Reviewing basic methods of Zend_Date is a good place to start for
those unfamiliar with date objects in other languages or frameworks. A small example
will be provided for each method below.
The date in a Zend_Date object may be obtained as a localized
integer or string using the get() method. There are many
available options, which will be explained in later sections.
Example 160. get() - Output a Date
<?php
$date = new Zend_Date();
// Output of the desired date
print $date->get();
The set() method alters the date stored in the object, and
returns the final date value as a timestamp (not an object). Again, there are many
options which will be explored in later sections.
Example 161. set() - Set a Date
<?php
$date = new Zend_Date();
// Setting of a new time
$date->set('13:00:00',Zend_Date::TIMES);
print $date->get(Zend_Date::W3C);
Adding two dates with add() usually involves adding a real
date in time with an artificial timestramp representing a date part, such as 12
hours, as shown in the example below. Both add() and
sub() use the same set of options as
set(), which will be explained later.
Example 162. add() - Adding Dates
<?php
$date = new Zend_Date();
// changes $date by adding 12 hours
$date->add('12:00:00', Zend_Date::TIMES);
echo "Date via get() = ", $date->get(Zend_Date::W3C), "\n";
// use magic __toString() method to call Zend_Date's toString()
echo "Date via toString() = ", $date, "\n";
All basic Zend_Date methods can operate on entire dates
contained in the objects, or can operate on date parts, such as comparing the
minutes value in a date to an absolute value. For example, the current minutes in
the current time may be compared with a specific number of minutes using
compare(), as in the example below.
Example 163. compare() - Compare Dates
<?php
$date = new Zend_Date();
// Comparation of both times
if ($date->compare(10, Zend_Date::MINUTE) == -1) {
print "This hour is less than 10 minutes old";
} else {
print "This hour is at least 10 minutes old";
}
For simple equality comparisons, use equals(), which
returns a boolean.
Example 164. equals() - Identify a Date or Date Part
<?php
$date = new Zend_Date();
// Comparation of the two dates
if ($date->equals(10, Zend_Date::HOUR)) {
print "It's 10 o'clock. Time to get to work.";
} else {
print "It is not 10 o'clock. You can keep sleeping.";
}