Quick Date Question

Anon

Hi all,

I use select now() to get the current date and then dump into my MySQL db - then when I pull out the data i see:

2000-07-03 14:02:06

Which is a variable named $show[4]

When I try

date("D F j",$show[4])

though I get 'Wed December 31' ?

Why is that - what am I doing wrong?

Thanks for any help...

Darren

Anon

I too went through this same problem. The date() command uses a unix timestamp. You must convert the date field to a unix timestamp for it to work correctly. OR better yet, let php handle the dates, just save them in mysql as an int field. That way you don't have to convert the damn thing every time you want to use it.

If you aren't sure how to convert it, tell me what the mysql date field is set up as...

Dates stink in mysql!! But it is possible to work with them with some conversions.

Anon

I'm currently unhappy with the way my script handles dates, mostly because it gets stored in the dbase in the format I have php's date() format set up. I guess that's okay, except for when you want to change how it is printed to the page.

I was going to fix this by having the date stored as unix timestamp in the db, and then have php reformat it before the printf(). Are you saying this is not a happy way of doing things?

Anon

Using php to handle all the dates based on a unix timestamp is the best way to handle dates.

It saves having to convert mysql's dates to ones that php can handle. It is possible but it is more unecessary work for you.

I say let php handle the dates just store them all as an int field in mysql.

Anon

Thanks to all who replied - I have decided to go back to UNIX timestamp as an INT and then just use date() to format.

It seems to be the best and not too expensive.

Cheers