date() not displaying correctly

tragikx

i want to display the time portion of a datetime field.

$thistime = date("H:i:s", $row['test']);

regardless of the value of the field, i get 16:xx:xx as the value for $thistime

is it not possible to take the time portion seperately?!

Drakla

the php function date() takes a unix timestamp, so you could either select the field from SQL using mysql UNIX_TIMSTAMP(yourfield) or use mysql's DATE_FORMAT function which takes a different set of formatting parameters, but they're all in the manual.

jburbage

I personally like to retrieve the data in its raw form and use strtotime() to convert the string to a timestamp. Never had it fail.

tragikx

i dont quite understand...

are you saying there is no way to take the raw value of the field "test", which, for example is 2005-07-03 10:00:00 and simply display 10:00:00? i would have to use UNIX_TIMESTAMP or DATE_FORMAT within the select query to format it??

Drakla

I actually never use the datetime type at all, it's slower than using timestamps and I've benched every kind of timesearch I can think of even having to create to create the timestamp from strototime (which is FASTER than mktime, though it seems like it shouldn't be) and it's always been better. Plus datetime types are alien as far as php is concerned.

EDIT: no - you don't have to use the DATE_FORMAT function, but you might as well as if you can as you're cutting out a middle man. You can use [man]mktime[/man] if you cut the string up, or use [man]strtotime[/man]

$t = "2005-07-04 05:42:54";

echo date('H:i:s', strtotime($t));