A little help with POST and DATE fields

[shmoopie]

Hi,
I have a php form that I want to use to pass a user specified "start date" and "end date" to a mysql database to retrieve reservations.

I want the number of days up to and including the "end date" to be displayed for both of these scenarios:
1) The item is still on loan as of the "end date"
2) The item has already been returned as of the "end date"

Right now I have it working by specifying a "start date", but the "end date" is actually set to the "current date". This would be fine, but I might need to go back and select all reservations in July, which would mean a whole lot of extra days being tallied up to today.

So, here is my code. The problem I am having is that the user input is a string, which I must convert before subtracting it from the start date. How do I do this?

Thanks in advance!

// Get start date and format properly for query string
$v_startdate = $_POST['sdate'];
$x_startdate = "'" . $v_startdate . "'" ;
 
// Get end date and format properly for query string
$v_enddate = $_POST['edate'];
$x_enddate = "'" . $v_enddate . "'" ;
 
 
 
// make connection to database
mysql_connect($hostName, $userName, $password) or die("Unable to connect to host $hostName");
 
mysql_select_db($dbName) or die( "Unable to select database $dbName");
 
// 1st part - If the reservation is greater than or equal to the start date but ends before current date
// 2nd part - If the reservation is greater than or equal to the start date but ends after current date, I want to see up to current date
$query = "SELECT li.fname Name, li.lname Last_Name, rs.name Equipment, rv.summary Project, (TO_DAYS( from_unixtime( rv.end_date ) ) - TO_DAYS( from_unixtime( rv.start_date ) )) + 1 Days_Out , rs.notes ID_Cost
FROM reservations rv, resources rs, reservation_users ru, login li
WHERE rs.machid = rv.machid
AND ru.resid = rv.resid
AND li.memberid = ru.memberid
AND from_unixtime( rv.end_date ) <= CURRENT_DATE() 
AND from_unixtime(rv.start_date) >= $x_startdate
UNION
SELECT li.fname Name, li.lname Last_Name, rs.name Equipment, rv.summary Project, (TO_DAYS( CURRENT_DATE( ) ) - TO_DAYS( from_unixtime( rv.start_date ))) + 1 Days_Out,  rs.notes ID_Cost
FROM reservations rv, resources rs, reservation_users ru, login li
WHERE rs.machid = rv.machid
AND ru.resid = rv.resid
AND li.memberid = ru.memberid
AND from_unixtime( rv.end_date ) > CURRENT_DATE() 
AND from_unixtime( rv.start_date ) < CURRENT_DATE()
AND from_unixtime(rv.start_date) >= $x_startdate
ORDER BY 4";
 
 
$result = mysql_query($query);
 
// Determine the number of reservations
$number = mysql_numrows($result);
 
// print the records
print "<h3><font face=Arial>There are $number records between $v_startdate and $v_enddate:</h3>
    <table cellpadding=5>
    <tr bgcolor=black>
      <td><font color=white><b>Name</b></font></td>
      <td><font color=white><b>Equipment</b></font></td>
      <td><font color=white><b>Project</b></font></td>
      <td><font color=white><b>Days_Out</b></font></td>
      <td><font color=white><b>ID_Cost</b></td></font></tr>";
 
for ($i=0; $i<$number; $i++) {
     $Name = mysql_result($result,$i,"Name");
     $Last_Name = mysql_result($result,$i,"Last_Name");
     $Equipment = mysql_result($result,$i,"Equipment");
     $Project = mysql_result($result,$i,"Project");
     $Days_Out = mysql_result($result,$i,"Days_Out");
     $ID_Cost = mysql_result($result,$i,"ID_Cost");   
//     print "$a $b $c $d $e $f $g<br>";
 
if ($i%2 == 0) {
        print "<tr bgcolor=lightgrey>";
        } else {
        print "<tr>";
        }
    print "<td>$Name $Last_Name</td>
    <td>$Equipment</td>
    <td>$Project</td>
    <td align = center>$Days_Out</td>
    <td>$ID_Cost</td></tr>"; 
}
print "</table>";
 
//print " $query " ;
 
 
// $timestampRightNow = time();
// print "$timestampRightNow";
print $CURRENT_DATE;
 
// Close the database connection
mysql_close();
?>
 
<p>
 

[ak1dnar]

You can use checkdate() function for validate the date format.
Tip: Better to set up list menus to select dd mm yyyy, instead of a text input box.

[shmoopie]

Thanks, I got it working :o)

[ak1dnar]

Thanks, I got it working :o)

Glad to here you got it working. And If you can post the answer here, It will help for the others, who is having the same problem. Thanks.