Question

For a while I had been using a raw MySQL NOW() function to record the time/date in my MySQL DB until I realized the host’s timezone variable was three hours ahead of PST. I’ve fixed this using DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 3 HOUR), but now I have a ton of timestamps that are three hours ahead, and all future timestamps that are the showing the correct time.

Is there a PHP function to evaluate timestamps recorded before I made the fix so I can offset them when they display in my admin utility?

For example:

if($timestamp < 2012-02-16 21:57:18) {
    $timestamp - 3 hours;
}

Answer 1

New Timestamp (offset by 3 hours behind)

$timestamp = date('Y-m-d H:i:s',strtotime($row['timestamp_column_name'])-(3*60*60));

Create a second column in your table (perhaps?) and store the offset time – perhaps call it the admin time OR store the admin time offset from the system’s time OR you can set the timezone PHP should use using something like the options mentioned here: PHP timezone not set .