Well, it is very simple to understand:
-as you put the "date_entered" field as timestamp, MySQL database enters the current date, but with no separators; for example 20010808231425
-when you will set the variable to retrieve the data form "date_entered" field, it will retrieve the date under the format it is stored in the database, that is like 20010808231425
-the ideea is to retrieve the date as it is stored in the database, but to display it with separators, like this: 2001/08/08 23:14:25
-you can do it by creating a function in php which will separate the string of characters. Let us name this function separator:
Function separator($date) {
$read_date = substr($date,6,2)."/";
$read_date .= substr($date,4,2)."/";
$read_date .= substr($date,0,4)." ";
$read_date .= substr($date,8,2).":";
$read_date .= substr($date,10,2).":";
$read_date .= substr($date,12,2);
return $read_date;}
-then, you have to display the values of the "date_entered" field in your .php page. You do it by assigning a variable (let us name it $flddate_entered) which will retrieve the "date_entered" values from the database.
In php, you can display values from the database through 2 functions: one is echo, the other is tohtml. We could use the second one, like this:
<fontclass='DataFONT'><?=separator($fldDate_entered)?> </font></td></tr>
Some further explanations:
Q: Why did you use timestamp function instead of date or datetime functions?
A: Because only by timestamp function you could get the current date inserted automatically into your field. If you use datetime function with the default value now() you will get 00000000 00:00:00, totally irrelevant for you, as you could have previously seen;
Q: where do I put the code for the separator function?
A: in the .php file you will expect to display the data. You could create a separate file named, lets say "functions.php", and then call that file from you .php file by using "include ("./functions.php");" command
If you send me an email, I could give you some examples.
