Basic Problem

[mattichu]

Hi,

 

Im posting a date in the format : dd/mm/yyyy

 

and am wanting to store it in a database as a string.

 

I'm using the following code:

 

$dayoff=$_POST['dayoff'];

$dayoffst=strtotime('$dayoff');
$date=date('dS M Y',$dayoffst);

 

However when I echo the $dayoffst it doesn't return anything

 

any ideas?

Edited October 14, 2012 by mattichu

[Mahngiel]

Besides single quotes not being the correct way to parse PHP variables, there's no reason to quote $dayoffst=strtotime('$dayoff');

[Pikachu2000]

You should store dates in the proper YYYY-MM-DD format, in the proper field type (DATE) in the database.

[mattichu]

I've changed the code to:

 

$dayoff=$_POST['dayoff'];
$date=date("dS M Y",$dayoff);

 

But this gives: 31st Dec 1969

 

 

$dayoff outputs correctly

Edited October 14, 2012 by mattichu

[jcbones]

Is $dayoff a proper unix timestamp? Because, that is what the second parameter of date requires. If you are using a formatted date, then you need to use strtotime on it.

 

However, as has been stated, don't store your date in the database this way, as you will lose all functionality of working with dates in the database. You should just cast the date to your desired output via the correct database functions.

[Barand]

strtotime does recognise many different date formats, unfortunately for us Brits, dd/mm/yyyy or dd/mm/yy are not amongst them.

[Barand]

strtotime() date format examples

<?php  
$dates = array (
'25/12/2012',
'25/12/12',
'25.12.12',
'25-12-12',
'25-12-2012',
'2012-12-25',
'12-12-25',
'25-12-2012',
'12/25/2012',
'25-DEC-12',
'25 dec 2012'
);

foreach ($dates as $d) {
printf('%s -> %s<br />', $d, date('j F Y', strtotime($d)));
}
?>

output:

25/12/2012 -> 1 January 1970	x
25/12/12 -> 1 January 1970	  x
25.12.12 -> 25 December 2012
25-12-12 -> 12 December 2025	x
25-12-2012 -> 25 December 2012
2012-12-25 -> 25 December 2012
12-12-25 -> 25 December 2012
25-12-2012 -> 25 December 2012
12/25/2012 -> 25 December 2012
25-DEC-12 -> 25 December 2012
25 dec 2012 -> 25 December 2012

Edited October 15, 2012 by Barand

[jcbones]

Hey, how did I miss the whole first part of the OP.

 

It would accept dd-mm-yyyy or dd.mm.yy. Both of which could be fixed with a simple str_replace.

[DarkerAngel]

You should store dates in the proper YYYY-MM-DD format, in the proper field type (DATE) in the database.

I still just store the unix_timestamp (INT) and format it in PHP although I'm getting some legs in some of the date/time functions of MySQL so I might start working out some "proper" ways of storing date/time in MySQL.

[Barand]

Hey, how did I miss the whole first part of the OP.

 

It would accept dd-mm-yyyy or dd.mm.yy. Both of which could be fixed with a simple str_replace.

 

As long as you have 4-digit years otherwise confusion reigns

 

dd mm yy(yy) formatted inputs

03.12.12 -> 15 October 2012	 ???
03.12.2012 -> 3 December 2012
03-12-12 -> 12 December 2003
03-12-2012 -> 3 December 2012

Edited October 15, 2012 by Barand