mktime inconsistent

keeptrying

Can anybody give me an idea why I am getting different results when comparing what are the same date values?

I do this select in my PHP page from a mySQL database:

select DATE_FORMAT(min(date_now), '%l,%i,%s,%m,%d,%Y'), DATE_FORMAT(max(date_now), '%l,%i,%s,%m,%d,%Y') from MYTABLE where name_id=2

Which gives me:

10,23,15,05,30,2008  ($startTime)
12,15,13,05,30,2008 ($EndTime)

I assign the above to two variables then use mktime to get the time difference:

$dateDiff = mktime($EndTime) - mktime($StartTime)

The result from this is wrong, the result returned is:

Difference in seconds: 7200

If I manually assign the variables, which is exactly what is contained in the variables I get the correct result:

$dateDiff = mktime(12,15,13,05,30,2008) - mktime(10,23,15,05,30,2008);

Difference in seconds: 6718

I’ve worked out that when I use mktime with a variable the results are slightly different:

$dateDiff1 = mktime($EndTime) ;
$dateDiff2 = mktime($StartTime);

Result:
1212148650
1212141450

And when I assign the dates manually:

$dateDiff1 = mktime(12,15,13,05,30,2008);
$dateDiff2 = mktime(10,23,15,05,30,2008);

Result:
1212146113
1212139395

Why is this happening and how can I make it work correctly?
Thanks

NogDog

Assigning a single parameter which happens to be a comma-separate list of numbers is not the same as 6 separate integer parameters. The string will be converted to a single integer, which in your example will be the first 2 digits (until a non-numeric character is encountered, i.e. the comma).

list($hr, $min, $sec, $mo, $day, $yr) = explode(',', $EndTime);
$dateDiff1 = mktime($hr, $min, $sec, $mo, $day, $yr);

Or a simpler solution would be to have your DATE_FORMAT() calls in the query return a format which is recognized by PHP's [man]strtotime/man function, or even just have the query return it as a UNIX_TIMESTAMP() value.

keeptrying

NogDog,
Thanks for the information, clear and concise , makes perfect sense now, also your example works a treat.

thanks again