(PHP) Verifying if given date is between two other dates

Question

I'm having an issue with some code that someone else has previously worked on.
The goal is to iterate through a directory and push any files that are within a certain date range to an array (files are in mmddyyy.txt format).
The (terribly named, not by my own doing) variables in the code represent the following:

• $aYear - A given year, read in from a text file. This variable changes during every iteration of the loop. The same goes for $aMonth and $aDay.
• $sYear1 - Start year. $sMonth1 and $sDay1 are used in respect to $sYear1.
• $sYear2 - End year. $sMonth2 and $sDay2 are used in respect to $sYear2.

• $isGood - File will be added to the array.

  $isGood = false;
          if($aYear >= $sYear1 && $aYear <= $sYear2)
          {
              if($aYear == $sYear1)
              {
                  if($aMonth == $sMonth1)
                  {
                      if($aDay >= $sDay1 && $aDay <= $sDay2)
                      {
                          $isGood = true;
                      }
                  }
                  else
                  {
                      if($aMonth >= $sMonth1 && $aMonth <= $sMonth2)
                      {
                          $isGood = true;
                      }
                  }
              }
              else if($aYear == $sYear2)
              {
                  if($aMonth == $sMonth2)
                  {
                      if($aDay <= $sDay2)
                      {
                          $isGood = true;
                      }
                  }
                  else
                  {
                      if($aMonth <= $sMonth2)
                      {
                          $isGood = true;
                      }
                  }
              }
              else
              {
                  $isGood = true;
              }
          }
  
          if($isGood)
          {
              //echo "Found good article";
              $a = $a . "===" . $file;
              array_push($result, $a);
          }  
  

I'm not getting the results that I expected. I'm looking for some help as to how I can simplify this code and get it working properly. I do need to keep this solution in PHP.

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

As @Sandeep pointed out you're issues are with:

if ($aMonth >= $sMonth1 && $aMonth <= $sMonth2)

and

if ($aDay >= $sDay1 && $aDay <= $sDay2)

as you don't need to be comparing the date with end dates as well.

That being said you can clear up your code completely by doing something like:

$date = (new DateTime)->setDate($aYear, $aMonth, $aDay);
$start = (new DateTime)->setDate($sYear1, $sMonth1, $sDay1);
$end = (new DateTime)->setDate($sYear2, $sMonth2, $sDay2);

if ($start <= $date && $date <= $end) {
    //echo "Found good article";
    $a = $a . "===" . $file;
    array_push($result, $a);
}

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

It seems to me Month statement if($aMonth >= $sMonth1 && $aMonth <= $sMonth2) needs work eg start date- 03 Aug 2013 end date- 04 Sep 2016 and check date say 08 Nov 2013 would make isGood=false whereas it should be true.

Removing && $aDay <= $sDay2 and && $aMonth <= $sMonth2 should work.