Formatting Dates

I have a MySQL database with a number of date fields (data type 'Date', NOT timestamps).

My PHP scripts read these OK, but display the date in the format 'YYYY-DD-MM'. (2005-11-09).

I tried to format the date $NewsDate using the following function:

$date = date ("d/m/Y", $NewsDate);

But when I echo $date, all I get is 01/01/1970 - right format, but wrong date (the UNIX start date, obviously).

Am I using the right function, or do I need to use it a different way?

Hi,

Someone helped my with this yesterday, this might help.

$input date = //where your date is

$input_day = substr($input_date, 0, 2);
$input_month = substr($input_date, 3, 2);
$input_year = substr($input_date, -4);

$ts = mktime(0, 0, 0, $input_month, $input_day, $input_year);

$Newsdate = date('d-m-Y', $ts);

Hope it works, i'm still new, so i'm not 100%

Thanks - I can see how that works through.

In the meantime, I've found out how to manipulate dates via the MySQL query (so it arrives in the form I need it in).

This is OK for now, but it'd still be useful to find out the most elegant way of manipulating dates (as opposed to timestamps) in PHP.

Hi,

Did you manage to sort this?

I too need a simple way to make dates more readable.