Problem in checking when date and time has elapse using timezone

Question

Am trying to create a date and time function to check if a given dateTime and timezone passed but my function is always returning true even when i put a future date.

I have below example class

 <?php
  class JobTimer{
    public function __construct() {

    }
    public function isDateTime($startOn, $timezone = "GMT"){
        $nowTime = new \DateTime("NOW", new \DateTimeZone($timezone));    
        $startTime = \DateTime::createFromFormat('M d, Y H:i:s', $startOn, new \DateTimeZone($timezone));
        return ($nowTime >= $startTime ? true : false);
    }
}
?>

Usage Everything is returning true, my expectation is to return false if current time based on timezone has not yet elapse or return true when time has elapse or time is now

  <?php
   $job = new JobTimer();
    //if($job->isDateTime("2019-05-02 12:00AM", "Asia/Kuala_Lumpur")){
    //if($job->isDateTime("2021-05-02 12:00AM", "Asia/Kuala_Lumpur")){
    if($job->isDateTime("2020-05-02 12:00AM", "Asia/Kuala_Lumpur")){
        echo "YES";
    }else{
        echo "NO";
    }
   ?>

Answer 1

In your JobTimer class $startTime is false because your format for DateTime::createFromFormat() does not match the format of the date you are passing in as a parameter and causing it to fail.

M d, Y H:i:s matches May 02, 2020 12:00:00 which is not what you are passing to that class.

You should be using:

$startTime = \DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d H:iA', $startOn, new \DateTimeZone($timezone));

Working code:

class JobTimer{
    public function __construct() {

    }
    public function isDateTime($startOn, $timezone = "GMT"){
        $nowTime = new \DateTime("NOW", new \DateTimeZone($timezone));
        $startTime = \DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d H:iA', $startOn, new \DateTimeZone($timezone));
        return $nowTime >= $startTime;
    }
}


$job = new JobTimer();
if($job->isDateTime("2020-05-02 12:00AM", "Asia/Kuala_Lumpur")){
    echo "YES";
}else{
    echo "NO";
}

Output:

NO

Demo