Question

I’m trying to search for all appointments between to dates in an mysql database. The date is in this format.

 2012-07-26

Here is the code I’m using to select the relevant appointments from drop down selection boxes on another page.

    AND SUBSTRING(startDate, 6, 2) >= $month
    AND SUBSTRING(startDate, 6, 2) <= $month2 
    AND SUBSTRING(startDate, 9, 2) <= $day 
    AND SUBSTRING(startDate, 9, 2) <= $day2

The problem I have is that if I select a day like 02, then the results will only be days earlier than 02 on any month. Whereas I need something more like;

 SUBSTRING(startDate, 6, 5) <= '$month2'-'$day2' 

I’m just not sure how to phrase it correctly.

Answer 1

You should MySQL’s date functions instead of SUBSTRING assuming your column is of DATE or DATETIME type.

Relevant date functions:

• DAY()
• MONTH()

New code:

AND MONTH(startDate) >= $month
AND MONTH(startDate) <= $month2
AND DAY(startDate) <= $day
AND DAY(startDate) <= $day2

You may also be able to use the BETWEEN operator.

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