Why strtotime(1st January 1970) returns -3600 instead of 0 in PHP?

Question

Am using strtotime to get seconds past 1 January 1970, but am not understanding that why am getting -3600 if the clock is set to 12.00AM and I get 0 when the clock is set to 1 AM, so what's with that 1 HOUR? Is it an issue with the timezone?

echo 'I Expect 0 Here '.strtotime('1st January 1970').'<br />';
//This gives me -3600

echo 'I Expect 3600 Here '.strtotime('1st January 1970 01.00AM'); 
//This gives me 0

P.S I've not set any Time Zone in my PHP file or I've not even modified my .ini file (Fresh Installed XAMPP)

Update : Time-Zone : Europe/Berlin

@asprin Off-Topic comment I guess :p ;) hehe thank you anyways, I take that as a compliment — Mr. Alien, Apr 03 '13 at 08:19
Yes it was sort of a compliment, nice out of the box thinking and humorous too. — asprin, Apr 03 '13 at 08:31

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 03 '13 at 08:07

8

It's most likely due to your local time zone.
What's the output of

var_dump(date_default_timezone_get());

on that machine?
You can also check the difference between mktime and gmmktime

echo " mktime: ", mktime(), "\n";
echo " gmmktime: ", gmmktime(), "\n";

answered Apr 03 '13 at 08:07

VolkerK

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I was sure timezone was messing up things.... Thanks – Mr. Alien Apr 03 '13 at 08:13
+1 for mktime() and gmmktime()... :) – thumber nirmal Apr 03 '13 at 08:18

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 03 '13 at 08:07

6

Your timezone must be set to UTC+1. Midnight in your timezone happened an hour before midnight in UTC, which explains the offset of -3600 seconds.

You can set the timezone to UTC to get the expected result:

date_default_timezone_set('UTC');

answered Apr 03 '13 at 08:07

Joni

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Thank you, am using this now to reset timezone to UTC – Mr. Alien Apr 03 '13 at 08:13

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 03 '13 at 08:10

5

You need to check your time zone settings. or if you set the default_time_zone to UTC, you will get the desired result.

date_default_timezone_set('UTC');

answered Apr 03 '13 at 08:10

Adeel

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9 years later and this fixed my problem. THANK YOU lol – Andrew Jan 23 '22 at 10:32

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 03 '13 at 08:15

1

add this to set timezone 'Europe/Berlin'

 date_default_timezone_set('Europe/Berlin');

answered Apr 03 '13 at 08:15

thumber nirmal

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Why strtotime(1st January 1970) returns -3600 instead of 0 in PHP?

4 Answers4