How can formatting a date field in PHP be so difficult?

[mximedia]

I have a column in a MySQL database called "rlsdate". Info is stored in the normal DATE format (YYYY-MM-DD). How can I extract a row, order the results of the query by 'rlsdate' but then when I display the field, have it formated like "September 14, 2005". I have actually been searching for an answer to this for months. There has to be a way.

[devinemke]

you don't need/want PHP to do the formatting. do the formatting in the query itself:

SELECT *, DATE_FORMAT(rlsdate, '%M %d, %Y') AS date FROM table ORDER BY rlsdate

[mximedia]

thanks so much. every other post had it as DATE_FORMAT($rlsdate... but I tried it without the dollar sign and it worked perfectly. Thanks!!!

[bastien]

Always chcek the manual...lots of advice in there too