Using an EE date tag with formatting in php code

Question

I'm using some php code (output parsing) in a template, between {exp:channel:calendar} tags. I have a line assigning the value of a custom date field to the php variable %endDate. Then, I need to test if {date} is equal to this $endDate variable. But if I use {date} alone it just takes the string "{date}" instead of its actual value, and I think that's because that tag requires a format parameter, so now I'm tryng this:

if ("{date format="%U"}" == $endDate)

but, obviously, this gives me a php syntax error and just screws up half of the template... Any idea what syntax I should use to do this?

Answer 1

I just tested this:

{exp:channel:entries limit="1"}
{title}<br />
{entry_date format="%U"}<br />
<?php
$compare_date ="1123581363";
echo $compare_date." - compare date<br />";
$e_date = {entry_date format="%U"};
echo $e_date." - E date<br />";   
if ($compare_date > {entry_date format="%U"}) {echo "I am Greater than";} else {echo "I am Less than";}
?>
{/exp:channel:entries}

Template set to php on output.

Answer 2

First of all your code if ("{date format="%U"}" == $endDate) isn't correct and you couldn't compare the a PHP variable with EE variable with EE's IF condition due to parsing stage.

The variable {date format="%U"} will work if you are have "date" as Date type field and it will return seconds since the epoch.

You can try the condition code like: if ("{date format="%U"}" == "<?php echo $endDate; ?>) make sure the "PHP Parsing Stage" is selected as "Input". But I am not sure if it would work properly for you as you are putting the condition within channel entry tag and where assign the value for PHP variable $endDate.