[RESOLVED] Formatting Multiple Dates using a function

[markfc]

Oh Jesus, I've really got my headstuck in this one, maybe I should just go home...

I'm retrieving a row from a table which can have multiple dates stored in fields in the following format '2007-10-03 14:24:00'

The fields would be named Order_Date, Despatch_Date, Packing_Date etc

I want to be able to tidy them with a function I though I was getting close but turns out I'm no where near!!

<?php

$date1 = "2007-10-03 14:24:00" ;
$date2 = "2007-11-04 14:24:00" ;
$date3 = "2007-12-05 14:24:00" ;

function tidythedate() {
global $date1, $date2, $date3 ;

$year = substr($date1, 0,4) ;
$month = substr($dat1, 5,2) ;
$day = substr($date1, 8,2) ;
$convertdate = mktime(0,0,0,$month,$day,$year) ;
$date1 = date("d/m/Y", $convertdate) ;

}



$date1 = tidythedate($date1) ;
$date2 = tidythedate($date2) ;
$date3 = tidythedate($date3) ;

echo "<table>
	<tr>
		<td>$date1</td>
		<td>$date2</td>
		<td>$date3</td>
	</tr>
</table>" ;

?>

Where did I go wrong?

Many Thanks

Mark

[Scriptmaker]

missing the "e" in date1 on this line:

$month = substr($dat1, 5,2) ;

Do you have error reporting on? If so, what is it saying?

[markfc]

Hi, Yeah I noticed that but it was only example code.

I'm not getting errors as such, it's more of a how would I do this question cause obviously the code wouldn't work as the fucntion only every references $date1.

[NogDog]

[man]strtotime/man is your friend for things like this:

$date1 = "2007-10-03 14:24:00" ;
echo date('d/m/Y', strtotime($date1));

[Weedpacket]

Your problem is that the way you've built the function has nothing to do with the way you're using it.

1. tidythedate() as it exists does not take any arguments, but you're passing it one anyway - whatever you pass it is just ignored

2. As you've noted, even though you declare all three dates global but you're only doing anything to one of them

3. Most importantly, tidythedate() doesn't return anything, but you're setting each of your date variables to the value returned by the function; i.e., null.

And I'll also point out that unless you want the function to do things like convert "2007-02-29" into "01/03/2007" the use of mktime() and date() is redundant, because you already have the day, month, and year in the format you want and it's just a matter of writing them down again in a different order with different punctuation.

[dmacman1962]

I think this is what everyone is telling you to do:

<?php
$date1 = "2007-10-03 14:24:00" ;
$date2 = "2007-11-04 14:24:00" ;
$date3 = "2007-12-05 14:24:00" ;

function tidythedate($date) {
	echo date('d/m/Y', strtotime($date)); 
}
?>
<table>
    <tr>
        <td><?php tidythedate($date1); ?></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>	
        <td><?php tidythedate($date2);  ?></td>
    </tr>   

	<tr>
		<td><?php tidythedate($date3);  ?></td>
    </tr>
</table>

If so, remember to mark this thread "Resolved."

Don

[halojoy]

here is another version

<?php

// minifunction
function tidythedate($str){
    return substr($str,8,2).'/'.substr($str,5,2).'/'.substr($str,0,4);
}

// start
$date1 = "2007-10-03 14:24:00";
$date2 = "2007-11-04 14:24:00";
$date3 = "2007-12-05 14:24:00";
$d1      = tidythedate($date1);
$d2      = tidythedate($date2);
$d3      = tidythedate($date3);

echo "$d1<br />
$d2<br />
$d3<br />";

?>

[markfc]

Yep, that's works nicely!

Thanks to all.