How can I compare two dates in PHP?

Question

How can I compare two dates in PHP?

The date is stored in the database in the following format

2011-10-2

If I wanted to

Answer 1

Here's a way on how to get the difference between two dates in minutes.

// set dates
$date_compare1= date("d-m-Y h:i:s a", strtotime($date1));
// date now
$date_compare2= date("d-m-Y h:i:s a", strtotime($date2));

// calculate the difference
$difference = strtotime($date_compare1) - strtotime($date_compare2);
$difference_in_minutes = $difference / 60;

echo $difference_in_minutes;