[RESOLVED] I Hate Datetime

[LiamBailey]

I am absolutely perplexed by the array of datetime functions. i have been reading up on it for two days trying to work out how to put a W3C date into a hidden value on a form.

<input type="hidden" name="helpme" value="<?echo date_w3c();?>">

I know that isn't right but it is just to give an example of what I mean.

As always, any help gratefully received.

[NogDog]

If using PHP5:

$w3c_date = date('c');  // ISO 8601 date format (a.k.a. 'w3c')

If an older version:

$tz_offset = substr_replace(date('O'), ':', -2, 0);
$w3c_date = date('Y-m-d\TH:i:s').$tz_offset;

[LiamBailey]

The second method worked, as far as this is what I got:

2008-03-19T06:08:59+00:00

But to be hones its for a google news sitemap, and there's is something like:

2008-03-19T06:08:59Z

I could easily do

$tz_offset = substr_replace(date('O'), ':', -2, 0);
$w3c_date = date('Y-m-d\TH:i:s').$tz_offset;
$date = strreplace("+","Z",$w3c_date);

But I don't know if the Z is a constant or a changing element depending on the time, again, no amount of reading has led me to this information. Also, will the above formats go into my Database in a datetime field, or will I need to make it varchar?

[NogDog]

Z is shorthand for GMT or 00:00 offset (called "Zulu time" in military jargon). If you want that, just do:

$date = gmdate('Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z');

[LiamBailey]

Perfect -- thanks Nogdog