PHP Date Format

[centenial]

Hi,

I have a database table with several hundred records. The DB table has these fields:
- id
- name
- date

All the dates are in YYYY-MM-DD format. However, when they're displayed on my website, I want the dates to display like this:

Jan 1, 2006 or
Dec 12, 2006 (whatever the correct date is)

Is there a function in PHP that I can use to convert YYYY-MM-DD to the more elegant format above?

Thanks for your help,

[craygo]

first off you should change your date field name to rdate or something other than date. Can cause problems down the line.
second, what format is your date field. Is it actually a date field or a timestamp or just a string.

Look up the date() function.

[code]$row_date = date("M j, Y", strtotime("date field here"));[/code]

That will work with actual date fields. If it is a timestamp you will have to use mktime to get the correct date.

[code]<?php
$timestamp = "20061212020250";
$row_date = date("M j, Y", mktime(0, 0, 0, substr($timestamp, 4, 2), substr($timestamp, 6, 2), substr($timestamp, 0, 4)));
?>[/code]

It all depends on how you are storing your dates

Ray

[emehrkay]

*edit*

i provided an anwser to an unasked question

:D

[monkey_05_06]

The second parameter to PHP's date function is optional and defaults to the value of PHP's time function which returns a timestamp for the current date/time.

[craygo]

Crap I blew right by this part
[code]All the dates are in YYYY-MM-DD format. However, when they're displayed on my website, I want the dates to display like this:[/code]
So use my first suggestion

Ray

[timmah1]

I used the code that you provided
[code]
$row_date = date("M j, Y", strtotime("last_login"));
[/code]

I have a field called last_login, and it is type is datetime

When I use the code, it displays Dec. 31, 1969

something i'm doing wrong?

[craygo]

The field should be in an array of some kind. Post your code for your query and will help.

should be something like this

[code]<?php
$sql = "SELECT * FROM table_name":
$res = mysql_query($sql) or die (mysql_error());
  while($r=mysql_fetch_assoc($res)){
  $row_date = date("M j, Y", strtotime($r['last_login']));
  echo "$row_date<br>";
  }
?>[/code]

Ray

[SharkBait]

Couldn't you use MySQL to format the time in the way you want?

[code]

SELECT DATE_FORMAT(myDateField, '%Y-%d-%m') as myDate FROM myTable;

[/code]

Though the formatting would have to be done properly but the idea is you can get the query to do it for you :)

[craygo]

Absolutely

[code]<?php
$sql = "SELECT DATE_FORMAT(last_login, '%b %c, %Y') AS lastlogin FROM myTable";
$res = mysql_query($sql) or die (mysql_error());
  while($r=mysql_fetch_assoc($res)){
  echo $r['lastlogin']."<br>";
  }
?>[/code]

That will give you the format you want.

Ray