Relative Date Function

[dereko]

Hey,

In PHP, I need a function or Class with methods that allow me to pass it
a Date string/timestamp and it returns the relative date to now.

e.g.

2009-03-08 returns "Yesterday"
2009-03-01 returns "Last Week"
2008-08-08 returns "Last Year" or something like that

similar to the way Outlook groups email

anyhow, its php/mysql app.. surely there is some open source code
somewhere that will do this for me.. did a bit of a google but must be
using the wrong terms.

btw Mysql db so can use MySQL in query if you think that would be the
better way to do it?

I'm displaying a list of Sign ups and I want to group them by joining
date.

[Cups]

I'm displaying a list of Sign ups and I want to group them by joining
date.

So what format are they stored in the database as?

Presumably the only options are;
yesterday
this week
last week
this month
last month
this year
last year
previously

Else tell us what those options all are.

I guess you want to generate the correct sql snippet from an array of options like this;

$signup = array(
'yesterday'=> "signup_date > $today - 1 day " ,

'last year' => "signup_date like 2008 ",
);

Is that what you are after.

[dereko]

stored in the database as Mysql Dates.

[Cups]

In PHP, I need a function or Class with methods that allow me to pass it
a Date string/timestamp and it returns the relative date to now.

Nope, never seen one.

[dotwebs]

SELECT * FROM yourtable WHERE dateadded = CURDATE() - INTERVAL 1 DAY 

will return anything added in the past day. Change to hours/days/months/years as required.

Is this what you're trying to do?

[dereko]

hmmm..

if I have a table of members

id, name , join_date
1, John Doe, 2009-03-08 12:23
2, John Doe2, 2009-01-09 12:23
3, John Doe3, 2009-01-12 12:23
4, John Doe4, 2009-02-09 12:23
5, John Doe5, 2009-03-01 12:23
6, John Doe6, 2009-03-08 08:25
7, John Doe7, 2009-03-08 12:23
8, John Doe8, 2009-03-09 02:15
9, John Doe9, 2009-03-09 11:00
10, John Doe10, 2009-03-09 12:23

I want to list all these members on a page sorted by date of sign up where the most recent sign up is on top.

I have this already done.. all works fine

What i want to do now is group these on the html page by relative date
e.g.

--

Today
John Doe10 ...
John Doe9 ...
John Doe8 ...

Yesterday
John Doe7
John Doe6

Last Week
John Doe5

Last Month
John Doe4

2 Months ago
John Doe3
John Doe2

Last Year
John Doe1


just like what you would see in outlook

Now I know how to do all the code for this, its pretty straight forward but.. I thought there might be a nice function out there already made that takes in a Mysql Date OR PHP date string and returns what the relative date is.. e.g. "Today", "Yesterday", "Last Month" etc...

surely someone has one of these functions in ther library somewhere.

[dotwebs]

You just need to a recordset for each:

$sql = "SELECT * from table WHERE dateadded = CURDATE()"
$row_sql = mysql_fetch_assoc($sql);

//add heading
echo "Today <br />:";

//echo out your results in a repeat region
 do {
 echo $row_sql['firstname'].$row_sql['lastname']."<br />";
  
    } while ($row_sql = mysql_fetch_assoc($sql));

//second one

$sql2 = "SELECT * from table WHERE dateadded = CURDATE() - INTERVAL 1DAY";
$row_sql2 = mysql_fetch_assoc($sql2);

//add heading
 echo "Yesterday <br />:";

//echo out your results in a repeat region
  do {
  echo $row_sql2['firstname'].$row_sql2['lastname']."<br />";
  
    } while ($row_sql2 = mysql_fetch_assoc($sql2)); 

and so on .. using - INTERVAL WHATEVER in your select statements

Oh! I just read the last bit of your post and see that you're looking for a function.. doh! Sorry, I don't have one but if you find one would you post it here? It could be handy!

Thanks

[r937]

You just need to a recordset for each:

that's quite inefficient

how about just one query, one result set, and you handle the grouping by examining the date in php