Shortest way to compare 2 dates in dd/mm/yyyy format

Question

can anyone suggest the neatest way to do this comparison? I need to test if a date provided in dd/mm/yyyy format is less than a fixed date, e.g 01/05/2009 - I know I can convert

Answer 1

$fixedDate = '01/05/2009';
$variableDate = '28/04/2010';

// Now we do our timestamping magic!
$fixedDate = implode('', array_reverse(explode('/', $fixedDate)));
$variableDate = implode('', array_reverse(explode('/', $variableDate)));

if ($variableDate < $fixedDate) // 20100428 < 20090501
{
  // there you go
}