post_time is a unix timestamp - in perl, this is just a call to 'time()', and it is a timezone-independant representation of the time as seconds since Jan 1st, 1970, 0:00 GMT. post_latest_reply is the same thing, except that it is actually 2000000000 - time(), as MySQL will only properly handle an index on a value that goes _up_, not one that goes down, and the default and most common forum view is sorting with newest first - in other words descending - so the inverted value works properly.

In any event, you can use MySQL's 'UNIX_TIMESTAMP()' function to give you a unix time. A few usage examples:


So, assuming April 5th, 2004, 1:57pm was the time you wanted, you could use the following query, replacing the red bits appropriately:


For other users who see this post, keep in mind that this will not work properly on anything other than root posts.

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Jason Rhinelander
Gossamer Threads
jason@gossamer-threads.com