Question

echo date("m", strtotime("january"));

Returns 01 as expected

echo date("m", strtotime("february"));

But this returns 03

Anyone else encountered this problem?

PHP Version 5.1.6

Answer 1

Today is the 29th. There is no 29th in February this year and because you’re not specifying a day in February, it’s using “today”. The strtotime function uses relative dates so the 29th of February is basically the 1st March this year.

To solve your problem:

echo date("m", strtotime("February 1"));