[Resolved] Date Problems

xarnet

I am attempting to convert a number in seconds into a date. What I've established is that the figure I am attempting to convert is how many seconds it's been since: 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT. Now I am wondering if there is a function that already exists to convert this figure (in seconds) to a timestamp, and if not would writing a script to convert such a figure into a date be all that difficult? As of now I have the following:

<?php
$query = @mysql_query("SELECT tid, title, posts, start_date, starter_id, starter_name, forum_id FROM xnftopics WHERE forum_id=25 ORDER BY tid DESC LIMIT 0, 3");
while ($data = @mysql_fetch_object($query)) {
?>
<p align="justify"><b><?=$data->title?></b>
<br>Written by <b><a href="http://www.xarnet.net/index.php?act=Profile&CODE=03&MID=<?=$data->starter_id?>"><?=$data->starter_name?></a></b> on <?php
$estdate = ($data->start_date)-180000;
$yearfigure = round($estdate/60/60/24/365.25 - 0.5, 0);
$year = 1970 + $yearfigure;
$yearseconds = $yearfigure*365.25*24*60*60;
$minusyear = $estdate - $yearseconds;
echo $year;
?>
<br> ...more code for the post...
<?php
}
?>

But I'm not sure how to do the rest, also I would like to be able to have it as a timestamp when I'm done (if possible).

Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Note: I cannot simply go and change the column to a timestamp, as it's a column used by a forum.

xarnet

In addition to this, for some reason in another unrelated aspect, I am also having problems with the date. From the following timestamp:

20030802215036

and using the following code:

<?php
$query = @mysql_query("SELECT id, date FROM items WHERE id='$id'");
while ($data = @mysql_fetch_object($query)) {
?>
Date:<?php
$timestamp = $data->date;
echo date("l dS of F Y h:i A", $timestamp);
?>
<br>..more code...
<?php
}
?>

But for some reason this comes out as:

Monday 18th of January 2038 09:14 PM

Instead of

Sunday 02nd of August 2003 09:50 PM

barand

One thing to note is DATE is reserved word so safer to use backticks, eg

"SELECT id, date FROM items WHERE id='$id'"

tekky

mktime()

mktime($hour, $min, $sec, $month, $day, $year);

will make the timestamp for you 😉

note, that if all you need is the date, you need to supply 0's for the values dont plan on using.... ie: mktime(0, 0, 0, $month, $day, $year);

barand

A couple of things you could try

Either

SELECT id, UNIX_TIMESTAMP(date) as date FROM items WHERE id='$id'

$timestamp = $data->date;
echo date("l dS of F Y h:i A", strtotime($timestamp));

hth

xarnet

Originally posted by barand
A couple of things you could try

Either

SELECT id, UNIX_TIMESTAMP(date) as date FROM items WHERE id='$id'

Worked perfectly ^_
Thanks a lot man.

Originally posted by barand

$timestamp = $data->date;
echo date("l dS of F Y h:i A", strtotime($timestamp));

Came out as: Wednesday 31st of December 1969 05:59 PM

xarnet

Originally posted by tekky
mktime()

mktime($hour, $min, $sec, $month, $day, $year);

will make the timestamp for you 😉

note, that if all you need is the date, you need to supply 0's for the values dont plan on using.... ie: mktime(0, 0, 0, $month, $day, $year);

But that will work fine if I can get the variables for month, day, hour, min, sec, etc. As of now I can only get the year, I'm not sure how I would go about getting the Month, Day, etc, from the seconds as mentioned in my first post.

Jason_London

the number of seconds from Jan 1 1970 IS the Unix timestamp. You can just use the function date("d m Y", $seconds_since_1970) to format the string as DD/MM/YYYY

or getdate($seconds_since_1970) to return an associative array.

i.e.

$date = getdate($seconds_since_1970);
      $day = $date['mday'];

instead of mday you can use:
seconds,
minutes,
hours,
wday(to get the day of the week 1-7),
mon,
year,
yday (toget the day of the year 1-365/366),
weekday(day of week in text),
month(month in text)

read more about the date() and getdate() functions at www.php.net

xarnet

Now I understand, I also thought the timestamp in mysql was the Unix Timestamp, such as the example for the problem I had in my 2nd post in this thread, but obviously there are differences, which now makes sense. With that said Jason_London, your suggestion worked and I have now completed what I needed to do, I thank you enormously, as well as all those who gave their time to help out.

Jason_London

you're most welcome