Date issue: always shows 01 Jan rather than converting to desired Date

Question

I am fairly new to PHP programming and thus am facing a strange problem, through different forums i was able to learn how to convert dates of different formats into our desired formats, but today this was not possible and i was always given 01 Jan no matter what i gave in the variable, which was strange as previously it was working great. My code is following:

I am using a combination of date and strtotime PHP functions, as:

$coll_date_1[$i] = $row->coll_date_1;   //this is 08-08 i.e 8 Aug

$coll_date_1[$i] = date('d M',strtotime($coll_date_1[$i]));  //this return 01 Jan

The 1st line assigns value from database into the variable, and the 2nd line is the function to convert them into desired format. I know i am doing a silly mistake, but cant seem to pin point where that is...

why do you have such a strange date format in your DB column?? You should use the DB's native `DATETIME` column type for storing dates. — Spudley, Aug 07 '13 at 12:21

Matteo Tassinari · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-07T14:04:43.650

3

That happens because 08-08 is not a valid date format.

You could try adding a "fake" year in front of it, like 2000-08-08, or the current year, like 2013-08-08, and than do

$coll_date_1[$i] = 'YEAR-'.$row->coll_date_1; // "YEAR" could be "2000" or the current year
date('d M', strtotime($coll_date_1[$i]));

Anyway, you should change your database to handle dates in the proper format, which should be YYYY-MM-DD, for example in MySQL you'd use a date type field.

EDIT:

If you cannot change the database structure, but have PHP 5.3+, you can use the DateTime class to parse the date as

DateTime::createFromFormat('m-d', $row->coll_date_1)->format('d M');

edited Aug 07 '13 at 14:04

answered Aug 07 '13 at 12:19

Matteo Tassinari

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well your right on this one, this actually solved the problem, but you see i am the developer, and the database as mentioned by my senior should be like this[supervisor requirement], is there any workaround over this, so i can get 08 Aug without the year[Or proper format]???? – Hunain Usman Aug 07 '13 at 12:37

Jim · Answer 2 · 2013-08-07T12:33:00.110

2

You can specify the format using DateTime::createFromFormat:

$date = DateTime::createFromFormat("m-d","08-08")//Switch to "d-m" as needed
$date->format("d M");

This makes it easier to change the before format and after format.

Edit: As has been noted. Consider storing your column as a proper date or datetime. This will allow you to make use of the DB's date functions should you need them.

edited Aug 07 '13 at 12:33

answered Aug 07 '13 at 12:24

Jim

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This works, although the comment needs to be made that the user should be storing the date correctly in their database to begin with which would alleviate the need for the fix. – Rick Calder Aug 07 '13 at 12:26
@RickCalder Agreed. I've added a note to this effect. – Jim Aug 07 '13 at 12:29
The format specifiers are the same as for output, it's only `m-d`, not `mm-dd`. – deceze Aug 07 '13 at 12:31
@deceze Whoops, you are correct. Fixed. – Jim Aug 07 '13 at 12:32

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 07 '13 at 12:19

0

//this is 08-08 i.e 8 Aug

While it should be 2013-08-08.
Change your database field to proper format. Problem solved.

answered Aug 07 '13 at 12:19

Your Common Sense

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While this is what he should do it's not technically an answer to the question at hand is it? I agree that one thing experienced people at SO should be doing is pointing people in the right direction this is still a comment. Not only does it not handle the question, it doesn't even tell the user HOW to do what you said he should. sorry, -1 – Rick Calder Aug 07 '13 at 12:25

Date issue: always shows 01 Jan rather than converting to desired Date

3 Answers3