Date() sometimes randomly returns "1/1/1970"

hadoob024

This one's weird. We're using SugarCRM and sometimes we have issues with dates. It's pretty random. It happens about 1 out of every 100 date entries, but here's our code:

$bean->status_date = date("m/d/Y H:i")

The issue is, that about 1 out every 100 times we do this, sometimes the value "1/1/1970" or "12/31/1969" gets stored in our MSSQL db. I can't see an issue with what I'm doing because it works like 99 times out of 100. But am I doing something wrong? Is this a PHP bug? Is this a SugarCRM bug? Anyone seeing this (aside from when entering bad inputs for the date() function)?

Ashley_Sheridan

That shouldn't ever cause the problem you're seeing. Is there anywhere else the date function is used, and is being fed a second parameter which is the timestamp? It could be that the timestamp being fed in (if this is indeed the cause of the problem) is suffering from a logic error, which is producing the 0 and -1 that you're seeing translated into a date in the DB.

bradgrafelman

How is the date column defined in the DB? Any reason why you're generating the current date with PHP rather than just letting the MSSQL fill it in for you?

hadoob024

Is there anywhere else the date function is used

Nope. This is the only place (well, for updating this field that is). There are other fields that we update in a similar manner, and they're all experiencing this issue.

How is the date column defined in the DB? Any reason why you're generating the current date with PHP rather than just letting the MSSQL fill it in for you?

It's just a regular datetime field. The "date_entered" and "date_modified" fields are the only ones that MSSQL fills in. We have 4 or 5 other date fields, and we update these based on what action is taking place; i.e., "closed_date" for when an order is closed, "ship_date" for when an order ships, etc. So in this case, we're updating an order status, so we want to update the "status_date" datetime field.

johanafm

Which your db can handle without the use of any php time function.

UPDATE some_table
SET some_date_field = CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
WHERE some_condition

One thing that might be happening is that you provide a null value to a function like date(), which does NOT provide the same result with a null argument as it does without argument.

printf('date(format, null): %s<br />', date('Y-m-d H:i:s', null));
printf('date(format): %s<br />', date('Y-m-d H:i:s'));

hadoob024

I just went back and double-checked the code. I only call it like:

$bean->status_date = date($date_format);

Not providing any value for the timestamp.

Thanks. Think we'll look into a solution like what you mentioned. Can't figure out what else might be causing this.