Tags: strtotime

Benchmark: strtotime() vs DateTime vs getTimestamp in PHP

Posted by Raffael on Posted in PHP Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Recently I wrote about how one can implement date comparison in PHP. In the article I presented two approaches. Firstly, using the strtotime() method and another with the DateTime class.
Then, in the comments on the german division of this blog, it was pointed out that the strtotime() variant is probably faster. Because I wasn’t sure about this, I decided to make a small performance test and share the results with you in this article.
How did I test the performance?

Since the question aims on strtotime() vs. DateTime, the DateTime class is contrary to the strtotime() function. So because DateTime class offers more functionality, I had first to create the DateTime object and then get the timestamp of it, because the strtotime function gives a timestamp as return value and I wanted to compare the time needed to generate the identical output.
As input I have taken a date without a custom time […]

How to compare dates in PHP

Posted by Raffael on Posted in PHP, Test Tagged , , , , , ,

php_date_compareHow to actually compare 2 dates in PHP with each other? The question sounds easier than it is.  The first thought that usually comes is the following. We store both dates as strings and compare them.
Preliminary

<?php
$date1 = "2012-1-12";
$date2 = "2011-10-12";

if ($date1 > $date2)
echo "$date1 is newer than $date2";
else
echo "$date1 is older than $date2";
?>

Output:

2012-1-12 is newer than 2011-10-12

At first glance this seems to be a workable solution. But what if the two data is in a different format?

<?php
$date1 = "12-1-12";
$date2 = "2011-10-12";

if ($date1 > $date2)
echo "$date1 is newer than $date2";
else
echo "$date1 is older than $date2";
?>

Output:

12-1-12 is older than 2011-10-12

Now the date in 2012 is declared to be older than the date in 2011, which is of course wrong. However, from PHP’s point of view, this behavior is correct, because two strings were compared […]