If you use a TIMESTAMP or DATETIME column, you can write a subroutine to convert that into an "seconds since the epoch" number.

This isn't necessary. The UNIX_TIMESTAMP MySQL function takes a datetime (any date type column) as an argument and returns the epoch of the time passed; such as: SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP(myDateCol) FROM TABLE;

Also, MySQL has another function called INTERVAL that allows you to do math on the date in the database itself, such as: select * from table where myDateCol < current_date - interval 5 day; will show you everything older than five days ago.

When doing database programming, the hardest thing for me to get over was to try and do everything in the program (in Perl, in C, etc) when the database is (in _most_ cases) going to be able to do it for you a lot more efficiently and a lot faster. Let the database do it's job.. it likes it, really.

In reply to Re: Re: MySQL Timestamp comparison by erasei
in thread MySQL Timestamp comparison by Ninthwave

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.