Have you ever wanted to use images to generate links, thus allowing you to use any font or style you like?? In this example I will show you a simple way using a php function, an archive of images and some arrays.

First step in the script we have the CSS, very simple I have gone for a border at the bottom of my images:

<style type="text/css">
 .imgTxtRow {
  width:200px;
  border-bottom:1px solid #000;
  }
</style>

Then moving on to the PHP arrays and function:

<? 
 // month image array()
 $months = array(1=>"january0.png",
     "february0.png",
     "march0.png",
     "april0.png",
     "may0.png",
     "june0.png",
     "july0.png",
     "august0.png",
     "september0.png",
     "october0.png",
     "november0.png",
     "december0.png");
    
 // year image array()
 $years = array("00"=>"000.png",
     "01"=>"010.png",
     "02"=>"020.png",
     "03"=>"030.png",
     "04"=>"040.png",
     "05"=>"050.png",
     "06"=>"060.png",
     "07"=>"070.png",
     "08"=>"080.png",
     "09"=>"090.png",
     "10"=>"100.png",
     "11"=>"110.png",
     "12"=>"120.png",
     "13"=>"130.png",
     "14"=>"140.png",
     "15"=>"150.png",
     "16"=>"160.png",
     "17"=>"170.png",
     "18"=>"180.png",
     "19"=>"190.png",
     "20"=>"200.png");
 
 // MAKE DATE FUNCTION;
 function makedates($date) {
  // global arrays $years and $months
  global $years;
  global $months;
  // split $date into $month and $year
  list($month,$year) = split("-",$date);
  // make $output
  $output = '<div class="imgTxtRow"><img src="images/'.$years[$year].'" alt="'.$year.'" height="15px" />';
  $output .= '<img src="images/'.$months[$month].'" alt="'.$year.'" height="15px" /></div>
  ';
  // return
  return $output;
  }   

            //TESTING TESTING 123
   print makedates('2-08');
   print makedates('1-08');
   print makedates('12-07');
   print makedates('11-07');
   print makedates('10-07');
   print makedates('9-07');
   print makedates('8-07');
   print makedates('7-07');
   print makedates('6-07');
   print makedates('5-07');
   print makedates('4-07');
   
   
   
   // mock mysql query - WORKING
   
   /*$query = mysql_query("SELECT DISTINCT DATE_FORMAT(startdate,'%c %y') FROM blog ORDER startdate DESC");*/
?>

The above print makedates() will produce a line with the date as provided within ''.

This script can also be used to produce dates from mysql data.

i.e.

<?

 $query = mysql_query("SELECT DISTINCT DATE_FORMAT(startdate,'%c-%y') FROM blog ORDER startdate DESC");

while($row=mysql_fetch_array($query)) {

print makedates($row['startdate']);

?>

To download the files for this tutorial click here

Enjoy.