PHP Check if current time is before specified time

Question

I need to check in PHP if the current time is before 2pm that day.

I've done this with strtotime on dates before, however this time it's with a time only, so obviously at 0.00 each day the time will reset, and the boolean will reset from false to true.

if (current_time < 2pm) {
   // do this
}

Overanxious

This is not even valid PHP. What is current_time? – Factory

@Factory I believe that's pseudo-code, rather than actual code. :-) – Motherless

I know that's not valid PHP, I was just giving an example of the logic. – Overanxious

Examples are fine, but when solutions depends on concrete formats (2pm, 14, 14:00, .... ?), then they are not useful. – Factory

Answer 1

if (date('H') < 14) {
   $pre2pm = true;
}

For more information about the date function please see the PHP manual. I have used the following time formatter:

H = 24-hour format of an hour (00 to 23)

Riboflavin

Good point about minutes not being required. Mind linking to docs for 'H'? – Coppice

uk.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php Lists all the different ways of formatting the date. Thinking about it could be cleaner to use 'G', as it doesn't include a leading 0 where the hour is only 1 digit, although PHP isn't fussy enough to let that effect the result of the if statement. – Riboflavin

Why H and not G ? – Fluctuation

@Fluctuation - good question! As I answered over 7 years ago I’m not sure why I went for H over G. I don’t think you’d get a different outcome but using a value without a leading 0 would make more sense. – Riboflavin

Answer 2

Try:

if(date("Hi") < "1400") {
}

See: http://php.net/manual/en/function.date.php

H   24-hour format of an hour with leading zeros    00 through 23
i   Minutes with leading zeros                      00 to 59

Coppice

heh, was going crazy trying to read that with the $ in front. Didn't help that it said 'Hi' ^^ – Heller

Should 1400 be a string? – Sakovich

@user2924019 they will result in the same answer - php.net/manual/en/language.operators.comparison.php If you compare a number with a string or the comparison involves numerical strings, then each string is converted to a number and the comparison performed numerically.. Would you get better performance? I don't know, benchmark it! Is one more clear than the other? It depends on your project/organization's style guidelines and how much you prefer brevity to being explicit. My personal preference these days would be if((int)date("Hi") < 1400), but I don't regularly use PHP. – Coppice

Answer 3

You could just pass in the time

if (time() < strtotime('2 pm')) {
   //not yet 2 pm
}

Or pass in the date explicitly as well

if (time() < strtotime('2 pm ' . date('d-m-Y'))) {
   //not yet 2 pm
}

Heller

Answer 4

Use 24 hour time to get round the problem like so:

$time = 1400;
$current_time = (int) date('Hi');
if($current_time < $time) {
    // do stuff
}

So 2PM equates to 14:00 in 24 hour time. If we remove the colon from the time then we can evaluate it as an integer in our comparison.

For more information about the date function please see the PHP manual. I have used the following time formatters:

H = 24-hour format of an hour (00 to 23)

i = Minutes with leading zeros (00 to 59)

Thromboembolism

Many years later, it's interesting to note that you don't have to convert a time with colons to an integer. PHP comparison operators are smart enough to know that '13:00' is less than '14:00'! – Insectivorous

Answer 5

You haven't told us which version of PHP you're running, although, assuming it's PHP 5.2.2+ than you should be able do it like:

$now = new DateTime();
$twoPm = new DateTime();
$twoPm->setTime(14,0); // 2:00 PM

then just ask:

if ( $now < $twoPm ){ // such comparison exists in PHP >= 5.2.2
    // do this
}

otherwise, if you're using one of older version (say, 5.0) this should do the trick (and is much simplier):

$now = time();
$twoPm = mktime(14); // first argument is HOUR

if ( $now < $twoPm ){
    // do this
}

Brickwork

Answer 6

If you want to check whether the time is before 2.30 pm ,you can try the following code segment .

if (date('H') < 14.30) {
   $pre2pm = true;   
}else{
   $pre2pm = false;
}

Sonja

Answer 7

Try with

if( time() < mktime(14, 0, 0, date("n"), date("j"), date("Y")) ) {

// do this

}

Vanhouten

Answer 8

This function will check if it's between hours in EST by accepting 2 params, arrays with the hour and am/pm...

    /**
     * Check if between hours array(12,'pm'), array(2,'pm')
     */
    function is_between_hours($h1 = array(), $h2 = array())
    {
        date_default_timezone_set('US/Eastern');
        $est_hour = date('H');

        $h1 = ($h1[1] == 'am') ? $h1[0] : $h1[0]+12;
        $h1 = ($h1 === 24) ? 12 : $h1;

        $h2 = ($h2[1] == 'am') ? $h2[0] : $h2[0]+12;
        $h2 = ($h2 === 24) ? 12 : $h2;

        if ( $est_hour >= $h1 && $est_hour <= ($h2-1) )
            return true;

        return false;
    }

Duo

Answer 9

Use time(), date() and strtotime() functions:

if(time() > strtotime(date('Y-m-d').' 14:00') {
    //...
}

Counterpressure