How can PHP be used to compare timestamps in a forum to determine if a new comment has been posted?

To compare timestamps in a forum to determine if a new comment has been posted, you can store the timestamp of the last comment in a database or session variable. When a user accesses the forum, you can retrieve the timestamp of the latest comment and compare it with the stored timestamp. If the latest comment timestamp is greater than the stored timestamp, a new comment has been posted. 

// Retrieve the timestamp of the latest comment from the database
$latestCommentTimestamp = // Retrieve the timestamp from the database;

// Store the timestamp of the last viewed comment in a session variable
$_SESSION['lastCommentTimestamp'] = // Store the timestamp of the last viewed comment;

// Compare the timestamps to determine if a new comment has been posted
if ($latestCommentTimestamp > $_SESSION['lastCommentTimestamp']) {
    echo "A new comment has been posted!";
}

Keywords

PHP timestamps comparison forum comments

Related Questions