showing date

[Jules00]

hey 🙂

Im very new to php, and need some help. Im creating a script that will allow users to sign up for various training classes online. First users select which class they want. Depending on their selection, they recieve a list of available class dates in a drop down menu. The problem is that I have the dates stored in the database like: "022103 (mmddyy)". So when the script outputs the date, it shows up in a difficult to read format.

What Im looking for is a script that will change the "022103" into "February 21, 2003". Id like to keep the database date in the simple numbers format it is in, but diplay an easier to read for the users.

I would greatly appreciate any help or suggestions concerning how I could accomplish this.

Thanks!

Here is the current code for the select_date.php:

<?PHP

$class_id = $_POST['class_id'];
session_register('class_id');
$_SESSION['class_id'] = $class_id;

@ $db = mysql_pconnect("host", "user1", "user1");

if (!$db)
{
echo "Could not connect to database.";
exit;
}

mysql_select_db("training_signup");
$query = "select * from ".$class_id."_dates";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$num_results = mysql_num_rows($result);
?>
<form action="enter_info.php" method="post">
Select Date: 
<select name="select_date">
	<?
	for ($i=0; $i <$num_results; $i++)
{
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
?>
    <option value="<? echo htmlspecialchars( stripslashes($row["date"])); ?>">
	<? echo htmlspecialchars( stripslashes($row["date"])); ?></option>
	<? } ?>
  </select>
</form>

Thanks again 🙂

[LordShryku]

Probably a much easier way to do it, but I'm tired 🙂

<?
//your variable
$oldDate = "022103";

//get current year
$curYear = date("Y");

/pull day from variable
$newDay = substr($oldDate,2,2);

//first two digits of current year(20) + year from variable(03)
$newYear = substr($curYear,0,2) . substr($oldDate,4,2);

//set readable month
if(substr($oldDate,0,2) == "01") { $newM = "January"; }
if(substr($oldDate,0,2) == "02") { $newM = "February"; }
if(substr($oldDate,0,2) == "03") { $newM = "March"; }
if(substr($oldDate,0,2) == "04") { $newM = "April"; }
if(substr($oldDate,0,2) == "05") { $newM = "May"; }
if(substr($oldDate,0,2) == "06") { $newM = "June"; }
if(substr($oldDate,0,2) == "07") { $newM = "July"; }
if(substr($oldDate,0,2) == "08") { $newM = "August"; }
if(substr($oldDate,0,2) == "09") { $newM = "September"; }
if(substr($oldDate,0,2) == "10") { $newM = "October"; }
if(substr($oldDate,0,2) == "11") { $newM = "November"; }
if(substr($oldDate,0,2) == "12") { $newM = "December"; }

//set variable for new date
$newDate = $newM . " " . $newDay . ", " . $newYear;

echo $newDate;
?>

[Jules00]

Yea, that seems to work great 🙂 Im having a problem, however. I have a table in a database that hold the available dates. When the php repeats the dropdown option for the number of rows in that table, all the options are the first row date in the table.

Heres the code:

$class_id = $_POST['class_id'];
session_register('class_id');
$_SESSION['class_id'] = $class_id;

@ $db = mysql_pconnect("host", "user1", "user1");

if (!$db)
{
echo "Could not connect to database.";
exit;
}

mysql_select_db("training_signup");
$query = "select * from ".$class_id."_dates";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$num_results = mysql_num_rows($result);
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$class_date = htmlspecialchars( stripslashes($row["date"]));
?>

<form action="enter_info.php" method="post">
Select Date: 
<select name="class_date">
	<?
	for ($i=0; $i <$num_results; $i++)
{
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
?>
    <option value="<? echo htmlspecialchars( stripslashes($row["date"])); ?>">
	<? 

$curYear = date("Y"); 

$newDay = substr($class_date,2,2); 

$newYear = substr($curYear,0,2) . substr($class_date,4,2); 

if(substr($class_date,0,2) == "01") { $newM = "January"; } 
if(substr($class_date,0,2) == "02") { $newM = "February"; } 
if(substr($class_date,0,2) == "03") { $newM = "March"; } 
if(substr($class_date,0,2) == "04") { $newM = "April"; } 
if(substr($class_date,0,2) == "05") { $newM = "May"; } 
if(substr($class_date,0,2) == "06") { $newM = "June"; } 
if(substr($class_date,0,2) == "07") { $newM = "July"; } 
if(substr($class_date,0,2) == "08") { $newM = "August"; } 
if(substr($class_date,0,2) == "09") { $newM = "September"; } 
if(substr($class_date,0,2) == "10") { $newM = "October"; } 
if(substr($class_date,0,2) == "11") { $newM = "November"; } 
if(substr($class_date,0,2) == "12") { $newM = "December"; } 

$newDate = $newM . " " . $newDay . ", " . $newYear; 

echo $newDate;

 ?></option>
<? } ?>
  </select>
  <input type="submit" value="Continue">
</form>

Please let me know if you can figure out what the problem is. Thank You! 🙂

[xblue]

I'd use column type date for this (some others seem to be preferring timestamps though).

then you can make use of DATE_FORMAT in your select queries, easy and straightforward, like this

SELECT DATE_FORMAT(date_column, '%M %d, %Y') AS fdate FROM table

formatting options are listed here:
http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/Date_and_time_functions.html

[Jules00]

I got it figured out. Thanks for all the help! 🙂