I have a problem, when someone does a certain action i have a script that puts the current timestamp into mysql, how do i take that out of mysql check against the current time to see if 5 hours have past, and if it hasn't, show how many hours minutes and seconds until it does. i have tried lots of things but i can't get it to work.

PHP Code:

$time = ;//Make a current timestamp, subtract 300 seconds, 
select * from table_name where time < $time 


What have you got so far?

not a lot, i can't think how to do it

PHP Code:

$check_t = mysql_query("SELECT toy_quest FROM users WHERE username = '$YourName'");
$check_time = mysql_result($check_t,0);
$difference = (time() - $check_time);
$wait = 18000;
if ($difference > $wait)
{
//do stuff
}
else
{
$how_long = $wait - $difference;
$hours = date("G", $how_long);
$minutes = date("i", $how_long);
$seconds = date("s", $how_long);
echo "You have " . $hours . " hours, " . $minutes . " minutes and " . $seconds . " seconds, to wait";
} 


and i'v just made that up so i'm not sure if that will work.

This might help: http://www.webmaster-talk.com/showthread.php?t=26971

Well it's not a DATETIME field so i don't think i could use that.

can anyone help?

Ok, I put this together:

PHP Code:

<?php

include '../../connect.php';
connect();

mysql_query("create temporary table testtime(t int)");
for($i = 1112899709; $i<1112910909; $i+=50) {
  mysql_query("insert into testtime values($i)");
}

$result= mysql_query("select t as tstamp from testtime");

$timenow=time();
echo "time now: $timenow<br />";
for($i = 0; $i<mysql_num_rows($result); $i++){
  $t = mysql_result($result,$i,'tstamp');

  echo "timestamp $t: ";
  if($timenow-$t > 18000) echo "This was over 5 hours ago<br />";
  else {
    $remaining = 18000-($timenow-$t);
    $seconds = $remaining % 60;
    $minutes = (($remaining-$seconds)/60) % 60;
    $hours = (($remaining-$seconds-$minutes)/3600) % 24;

    echo "$hours hours, $minutes minutes, $seconds seconds remaining before 5 h\
ours is up.<br />";
  }
}
echo time();
?>

Result:

time now: 1112919255
<snip>
timestamp 1112901059: This was over 5 hours ago
timestamp 1112901109: This was over 5 hours ago
timestamp 1112901159: This was over 5 hours ago
timestamp 1112901209: This was over 5 hours ago
timestamp 1112901259: 0 hours, 0 minutes, 4 seconds remaining before 5 hours is up.
timestamp 1112901309: 0 hours, 0 minutes, 54 seconds remaining before 5 hours is up.
timestamp 1112901359: 0 hours, 1 minutes, 44 seconds remaining before 5 hours is up.
timestamp 1112901409: 0 hours, 2 minutes, 34 seconds remaining before 5 hours is up.
timestamp 1112901459: 0 hours, 3 minutes, 24 seconds remaining before 5 hours is up.
timestamp 1112901509: 0 hours, 4 minutes, 14 seconds remaining before 5 hours is up.
timestamp 1112901559: 0 hours, 5 minutes, 4 seconds remaining before 5 hours is up.
timestamp 1112901609: 0 hours, 5 minutes, 54 seconds remaining before 5 hours is up.
timestamp 1112901659: 0 hours, 6 minutes, 44 seconds remaining before 5 hours is up.
timestamp 1112901709: 0 hours, 7 minutes, 34 seconds remaining before 5 hours is up.
timestamp 1112901759: 0 hours, 8 minutes, 24 seconds remaining before 5 hours is up.
<snip>

SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP()-UNIX_TIMESTAMP(your_timestamp_col) AS diff FROM whatever WHERE whatever

PHP Code:

if ($row['diff'] > 18000)
{
  // Five hours have passed
}
else
{
  // Time still to go, in seconds
  $still_to_go = 18000 - $row['diff'];
} 


LOL me and oberon posted at the same time