id' => $user_id,'Ride.date > now()'));
break;

case 1:
$rides = $this->paginate('Ride',array('Ride.user_id' => $user_id));
break;

case 2:
$rides = $this->paginate('Ride',array('Ride.user_id' => $user_id,'Ride.date < now()'));
break;
}

$this->set('sort',$sort);
$this->set('rides', $rides);

Thank you!

Answer 1

This would be much easier with the DateTime functionality in PHP. I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “within 2 hours”. I’m assuming you mean between 2 hours before and 2 hours after. If not you can change the intervals pretty easily.

$mysql_date_obj = new DateTime($date_from_mysql);
$before_time = new DateTime('now');
$before_time->add( DateInterval::createFromDateString('-2 hour') );
$after_time = new DateTime('now');
$after_time->add( DateInterval::createFromDateString('2 hour') );

if( $before_time <= $mysql_date_obj && $mysql_date_obj <= $after_time ) {
     // date is within 2 hours.
}

Documentation: http://php.net/DateTime