Get most recent date from an array of dates

Question

I have the array of dates below

array(5) { 
    [0]=> string(19) \"2012-06-11 08:30:49\" 
    [1]=> string(19) \"2012-06-07 08:03:54\" 
    [2]=> st         


        

Answer 1

I believe, following is the shortest code to find the recent date. you can alter it to find the index of the recent date or to find the recent in future or past.

$Dates = array( 
"2012-06-11 08:30:49", 
"2012-06-07 08:03:54", 
"2012-05-26 23:04:04",
"2012-05-27 08:30:00",
"2012-06-08 08:30:55",
"2012-06-22 07:45:45"
);

$close_date = current($Dates);
foreach($Dates as $date)
    if( abs(strtotime('now') - strtotime($date)) < abs(strtotime('now') - strtotime($close_date)))
        $close_date = $date;

echo $close_date;

Answer 2

$dates = [
    "2012-06-11 08:30:49" 
    ,"2012-06-07 08:03:54" 
    ,"2012-05-26 23:04:04" 
    ,"2012-05-27 08:30:00" 
    ,"2012-06-08 08:30:55" 
];
echo date("Y-m-d g:i:s",max(array_map('strtotime',$dates)));

Answer 3

Sort the array by date, and then get the front value of the array.

$dates = array(5) { /** omitted to keep code compact */ }
$dates = array_combine($dates, array_map('strtotime', $dates));
arsort($dates);
echo $dates[0];

Answer 4

$DatesList = array( '2015-05-19', '2015-09-17', '2015-09-24', '2015-10-02', '2015-10-23', '2015-11-12', '2015-12-25' );

$counter = 0; 
$currentDate = date("Y-m-d");
foreach ($DatesList as $dates)
{
    if($dates >= $currentDate)
    {
        $storeDates[$counter] = $dates;
        $counter++;
    }
}
$closestDate = current($storeDates);
echo $closestDate;

Answer 5

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