Hi all-

I've searched for at least an hour tonight before posting this
question into here. It's one of those questions that seemed simple AT
FIRST, but I'm having a hard time filtering the info I get on all the
date formats and how to compare them for my little script.

This script is to disallow a user into an area who has been banned for
a certain amount of time. So when the user logs in again, we compare
the current date to the one the admin put into MYSQL and come up with
an answer (that it is the date they are allowed back in or not).
Also, I have no control over how the data is inserted on my part,
since another company is doing it. So I can't change the date format
on that end.

Here is the code I'm working with so far:

$username = $_GET["username"];
//declare all the db stuff, etc above this line
$q = "SELECT * FROM banned WHERE username = '$username'";
$db->query($q);
$db->next_record();

$banned_user = $db->f("username");
$banned_until = $db->f("banned_until");


if ($db->num_rows() > 0) {


//$date1 = date("Y-m-d",$banned_until); this returns a datestamp
of 1969-12-31 instead of 2008-05-05 so instead I'm back to the line
below which just pulls the banned_until date AND timestamp from the
db.

$date1 = $banned_until;

$date2 = date('Y-m-d'); //this gives me exactly what I want. I
just want the banned_until to match the format

echo "$date1 compare to $date2";

//this returns a date string that currently looks like: 2008-05-05
18:11:19 compare to 2008-05-08. I can't compare this currently.

//Solution??? I want to remove the timestamp and just work with
comparing the date in Y-m-d format to see if they are equal or not.

} else {

echo $banned_until; //simply displays the banned_until stamp which
is 2008-05-05 18:11:19

}

So how do I normalize the two date stamps and then compare them
properly to allow a user back in?

Many thanks for ANY help on this!!!!!!!!

-Oedipa Maas