[RESOLVED] Date anomaly

[zenix]

Hi! I am playing around trying to learn how to use the date() function and have discovered quite the interesting (annoying) issue. When I use the date function and include it with in a sentence to print I get 7:00 PM December 31 1969. When I place the date function somewhere else in the page I get the correct date and time. I'd really appreciate it if someone could enlighten me as to what I might be doing wrong. Here is the code:

<?php
session_start();
//address error handling
ini_set('display_errors',1);
error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);
 //Print a greeting
print '<div id="leftcontent">
<h1> Welcome to Zenix on the web, ' . ucfirst($_SESSION['username']) . '!</h1>';

//Print how long they have been logged in
print '<p> You have been logged in since <br/>' . date('g:i a l F j Y', $_SESSION['loggedin']) . '</p>';

//make a log out link
print '<p><a href="logout.php">Click here to log out!</p></a>';
print date('g:i a l F j Y');
//Handle form if it has been submitted
if(isset ($_POST['submit']))
{

   //setcookie ('bg_color', $_POST['bg_color']);
   //setcookie ('font_color', $_POST['font_color']);
   setcookie("bg_color", $_POST['bg_color'], time()+3600);
   setcookie("font_color", $_POST['font_color'], time()+3600);
   $cookies = TRUE; //cookies have been sent
}
?> 
<?php

//If cookies sent print message
if($cookies)
{
    print '<p>Your settings have been entered! Click <a href="view_settings.php">Here</a> to view the results.</p>';
}
?>

[Installer]

I don't see where you're setting $_SESSION['loggedin'], but I'm guessing you're not storing it as a Unix timestamp. That's what you must give to date() when you pass it a second argument.

[zenix]

Thank you for replying so quickly. Please excuse my ignorance as I am quite new to this; I can't make sense of what you said. Would you consider an example please? I'd really appreciate it.

[Installer]

Again, I don't know how or where you set $SESSION['loggedin'], but when you do, use a timestamp. For example:

$_SESSION['loggedin'] = time();  // time() returns an integer Unix timestamp.

Not:

$_SESSION['loggedin'] = date('g:i a l F j Y');  // date() returns a string.

EDIT: Or, if you do use the latter form, then you need to convert it to a timestamp for use with date. Then

date('g:i a l F j Y', $_SESSION['loggedin'])

could be changed to

date('g:i a l F j Y', strtotime($_SESSION['loggedin']))

since strtotime() returns a timestamp. But, of course that would give you the same thing as

$_SESSION['loggedin']

Post the code where $_SESSION[loggedin'] is set.

[Kudose]

Just as a note, I agree with Installer and I prefer to use timestamps because it is easier to do date math with.

[zenix]

That makes a lot of sense to me now! Thank you so much for all your help!! Who knows, maybe there's hope that I will actually learn this....at least enough to build a decent site!