Check Product Expiration Dates with PHP

How to Check Product Expiration Dates with PHP: Ensuring Safety and Freshness.

Introduction

In our fast-paced world, it’s essential to ensure the safety and freshness of the products we consume, whether it’s medicine, food, or beverages. As a developer or application designer, you might find yourself needing to verify product expiration dates, especially in e-commerce applications. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll introduce you to a reliable PHP function that allows you to check and monitor product expiration durations. Whether you’re building an e-commerce platform or simply want to stay informed about product safety, this function has you covered.

Why Check Product Expiration Dates?

Before we delve into the technical details, let’s explore why checking product expiration dates is crucial:

1. Consumer Safety: Ensuring that products haven’t expired is paramount to consumer safety. Expired items can pose health risks or be ineffective.
2. Compliance: Many industries, including pharmaceuticals and food, are regulated. Compliance with expiration date standards is mandatory.
3. Customer Trust: In e-commerce, displaying accurate product expiration dates builds trust with customers. It shows your commitment to their well-being.
4. Inventory Management: Monitoring product expiration dates helps businesses manage their inventory efficiently, reducing waste.

The PHP Function for Checking Expiration Dates

We’ve created a PHP function called get_expiration_date that simplifies the process of checking product expiration durations. This function is built upon the foundation of our previous post, “The Best PHP checkdate() Alternative: How to Do Date Validation in PHP (Special Function).” We’ve made a few adjustments to cater specifically to this topic.

<?php 
function get_expiration_date($date){
    $dateparameters = array();
    $date = preg_replace("/[^0-9\']/", ",", $date);    
    $date = explode(',', $date);
    $exp = '';
    if(count($date) == 3){
        for ($i = 0; $i < 3; ++$i) {
            $dateparameters []= $date[$i];
        }

        $year = $dateparameters[0];
        $month = $dateparameters[1];
        $actualmonth = $dateparameters[1];
        $actualday = $dateparameters[2];
        $actualdate = $year.'-'.$month.'-'.$actualday;
        $day = cal_days_in_month(CAL_GREGORIAN, $month, $year);

        $day = range(1, $day); // day range
        $month = range(1, 12); // month range

        if(in_array($actualday, $day) && in_array($actualmonth, $month)){ 
            // Check if the actual month and day are in the range of days that should be in the provided month of the given year
            $origin = date_create($actualdate); // create the product's expiration date
            $target = date_create(date('Y-m-d')); // create the current day
            $exp = date_diff($target, $origin);
            $exp = intval($exp->format('%R%a')) + 1; // Adding +1 because a product expires on the day after the specified expiration date
        }
    }
    return $exp;
}
?>

Using the PHP Function for Expiration Dates

Now, let’s see how you can apply the get_expiration_date function to check and display product expiration information:

<?php
$exp_date = '2022/9/21';

if(get_expiration_date($exp_date) > 0){
    echo '>>>>>> The product expiration date is valid and has not expired. It is still good for <b>'.get_expiration_date($exp_date).'</b> day(s) ahead';
}else{
    echo 'xxxxxx The product expiration date is invalid and has expired. It is no longer safe since <b>'.str_replace('-','',get_expiration_date($exp_date)).'</b> day(s) ago';
}
?>

The Importance of Staying Informed

As responsible consumers and developers, it’s crucial to stay informed about product expiration dates. Consuming expired goods can pose health risks, just as using outdated information or applications can lead to security vulnerabilities and system issues.

By incorporating date validation and product expiration checks into your applications, you contribute to safer and more user-friendly experiences. Remember, in the digital world, staying up to date is just as vital as in the physical one.

Conclusion

Incorporating product expiration date checks into your applications is a valuable feature that promotes consumer safety, trust, and efficient inventory management. Whether you’re developing an e-commerce platform or simply want to ensure the freshness of your own products, this PHP function provides a reliable solution.

Stay tuned for more insights and tutorials on leveraging PHP and other programming languages to enhance your applications and engage with your audience effectively.