Question

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Formating an SQL timestamp with PHP

I have a column in my SQL table that has default current timestamp values. I am trying to output it in a more readable format using date().

However, no matter which format I use, I always get the same date: 1970-01-01 00:33:32

Here is an example value of the current timestamp from the DB: 2012-08-09 06:37:58

Below is the code I use to try to “convert” it to a readable format:

$value['current_date']// is the var from the database.(containing 2012-08-09 06:37:58)
$somevar = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $value['current_date']);

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Your problem is that you are using the wrong value in the second parameter. The date() function expects a UNIX-style timestamp as the second parameter, not a string representation of a date. Use the strtotime() function to correct this:

$somevar = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', strtotime($value['current_date']));

As someone else pointed out, however, why are you bothering to do this formatting? The format style you want is already in the database. It should be as easy as:

echo $value['current_date'];