Why doesn't this simple if statement work?
<p>I have a simple thing I'm trying to solve.</p>

<p>I have a date stored in a table, and I'm comparing it to a php generated date.</p>

<p>ie:</p>

<pre><code>if($row['start_date'] &lt; date("Y-m-d")) {

    // table stored date larger than php date
    echo 'hi';

}  else {

    // php date larger than table stored date
    echo 'bye';

}
</code></pre>

<p>This seems ok to me, but </p>

<pre><code>if $row['start_date'] === '2011-09-13' AND date("Y-m-d") === '2011-09-15'.
</code></pre>

<p>I end up with:</p>

<pre><code>hi
</code></pre>

<p>This could be one of those twilight moments where I think left is right and a <em>greater than</em> symbol is actually a <em>less than</em>. So please help me - why doesn't this work?</p>
