Bug #12766 Updated: easter_days breaks for year before 1753

From: Date: Sun, 12 May 2002 07:18:59 +0000
Subject: Bug #12766 Updated: easter_days breaks for year before 1753
References: 1  Groups: php.bugs 
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ID: 12766 Updated by: mfischer@php.net Reported By: martin@diers.cc -Status: No Feedback +Status: Open Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Operating System: Linux 2.4.x PHP Version: 4.0.6 New Comment: Feature Request -> Status: Open. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-05-12 00:00:03] php-bugs@lists.php.net No feedback was provided for this bug for over a month, so it is being suspended automatically. If you are able to provide the information that was originally requested, please do so and change the status of the bug back to "Open". ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-04-09 18:53:52] jimw@php.net yes, the fallibility of this function is well-documented. reclassifying as a feature request. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2001-08-15 14:25:16] martin@diers.cc Based on the documentation for the easter_days command, this behaviour would appear to be deliberate. It seems that the easter calculation is changed over to the Julian formula for all dates prior to 1753, because that is the year that Britain and its colonies finally switched to the Gregorian calendar. However, that does not change the fact that since 1582, the rest of Europe was using the Gregorian calendar. This being the case, it would make since to be able to calculate the date of Easter for the range 1582-1752 using either the Julian formula (which is simply based on cycles of the moon) or the Gregorian formula (which is far more complex). To implement this, an optional switch could be added to the easter_days function which defaults to the Julian formula for that date range, but allows the user to specify the Gregorian formula instead. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2001-08-15 10:51:32] martin@diers.cc The easter_days function returns bad data for years <= 1752. Here is a way to verify. Because Easter always falls on a Sunday, the following function should always return "Sunday": function EasterDOW($year) { $jdayc = easter_days($year); $jdmar21 = gregoriantojd(3, 21, $year); $jdeaster = $jdmar21 + $jdayc; return JDDayOfWeek($jdeaster, 1); } The formula for calculating easter has been the same since 1582. The standerd Delambre Easter algorithm is able to generate the date of easter for any gregorian date after 1582. The following function may be used to duplicate the functionality of easter_days for any date since 1582: function easter_days2($year) { #First calculate the date of easter using #Delambre's algorithm. $a = $year % 19; $b = floor($year / 100); $c = $year % 100; $d = floor($b / 4); $e = $b % 4; $f = floor(($b + 8) / 25); $g = floor(($b - $f + 1) / 3); $h = (19 * $a + $b - $d - $g + 15) % 30; $i = floor($c / 4); $k = $c % 4; $l = (32 + 2 * $e + 2 * $i - $h - $k) % 7; $m = floor(($a + 11 * $h + 22 * $l) / 451); $n = ($h + $l - 7 * $m + 114); $month = floor($n / 31); $day = $n % 31 + 1; #Return the difference between the JulianDayCount #for easter and March 21'st of the same year, #in order to duplicate the functionality of the #easter_days function return GregorianToJD($month, $day, $year) - GregorianToJD(3,21,$year); } ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=12766&edit=1

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