Changing timestamp(14) into useable format

[jennides]

Hi All,

Does anyone have any ideas how to change a MySQL timestamp(14) into a useable format using PHP. I tried using the MySQL function date_format(), but I couldn't get it to work.

Here's what I tried:

$selstr = "select date_format(lastupdate, '%W %M %e, %Y %h:%i') FROM stats WHERE id='$id'";
$result = mysql_query("$selstr");
$lastupdate = mysql_fetch_array($result);

echo $lastupdate['lastupdate'];

Now I do these kinds of queries all the time, except this is the first time I have used a MySQL function in the query... and I suspect that is where the problem in.

When I query MySQL directly the query works fine, I just can't get PHP to pull the variable (or should I say, give me the variable).

What am I doing wrong?

Or if you know an easier way to do what I'm trying to do with PHP (without the MySQL function) please let me know.

Thanks

[the_Igel]

Easy it is.

The column you're trying to retrieve is marked not "lastupdate", but "date_format(lastupdate, '%W %M %e, %Y %h:%i')".

You may write
"select date_format(lastupdate, '%W %M %e, %Y %h:%i') as my_date FROM stats WHERE id='$id'"

and then

echo $lastupdate['my_date']

But I think better is turn your timestamp to UNIX time, and format it with php, as it would be easier to maintain or even understand:

select unix_timestamp(lastupdate) as unixupdate from stats where id = '$id'

......

echo date('format string', $lastupdate['unixupdate']);

[jennides]

Thanks a bunch for responding! I really appreciate it.

And by the way, I came to the same conclusion as you did and was already in the process of changing my timestamp to a UNIX timestamp.

Thanks again :-)