PHP Forms Creating Drop-Down Menus Based on the Current Date

PHP Forms 

Creating Drop-Down Menus Based on the Current Date

Problem

You want to create a series of drop-down menus that are based automatically on the current date.

Solution

Create a DateTime object and then loop through the days you care about, modifying the object with its modify() method.

Example  Generating date-based drop-down menu options

        $options = array();

        $when = new DateTime();

        // print out one week's worth of days

        for ($i = 0; $i < 7; ++$i) {

               $options[$when->getTimestamp()] = $when->format("D, F j, Y");

               $when->modify("+1 day");

        }

        foreach ($options as $value => $label) {

               print "<option value='$value'>$label</option>\n";

        }

When run on April 8, 2013, Example prints:

        <option value='1365450257'>Mon, April 8, 2013</option>

        <option value='1365536657'>Tue, April 9, 2013</option>

        <option value='1365623057'>Wed, April 10, 2013</option>

        <option value='1365709457'>Thu, April 11, 2013</option>

        <option value='1365795857'>Fri, April 12, 2013</option>

        <option value='1365882257'>Sat, April 13, 2013</option>

        <option value='1365968657'>Sun, April 14, 2013</option>

Discussion

In Example we set the value for each date as its Unix timestamp representation because we find this easier to handle inside our programs. Of course, you can use any format you find most useful and appropriate.

Using DateTime#modify() and DateTime#format() frees you from any concerns about time zone math. Whatever the appropriate summer time transitions are for the relevant time zone will be handled properly