Date&Time to MySQL database

[d-woo]

I have a PHP3 file that sends data (taken from a form) to a database.

I would like to also send the current date & time to the database as well,
this way I will have a record of the date/time the entry was made (form filled out).

The date/time will not be passed to the PHP3 file from the form.

There will be a field in the database table for the time.

How do I send the date and time to the table in the following format:

2001-July-24, 17:00 (or 2001-July-24, 05:00PM)???

either way is fine,

Thanks.

[nashirak]

// Get date and format it accordingly

$date = date("Y-F-d, G:i");

MYSQL_QUERY("INSERT INTO Table values('$date', $blah.'$blahblah'.....

you get the point. That should send the time in in

2001-July-24, 17:00 format

see:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php

for more information on that function.

[Anon]

Try making a column in the TABLE with the DATETIME atribute. (see manual for formats)

In your INSERT statement use this NOW()

This did'nt quite answered your question though, you can make a column called colDate CHAR(20)

And make this:
<?
//make a variable that contains: YEAR-Month-Day, Hour:minutes.
$d = date("Y-F-d, G:i")
?>

<?
//here goes your query insert $d in the colDate

$q = "INSERT ...";
?>

Hope this helped.

regards
Thomas Andersen

[Anon]

i used to do this with date fields, but now I find it's more comfortable storing timestamps in simple integer fields - you can later convert them into any format.

inserting the timestamp is easy: the value comes from php's time() function (see reference)

later on, you could read out the value and convert it into displayable format using date("Y-m-d", $timestamp)

that's my favourite approach to this.

[d-woo]

Matto,

I've stored my date field in the MySQL database as Char(20).

I'm assuming that I will still be able to query for data entries
by month....should I need to at all.

Does storing the date in the MySQL database as an integer with $timestamp
affect any queries that you may want to do in the future?

I'm asking for future reference where precise time/date queries
might become an issue for a client.