Timestamps

[viper1777]

I am getting a timestamp from a mysql database in the format:

20030108152513

but when i try to make PHP convert it into a string using date() and getDate() I get the date/time.

19/January/2038 3:14.

Help!!!

[colbec]

It seems that the function date() expects an int and interprets your string as an int. This puts it at the upper bound of the range it thinks it is operating in and gives you back the date it thinks you want. So the issue is how to deal with the string...?

[keith73]

I couldn't figure out how to do it using one of the existing PHP functions, so I wrote one.

/*
	return value determined by $format which
	defaults to unix timestamp. For formatted string
	set to 's' when passing.
*/
function reformatTS($tstamp,$format="u"){
$unix_stamp = strtotime(substr($tstamp,0,4) . "-" . 
                        substr($tstamp,4,2) . "-" .
						substr($tstamp,6,2) . " " .
                        substr($tstamp,8,2) . ":" .
						substr($tstamp,10,2) . ":" .
						substr($tstamp,12,2));
if($format == "u"){
	return($unix_stamp);
} else if($format == "s") {
	return(strftime("%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S",$unix_stamp));
}
}//END function reformatTS

so when you need to format the date, call reformatTS. If you pass 's' as the second parameter it will format the date like this:
YYYY-MM-DD H:M:S

But if you want to use date or strftime to format it a different way, don't pass a second parameter and use the result returned as your int timestamp.

I only tested the function using a full 14 char timestamp field. If you have a different size, you may have to modify.

• Keith