Using the String To Time Function To Find A Future Date

ChronicFatigue

I am trying to use the string to time function to find a future date... e.g. the first Tuesday in January 2013.

Using this code:

echo date ('jS F Y', strtotime('First Tuesday January 2013'));

Gives the first Tuesday as the 8th of January, 2013 when it should be the 1st of January. Any ideas as to why it is showing the 2nd and not the 1st Tuesday of January 2013?

Derokorian

I believe, and one of the gurus can set me straight if I'm wrong, that its because its actually doing the first Tuesday of the first week, which starts on Sunday.

ChronicFatigue

Thanks.

Any idea on how to get it to display the first instance of that day in the month (not from the first week)?

Derokorian

Believe it or not, add "of" lol I tested it and First Tuesday [MONTH] [YEAR] where the first day of the month is Monday or Tuesday reports the second instead of the first, however. First Tuesday of [MONTH] [YEAR] is accurately reporting the first one every time.

Sorry for not saying that the first time, I was still testing to find a way to get it to work!

ChronicFatigue

Thanks the help.

I can't get what you have written to work in my code:

echo date ('jS F Y', strtotime('First Tuesday of January 2013'));

outputs '31st December 1969' on sites server.

ChronicFatigue

umm.. I have just searched the internet and my version of php which is less than version 5.3 may not accept this statement.

johanafm

In that case you should upgrade to 5.3.

But you can find out yourself as well. Just start by checking what day of week the 1st of January is. Then add the appropriate number of days to get to the first tuesday.

$wd = date('w', mktime(0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2013));

# days to add to get to tuesday (2nd day of the week)
$day_of_week = 2;		# tuesday
$days = 2 - $wd;
if ($days < 0)
	$days += 7;

$date = date('Y-m-d', mktime(0, 0, 0, 1, 1 + $days, 2013));
echo $date;

ChronicFatigue

Yes my site is being migrated to a server which is running 5.3. In the meantime I will upgrade PHP to 5.3 on my local test server to try it out.

Thank you both.

Derokorian

Also strtotime('First Tuesday of January 2013') is 00:00:00 1st january, 2013 so timezone problems could then cause it to show up as a different day.

Edit: To see the timezone problem in action, run this script:

<?php

date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');
$TS = strtotime('First Tuesday of January 2013');
echo 'New York = '. date('jS F Y H:i',$TS);

date_default_timezone_set('America/Los_Angeles');
echo '<br>Los Angelos = '. date('jS F Y H:i',$TS);

johanafm

Derokorian;10997230 wrote:
Also strtotime('First Tuesday of January 2013') is 00:00:00 1st january, 2013 so timezone problems could then cause it to show up as a different day.

Edit: To see the timezone problem in action, run this script:

Not really. You are showing the answer to an entirely different question: "What date and time is it in Los Angeles when it's 00:00 the first tuesday of January 2013 in New York?"

date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');
$TS = strtotime('First Tuesday of January 2013');
echo 'New York = '. date('jS F Y H:i',$TS);

date_default_timezone_set('America/Los_Angeles');
# This is the line you were missing in your code.
$TS = strtotime('First Tuesday of January 2013');
echo '<br>Los Angelos = '. date('jS F Y H:i',$TS);

bradgrafelman

Derokorian;10997230 wrote:

Edit: To see the timezone problem in action, run this script:

<?php

date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');
$TS = strtotime('First Tuesday of January 2013');
echo 'New York = '. date('jS F Y H:i',$TS);

date_default_timezone_set('America/Los_Angeles');
echo '<br>Los Angelos = '. date('jS F Y H:i',$TS);

That's not a fair test; you called strtotime() before the timezone change. Try calling it after the timezone change.

EDIT: Oops, stale browser tab strikes again - didn't see johanafm's post above before replying.

Derokorian

@ and bg: Ah good point. I failed.