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 my spin on how to get the difference in days between two dates with PHP. Note the use of '!' in the format to discard the time part of the dates, thanks to info from DateTime createFromFormat without time.

$today = DateTime::createFromFormat('!Y-m-d', date('Y-m-d'));
$wanted = DateTime::createFromFormat('!d-m-Y', $row["WANTED_DELIVERY_DATE"]);
$diff = $today->diff($wanted);
$days = $diff->days;
if (($diff->invert) != 0) $days = -1 * $days;
$overdue = (($days < 0) ? true : false);
print "\n";