Ahhh the joys of figuring out what the date is, or what yesterday was....

Anywho.. I like all the suggestions so far, but I have a little something to add. Your data is already in a database, so personally I think you should leverage the power of the database for you like so,

%num = (
   Jan => '01', Feb => '02', Mar => '03', Apr => '04',
   May => '05', Jun => '06', Jul => '07', Aug => '08',
   Sep => '09', Oct => '10', Nov => '11', Dec => '12'
);
  
($day,$mth,$year) = (localtime)[3,4,5];

if ($mth =~ /Jan/) {
# If its jan we need last year to this year
   $s_year = $year - 1;
   $e_year = $year;

} else {
   $s_year = $year;
   $e_year = $year;
}

if ($day <= 14) {
# Get last half of last month
   $s_day = '16';
   $e_day = '01';   

   $s_month = $num{$last{$mth}};
   $e_mth   = $num{$mth};

} else {
# Get the beginning of this month
   $s_day = '01';
   $e_day = '15';

   $s_month = $num{$mth};
   $e_month = $num{$mth};
}

$query = 'SELECT * from newreleases ';
$query = 'WHERE rel_date >= "$s_year-$s_mth-$s_day" AND rel_date <= "$
+e_year-$e_mth-$s_day";'
[download]

I jumped through more hoops than I like there, and there is some redundancy, but I don't need an exact date range, as the DB will know how to compute it. Also I don't need to keep track of leap years, or other idioms like the last day of any particular month.

All the suggestions above where good, I just thought that there was a simpler way. I mean the DB has to be able to compare stuff right? I just say start here, and go till there.

/* And the Creator, against his better judgement, wrote man.c */