How Can I Reliably Compare Dates in Unconventional Formats in PHP?

Comparing Dates in PHP: A Thorough Guide

When working with dates in PHP, you may encounter the need to compare two dates to determine their relative order. This task can be challenging, especially when the dates are presented in an unconventional format such as '03_01_12' and '31_12_11'.

Solution: Using DateTime::createFromFormat

To accurately compare dates in an uncommon format, we can utilize the DateTime::createFromFormat function. This function allows us to specify a custom format string to parse the date values into DateTime objects.

The following code demonstrates how to compare dates in the given format:

$format = "d_m_y";
$date1  = \DateTime::createFromFormat($format, "03_01_12");
$date2  = \DateTime::createFromFormat($format, "31_12_11");

var_dump($date1 > $date2);

This approach results in a boolean value indicating whether $date1 is greater than $date2. You can use the var_dump statement for debugging purposes or replace it with appropriate logic in your application.

strtotime() Pitfalls

The code provided in the question attempted to use strtotime(), which is typically used to convert a human-readable date string into a Unix timestamp. However, strtotime() expects dates in a standardized format and cannot handle custom formats like '03_01_12'. Using DateTime::createFromFormat overcomes this limitation by allowing you to specify the exact format of the dates being parsed.

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