The following code will help you to check if a date in the future or in the past. Where are this required? A lot of fields date will require you to check if the date is in the past or in the future.
$time = "2017-09-26"; if(strtotime($time) > time()) { //in the future } if(strtotime($time) < time()) { //in the past } if(strtotime($time) == time()) { //is right now }