Convert Date from a variable

jonathen

I've read the php manual about mktime() and I cannot seem to figure out how to convert time in YⓂd format to D:M:g:Y. I don't want to convert the current time - I will be calling a time from my db, giving it a variable of $exptime and echoing it, but I need it to echo in D:M:g:Y format (even though the db entry stays as YⓂd format)

I understand converting the other way around, but not this way.

Help please! 😉

Thanks

Jonathen

dbchip2000

Try

date("D:M:g:Y",strtotime($db_date))

jonathen

Tried that, gave it a variable name, then echoed the variable and got:
Warning: unexpected error in date()

I am using:

$moo = date("D:M:g:Y",strtotime($expdate));
echo "$moo";

dalecosp

strtotime() expects to see a human readable date, not a UNIX time stamp; hence that error. date() didn't know what to do with a value of -1 fed to it....

Are you sure you want "D:M:g:Y" --- where are you getting an hour from if your db format is "YⓂd"?

Show me your desired output, we'll see if we can make it work. Perhaps something like this horrible kludge:

$mdy=explode(":", date("Y:m:d"));

$Yr=$mdy[0]; $Mo=$mdy[1]; $Dy=$mdy[2];

$newtime=date("D, M d, Y", mktime(0,0,0,$Mo,$Dy,$Yr));

echo "<br><br>".$newtime;

jonathen

Yeah, I meant that what I want is: D M j, Y.

Okay, in my db, I have a field called $expdate which would look like this: 2003:07:09 when submitted to the db.

I call this later for listing purposes, but want to keep it in this format within mysql, but convert it to: Wed Jul 9, 2003 for the user to see.

So when echoing $expdate, it should view whatever the date that was in the db in the raw format to the friendly format - purely for the html output.

Is this easily possible? It's easy to do with date() for the current date, but this will almost always be a specific date in the past (several of them, one for each row within the db)

Thanks,

Jonathen

dalecosp

Originally posted by jonathen
Yeah, I meant that what I want is: D M j, Y.

Okay, in my db, I have a field called $expdate which would look like this: 2003:07:09 when submitted to the db.

I call this later for listing purposes, but want to keep it in this format within mysql, but convert it to: Wed Jul 9, 2003 for the user to see.

So when echoing $expdate, it should view whatever the date that was in the db in the raw format to the friendly format - purely for the html output.

Is this easily possible? It's easy to do with date() for the current date, but this will almost always be a specific date in the past (several of them, one for each row within the db)

Thanks,

Jonathen

Why, sure...like I said, it's a bit of a kludge, but rather trivial. I'll adjust it for ya...

function htmlTime($expdate) {
   $mdy=explode(":", $expdate); 
   $Yr=$mdy[0]; $Mo=$mdy[1]; $Dy=$mdy[2]; 
   $newtime=date("D M j, Y", mktime(0,0,0,$Mo,$Dy,$Yr)); 
   return $newtime;
}

So, put the function in your script and then

echo htmlTime($expdate);

HTH, 🙂

jonathen

Thank you so much - you really have helped! I will sit now and figure out how this works so I understand. I know it's probably trivial, but I only understand certain parts of php - still learning!

Thanks again 🙂

Jonathen

dalecosp

function htmlTime($expdate) { 
   $mdy=explode(":", $expdate);  
# this creates an array, $mdy, containing the parts of the date
# it will only work if the date is delimited by the colon ':'
   $Yr=$mdy[0]; $Mo=$mdy[1]; $Dy=$mdy[2];  
# in the array, the year is the 1st part, month is 2nd, etc.
# we assign these to variables for the mktime() call
   $newtime=date("D M j, Y", mktime(0,0,0,$Mo,$Dy,$Yr));  
# check the manual [mktime()] - we're feeding it a time
# equivalent to midnight on the date you put into the function
   return $newtime; 
# easy enough...
}

😉

jonathen

Thanks 🙂