Question

i have 2 tables for categories & posts

the categories table contain

id
name

and the posts table contain

id
name
post
added_date

the date stored like (2010-09-05).

when i print the categories by this code

$query=mysql_query("select id,name from categories order by id");
while($row=mysql_fetch_assoc($query)){

echo "$row[id] : $row[name] <br />";
}

i need to print word ( new ) next to the category that have any new post for 3 days only after three days it should be normal category name without word (NEW).

regards

Answer 1

You need to change your query to report the newest posting date for each category. The simplest way to do this is with an aggregate function in the query:

$query = mysql_query("select c.id, c.name, MAX(p.added_date) AS last_date from categories c inner join posts p on p.category_id = c.id group by c.id order by c.id"); 

Then, when printing the list of categories, if the value of the last_date column is newer than 4 days old, print the (new) text. For example:

while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($query) )
{     
    $id = $row['id'];
    $name = $row['name'];

    echo( "$id : $name " );

    $daysOld = ( time() - strtotime( $row['last_date'] ) ) / 86400; 
    if( $daysOld < 4 ) 
        echo( "(new)" ); 

    echo( "<br />" );
}