Time Question

[Hate]

I need to create some sort of queuing system for my php application to function properly. I was just going to a simple one with a column named "enqueued" and have a queued table that has id, start_time, stop_time. It's more like an ordered "delayed" queue system.. eh whatever.

 

Anyways, what would be the best way to store and access the times in the database? I'm supposing I can just use a TIMESTAMP and have the default value set to TIMESTAMP for the start_time, how how about stop_time I'm assuming still a TIMESTAMP, but with no default value and it can't be null.

 

But, how would I do the time in php? Like adding an amount to a timestamp.. and is there any special functions I can use to read the results from the mysql timestamp fields? Let's say I wanted to take a timestamp of now and add 40 minutes to it.. how do I do this?

[aesthetics1]

Sounds like this would help you!

 

http://www.gizmola.com/blog/blog/archives/51-Exploring-Mysql-CURDATE-and-NOW.-The-same-but-different..html

 

Check it out. Very helpful.

[jcbones]

I'm not sure I understand what you are asking.  I get the first two statements, but the last one kinda fogs my brain.

 

To add an amount to a timestamp in PHP.

<?php
$timestamp = time(); //or you could set this to any timestamp you want to. 
echo date('m-d-Y h:i:sa',strtotime('+40 Minutes',$timestamp)); //gives you 40 minutes into the future.
?>

 

To set a timestamp column in MySQL for 40 minutes into the future, you could do.

 

<?php
$sql = "UPDATE times SET timestamp_column=DATE_ADD(NOW(),INTERVAL 40 MINUTE) WHERE id='1'";
?>