Using Date and Time functions optimally

[alexcmm]

at the end of another post this issue came up so I thought I would start a new topic.

I was told the formula I was using to insert a date wasn't the best. Here's my quote from the other person and my new question:

[quote author=roopurt18 link=topic=115281.msg469701#msg469701 date=1163789828]
Create a DATETIME column in your table.  Store the date as 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' format.  If you are storing the current date and time you can use the MySQL [b]NOW()[/b] function.

When you pull the date out, it will be in 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' format, which may not be what you want to store it in.  You can instead use the MySQL function [b]DATE_FORMAT[/b] to format the date to something else for display purposes.
[/quote]

ok, two questions regarding this. (keep in mind the n00bie classification on the left)

When I send the db the date what should it look like? This is what I have now:
[b]$ud_datemod = (date ("l dS of F Y h:i:s A"));[/b]

And, how do I "pull out the date"? Is that when I'm pulling info from the db? right now what I have is:
[b]$datemod=mysql_result($result,$i,"datemod");[/b]

does this need to be different? sorry I'm asking you to be so literal.

[roopurt18]

Store the date as 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' format.
[code]<?php
$sql = "INSERT INTO table (TheDate) VALUES ("
      . "'" . date('Y-m-d H:i:s') . "')";
mysql_query($sql);
?>[/code]
You can store current date and time using the NOW() MySQL function:
[code]<?php
$sql = "INSERT INTO table (TheDate) VALUES (NOW())";
?>[/code]

Pull the date out:
[code]<?php
$sql = "SELECT TheDate AS Unformatted, "
       . "DATE_FORMAT(TheDate, '%a. %b. %D, %Y') AS Formatted "
       . "FROM table WHERE 1";
$q = mysql_query($sql);
if($q){
  while($row = mysql_fetch_array($q)){
    echo '<pre style="text-align: left;">' . print_r($row, true) . "</pre>";
  }
}
?>[/code]
More information on DATE_FORMAT may be found here:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/en/date-and-time-functions.html

[alexcmm]

Thanks roopurt18!