Problem with Comparing Dates (urgent!)

rline posted this at 03:27 — 24th October 2001.

Joined: Oct 2001

Hi,

I have a script which is supposed to compare 2 dates. If $date1 le $date2, then it's supposed to do something. But I just realised that when it compares, because they're both strings, it only compares by the first digit. So to me, 06 November 2001 is greater than 25 October 2001, but to perl, it's less than. How do I fix this so that it compares not the first digit, but the actual calendar date?

I would desperately love some help on this one...

Thanks

Mark Hensler posted this at 05:20 — 24th October 2001.

He has: 4,048 posts

Joined: Aug 2000

You need to compair numbers.
Assuming the format "day month year", try this:

#!/usr/bin/perl

sub Numberfy_Date($string_date) {
    $pieces = split(/ /,$string_date);
    
    $day = $pieces[0];
    $year = $pieces[2]
    
    if ($pieces[1] == "January") $month = "01";
    if ($pieces[1] == "February") $month = "02";
    if ($pieces[1] == "March") $month = "03";
    if ($pieces[1] == "April") $month = "04";
    if ($pieces[1] == "May") $month = "05";
    if ($pieces[1] == "June") $month = "06";
    if ($pieces[1] == "July") $month = "07";
    if ($pieces[1] == "August") $month = "08";
    if ($pieces[1] == "September") $month = "09";
    if ($pieces[1] == "October") $month = "10";
    if ($pieces[1] == "November") $month = "11";
    if ($pieces[1] == "December") $month = "12";
    
    return ($year . $month . $day);
}


$date1 = "06 November 2001";
$date2 = "25 October 2001";

if (&Numberfy_Date($date1) le &Numberfy_Date($date2)) {
    # do something
}

'Very crude code. But should give you an idea of what needs to be done.

Mark Hensler
If there is no answer on Google, then there is no question.

rline posted this at 06:58 — 24th October 2001.

They have: 40 posts

Joined: Oct 2001

Thanks a lot Mark,

Not sure why, but me and subroutines don't go...I just spent the best part of an hour trying to debug the thing. As soon as I took it out of the subroutine, it worked. So at least now it behaves as I want it.

Thanks again for your quick response!