PHP countdown outputs negative value

Question

I am using PHP as server side language to display a countdown. It does work well (keeping in ming the limitation of server side countdowns) but it goes to a negative countdown once the date has expired.

For example:

<?php
date_default_timezone_set('Europe/London');
$date = strtotime("November 22, 2017 12:01 AM");
$remaining = $date - time();
$days_remaining = floor($remaining / 86400);
$hours_remaining = floor(($remaining % 86400) / 3600);
$minutes_remaining = floor(($remaining % 3600) / 60);
?>

Once the November 22 is finished the countdown will output negative values. Can you please help me with how to hide the countdown once the $date has expired?

I am outputting the result using the below code:

<?php echo $days_remaining?> : <?php echo $hours_remaining?> : <?php echo $minutes_remaining?>

Answer 1

Add a simple check for positivity of the $remainingvalue using if statement:

date_default_timezone_set('Europe/London');
$date = strtotime("November 22, 2017 12:01 AM");
$remaining = $date - time();

if ($remaining > 0) {
    $days_remaining = floor($remaining / 86400);
    $hours_remaining = floor(($remaining % 86400) / 3600);
    $minutes_remaining = floor(($remaining % 3600) / 60);
}

In output file:

<? if ($remaining > 0) { ?>
    <?= $days_remaining ?> : <?= $hours_remaining ?> : <?= $minutes_remaining ?>
<? } ?>

It's more readable to use the syntax <?= $var ?> to output something in PHP (option short_open_tag must have On value in php.ini).