get the nearest date mysql
mysqli, php, sql
Solution
It's simple, just get one of the last date <= the current date:
$now = date("Y-m-d");
$sql = "SELECT * FROM date_table where date_field <= '$now' ORDER BY date_field DESC LIMIT 1 OFFSET 1";
Problem
I have the following dates in my table. How do I find a closest date from either today (if today's date is there) or if today's date is not there then the nearest past date? ``` 2012-10-01 aa123 2012-10-02 aa43 2012-10-03 aa478 2012-10-04 aa40 2012-10-05 aa54 2012-10-06 de34 2012-10-07 a5434 2012-10-08 r4t 2012-10-09 x34 2012-10-10 q23 2012-10-11 b53 ``` So if today is `'2012-10-07'` is then the record will be `a5434`. But if `2012-10-07` is missing then the record will be `de34` which belongs to `2012-10-06` since that would be the closest past day from today. I am not sure where to start on this one, so I haven't tried anything yet. Need a sql solution to this.