PHP Countdown Timer Problem?

Question

I have coded a simple PHP Countdown Timer using this code:

list($date,$time)=explode(" ",$compounddate);
list($thour,$tminute,$tsecond)=explode(":",$time);
list($tyear,$tmonth,$tday)=explode(":",$date);
$date=str_replace(":","/",$date);
$target = mktime($thour,$tminute,$tsecond,$tmonth,$tday,$tyear) ;

$today = time () ;

$difference =($target-$today) ;

$days = floor(abs($difference/86400));

$hours = floor(abs($difference%86400/3600));

$minutes =floor(abs($difference%3600/60));

$seconds = floor(abs($difference%60));

$date = date("F d, Y ",strtotime($date));
$time = date("g:i:s A",strtotime($time));
$past_future="";
$boolpast_future=true;
if($difference<0) {
$past_future="<strong> Time since ".$date." at ".$time.": </strong>";
$boolpast_future=false;
}
else {
$past_future="<strong> Countdown to ".$date." at ".$time.": </strong>";
$boolpast_future=true;
}
}

($thour, $tminute, etc mean target hour, target minute...)
However, this code does not calculate the countdown time properly. How to fix this? Thanks!

Answer 1

date_default_timezone_set('Asia/Tokyo');

$target = new DateTime('2011-06-01 05:00:00');
$now = new DateTime;
$diff = $target->diff($now);

if ($target > $now) {
    echo $diff->format('%a days, %h hours, %i minutes to go');
} else {
    echo $diff->format('%a days, %h hours, %i minutes too late');
}