Im making a FORM for my PHP website.... i want the things in the form to be visible in a preset time interval.

In the form users can chose how many days they want their post to be visible.... i also have current date in a set varible.

So i think i have the most important things.... curent date and number of days someone want their post to be visible.

How would the select look like for something like this in MySQL ... ?


Hope someone has an answer

I think all you need is one field in the db that is filled with an expiration date. So you can use (just an example) the following to insert your new form post.

PHP Code:

// Insert into table_name auto increment for the id and the current time multiplied by the number of days user wants it to expire
$sql = 'INSERT INTO table_name (id, expire) VALUES("", "' . ( time() + ((int)$_POST['expire'] * 86400) ) . '"'; 


Then when you are returning the posts that not yet have expired, just use this for example:

PHP Code:

// Select all from table_name where the exipation date is before current date
$sql = 'SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE expire <= NOW()'; 


In your example... is $_POST['expire'] a date or a number of days ?


In my form i want users to be able to let their post be visible for MAX 30 days, so i have made a <select> wich contain numbers 1-30

Yes, its a whole number of days from now set to expire because it's being multiplied by 86400 (number of seconds in one day) added to the current time (also in seconds from the Epoch).

I messed up in the insert command, because you would need to format the time in a sql date format.

PHP Code:

// Insert into table_name auto increment for the id and the current time multiplied by the number of days user wants it to expire
$sql = 'INSERT INTO table_name (id, expire) VALUES("", "' . date('Y-m-d', ( time() + ((int)$_POST['expire'] * 86400) )) . '"'; 


Thanks a lot, i belive that must work.... just don't have time to try it right now - have got a lot of other loose ends in my website - had set the deadline by the end of this month (my own website, but want other things running next month, so hope to stick to the plan)

Now i'v looked at it againg, and i get a message saying:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING in /usr/home/web/web128130/kikarin/lysing1.php on line 136

my insert looks like this:
mysql_db_query("$datab", "INSERT INTO lysingar (navn, budstad, bygd, tlf, mail, dagar, pris, km, year, merki, motor, vekt, litur, brennievni, yvirskrift, tekstur, mynd, date, lysingbolkid, ip) VALUES ('$navn', '$budstad', '$bygd', '$tel', '$tmail', "' . date('Y-m-d', ( time() + ((int)$_POST['dagar'] * 86400) )) . '", '$pris', '$km', '$year', '$merki', '$motor', '$vekt', '$farva', '$brennievni', '$yvirskrift', '$stuttlysing', '".$fil."', '$cur_date', '$bolkid', '$ip')") or die('Ikki funni&eth;3');;

it looks like your double & single quotes are the wrong way around here;

PHP Code:

tmail', "' . date 


and here

PHP Code:

)) . ", 


Now it inserts.... thanks !

BUT it insert the numer 2006 in the atribut no matter if i set the days(dagar) to 1 or 30 in my form...... and i belive 2006 must be the year 2006 that somehow ends up there.

The atribut type is set to integer.

Hope someone knows what the problem is

Make sure the mysql field type is set to date instead of int.

Thanks that works perfectly now...