Get most recent date from an array of dates

Question

I have the array of dates in Y-m-d H:i:s format like:

array(5) {      [0]=> string(19) "2012-06-11 08:30:49"      [1]=> string(19) "2012-06-07 08:03:54"      [2]=> string(19) "2012-05-26 23:04:04"      [3]=> string(19) "2012-05-27 08:30:00"      [4]=> string(19) "2012-06-08 08:30:55"  } 

I would like to know the most recent date.

In other words, today is June 13th 2012, which datetime is closest to today's date?

From my sample array, I am expecting 2012-06-11 08:30:49.

How can I do that?

Answer 1

Use max(), array_map(), and strtotime().

$max = max(array_map('strtotime', $arr)); echo date('Y-m-j H:i:s', $max); // 2012-06-11 08:30:49 

Answer 2

Do a loop, convert the values to date, and store the most recent, in a var.

$mostRecent= 0; foreach($dates as $date){   $curDate = strtotime($date);   if ($curDate > $mostRecent) {      $mostRecent = $curDate;   } } 

something like that... you get the idea If you want most recent BEFORE today :

$mostRecent= 0; $now = time(); foreach($dates as $date){   $curDate = strtotime($date);   if ($curDate > $mostRecent && $curDate < $now) {      $mostRecent = $curDate;   } }