Is there a more efficient way of creating a list of years/months?

Question

On a page I want to dynamically list years and all the months in each year so an archive for each month can be viewed. I want to show the current year first but the current year may not be over yet so I only want to show the months that have passed, and the current month. Then I want all years and all months in the past since this year (i.e. 2008).

The PHP code I have created that does the job is below. Is there a more efficient way of achieving this? I am running PHP 5.2.

$current_year = date('Y');
$months = array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12);

// Loop through all the months and create an array up to and including the current month
foreach ($months as $month)
{
    if ($month <= date('m'))
    {
     switch ($month)
     {
      case 1:
       $years[$current_year][] = 'January';
       break;
      case 2:
       $years[$current_year][] = 'February';
       break;
      case 3:
       $years[$current_year][] = 'March';
       break;
      case 4:
       $years[$current_year][] = 'April';
       break;
      case 5:
       $years[$current_year][] = 'May';
       break;
      case 6:
       $years[$current_year][] = 'June';
       break;
      case 7:
       $years[$current_year][] = 'July';
       break;
      case 8:
       $years[$current_year][] = 'August';
       break;
      case 9:
       $years[$current_year][] = 'September';
       break;
      case 10:
       $years[$current_year][] = 'October';
       break;
      case 11:
       $years[$current_year][] = 'November';
       break;
      case 12:
       $years[$current_year][] = 'December';
       break;
     }
    }
}

// Previous years
$years_to_create = $current_year - 2008;

if (!empty($years_to_create))
{
    for ($i = 1; $i <= $years_to_create; $i++)
    {
     $years[$current_year - $i] = array('January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December');
    }
}

Answer 1

PHP has a Date() function and an mktime function, you can use these to compare dates and to create dates out of strings etc. Without providing code, i can give you an instruction to somehow make an iteration:

  -> Get current Year

  -> Loop the current year untill the current month is reached

     -> Print Month

Answer 2

try this it will out put a descending list of months/years for the past 5 years

$years = 5;

for ($i = 0; $i < (12* $years); $i++)
{
    if (date('Y',strtotime("-".$i." month")) > (date('Y') - $years) )
    {
      echo date('F Y',strtotime("-".$i." month")) . '<br />'; 
    }
}

Then if you need it in an array, just add to as you go like so

$years = 5;
$myarray = array();

for ($i = 0; $i < (12* $years); $i++)
{
    if (date('Y',strtotime("-".$i." month")) > (date('Y') - $years) )
    {
         $year_key = date('Y') - date('Y',strtotime("-".$i." month")); 
         $myarray[$year_key][] = date('F',strtotime("-".$i." month"));
    }
}

//Write it out to the screen
foreach ($myarray as $yearkey=>$eachyear)
{
    foreach ($eachyear as $eachmonth)
    { 
        echo (date('Y')-$yearkey) . ' ' . $eachmonth . '<br>';
    }
}

Answer 3

Revised

function getMonthsFromYear($start = 2008, $end = null, array $months = null) {
    static $sMonths = array('January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December');
    $thisYear = intval(date('Y'));
    if (!is_array($months) || (count($months) < 12))
        $months = $sMonths;
    if (!is_int($end))
         $end = $thisYear;
    if ($end > $thisYear)
        return array_fill($start, $end - $start + 1, $months);
    if ($start < $end)
        $monthsInDuration = array_fill($start, $end - $start, $months);
    $monthsInDuration[$end] = array_slice($months, 0, (int) date('m'));
    return $monthsInDuration;
}
print_r(getMonthsFromYear());
print_r(getMonthsFromYear(2006));
print_r(getMonthsFromYear(2008, 2010));

Answer 4

$current_year = date('Y');
$months = array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12);
$month_names = array('January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December');

// Loop through all the months and create an array up to and including the current month

for ($month=1;$month<=date('m');$month++)
{
$years[$current_year][] = $month_names[$month-1];
}

// Previous years
$years_to_create = $current_year - 2008;

if (!empty($years_to_create))
{
    for ($i = 1; $i <= $years_to_create; $i++)
    {
        $years[$current_year - $i] = $month_names;
    }
}

This seems a little simpler...is it any faster...?

Answer 5

$current_year = date('Y');
$month_names = array('January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December');
$years[$current_year] = array_slice($month_names, 0, date('m'));

for ($i = 2008; $i < $current_year; $i++) {
   $years[$i] = $month_names;
}