PHP: A Simple Function to Create an HTML Select Date Options

Here's a simple PHP function to create a select date options that you can use in your HTML forms to let users select a date. This is simple and easy to use. Below is the function definition.

//RETURN DATE OPTIONS IN HTML
function get_date_options($year = 0000, $month = 00, $day = 00)
 {
 $ret_val = "";

 //ASSEMBLE MONTHS
 $options = "<option value='00'>MM</option>";
 for ($i = 1; $i < 13; $i++)
   {   
   $attribute = "value='".$i."'";
   if ($i == $month)
     {
     $attribute .= " selected ";
     }
   $options .= "<option ".$attribute.">".str_pad($i,2,0,STR_PAD_LEFT)."</option>";
   } 
 $ret_val .=  "<select name='month'>".$options."</select> / ";

 //ASSEMBLE DAYS
 $options = "<option value='00'>DD</option>";
 for ($i = 1; $i < 32; $i++)
   {
   $attribute = "value='".$i."'";
   if ($i == $day)
     {
     $attribute .= " selected ";
     }
   $options .= "<option ".$attribute.">".str_pad($i,2,0,STR_PAD_LEFT)."</option>";
   } 
 $ret_val .=  "<select name='day'>".$options."</select> / ";

 //ASSEMBLE YEARS
 $options = "<option value='0000'>YYYY</option>";
 for ($i = 2008; $i < 2051; $i++)
   {
   $attribute = "value='".$i."'";
   if ($i == $year)
     {
     $attribute .= " selected ";
     }
   $options .= "<option ".$attribute.">".$i."</option>";
   } 
 $ret_val .=  "<select name='year'>".$options."</select>";

 return $ret_val;
 }

Here's a simple way to use it.

Enter your birthday : <?php print get_date_options() ?>

And here's a way to use it to make default to a date.

Enter your birthday : <?php print get_date_options("2008", "12", "05") ?>