php date() giving result 1 day ahead - php

I'm attempting to use PHP's date() function to search my database for today's date, but the result is always for tomorrows date.
This code:
$date = date("Y-m-d");
is currently giving me 2018-08-02, but it should be 2018-08-01
I've seen many questions on StackOverflow for this question:
Date function in PHP gives always date one day behind
php dates off by one day
Adding one day to a date
php date ("Y/m/d") is one day off
The solution is the same on all of them; use date_default_timezone_set(), but I am already doing that in my index.php file.
date_default_timezone_set("US/Central");
I'm using a PHP framework, the index.php file is always loaded, no matter where I am in my application, and date_default_timezone_set() is the 2nd line ran for my whole application.
How can I make date() report the correct date?

Related

PHP UNIX Timestamp not iterating to the same value

I am facing a problem with unix timestamps, php and mysql and would be great if somebody could explain to me where I am going wrong or if I am not then why I am getting the figures that I am getting.
When I use jquery datepicker to pass the date in year-month-date format to php the hour and minutes have been set by default of 23:00:00 in the timestamp even though I am not passing this infromation in the request. So my question is where is this phantom 23:00:00 appearing from?
Workflow:
Using datepicker: datepicker -> php -> mysql = TIMESTAMP which has time set at 23:00:00.
Without using datepicker: php->mysql = TIMESTAMP with the correct hour and minutes.
Thanks for reading.
EDIT: PHP code as requested:
PHP code:
$setdatealpha = $_POST['datepickeralpha'];
$setdatealpha = strtotime($setdatealpha);
// With this, I am inserting into MySQL like so:
$sql = "INSERT INTO TABLE (DATE_FIELD) VALUES (?)";
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare($sql);
$stmt->bind_param('s',$setdatealpha);
$stmt->execute();
Now when I read the entered information back and convert it to date time format via date('Y-m-d',timestamp), the date entry correct and the time entry has the 23:00:00 value.
This does not occur if I do a standard converstion via strtotime (date);
Based off of the information currently available, I would suggest that you make sure each timestamp is in UTC. I always run into timezone issues.
For PHP, like: $current_timestamp = strtotime($date." UTC");
For jQuery datepicker I found this stackoverflow thread: How to obtain utc time in jQuery datetimepicker
Most likely, time zone.
First of all, let's clarify the context. strtotime() produces a Unix timestamp, which you apparently feed DATE_FIELD with. If that works, it means that the column is an INTEGER. In the case, you're doing something afterwards to display the date and you haven't shared that part—also, MySQL is innocent here because it doesn't even know what DATE_FIELD is meant to be date.
While strtotime() can be fed with a raw date, it needs to generate time as well. It can't do it unless it knows the time zone. Additionally, when you have an integer variable with a Unix timestamp and you want to display it as proper date you also need to know the time zone.
In both cases, if you don't provide it PHP will use a default value:
var_dump(date_default_timezone_get());
So you'll possibly want to set a known one with e.g. date_default_timezone_set(). However, your users may have a different time zone than you so yours would be meaningless to them. Since you prompt the user for a raw date (without time) it's possible that time is actually not relevant to the question. In such case, you may want to:
Make DATE_FIELD of DATE type.
Avoid strtotime() and similar stuff. You may want to use checkdate() instead.

Efficient way to convert a lot of dates - PHP

I'm trying to prepare importer for my application.
I've a file, very simple but large .txt. It has ~250k rows, in each row I need to change few column's date format to 'Y-m-d'.
I used strtotime() and date(), but there was some problems with that and I start to use class DateTime, now everything is fine, but it takes a lot time to import it (a lot of more than when I use strtotime and date).
//script do it every row
$date= new DateTime($values[1]);
$values[1]=$date->format('Y-m-d');
$date= new DateTime($values[2]);
$values[2]=$date->format('Y-m-d');
In $values[] I have string e.g. Jul 1 2004 12:00AM
There is the more efficient way to use this DateTime class? Something like define $date once and then just change values of it? I google it and tried to do in many ways using DateTime, but found nothing interested.
I'm still try to find out what's wrong was with strtotime(), in some case it don't get right date and put into mysql table -> 1969-12-31. Main problem is I get this file from outside provider and it's run every day by cron.
It appears some of dates in file are in very strange format : 2013-01-30 15:04:30.717000000, after clean this, it start work fine and I can use strtotime which is of course faster than DateTime.
select unix_timestamp('2013-01-30 15:04:30.717000000');
-->
1359587070.717000
and
select cast('2013-01-30 15:04:30.717000000' AS DATETIME(6));
-->
2013-01-30 15:04:30.717000
That is, if this is destined to be in a MySQL database, you could store it as a string, then use the above code to convert to a TIMESTAMP or DATETIME with microsecond precision.

Changing date format globally

I am using PHP and mysql and using either Date or DateTime to save dates in mysql database. On site I have been displaying dates the way they are saved in database.
But now I want to show dates EVERYWHERE on site using one format:
April 17 2013
or
April 17 2013 12:20:50
I know I can use date and strtotime functions to display dates in above format. However there are a lot of places where I have date displaying code. So I am looking to automate the process where my current code works and displays dates in above format.
Any idea of how mysql trigger or some php magic could be created that converts all dates run through SELECT query automatically without changing my sql or php code since I have a lot of places in my code and it would be overkill to change code at all places?
For Example:
Date Saved in DB: 2013-04-16 12:41:26
SELECT QUERY: SELECT * FROM myTable
PHP: echo $row->dated; displays 2013-04-16 12:41:26
I want that without changing my php code, dates should be shown in above mentioned format globally on whole site.
Any ideas please how it could be achieved ?
You can directly format in via query using DATE_FORMAT()
SELECT DATE_FORMAT(myDate, '%M %d %Y %h:%i') myDate
FROM TableName
SQLFiddle Demo
and echo in your PHP: $row->myDate
MySQL Trigger doesn't project values and It is only fired during CrUD operations.
I would like to suggest you an alternative approach which i love to use.
You should use the epoch time. An epoch time is basicly the number of second that has passed since 1 January 1970
One if the benefits i love is that it is very easy to calculate
differences in time since you are just dealing with number of
seconds and not a complicated format such as sec min hrs
Another benefit is that it is very easy to store since its a
integer so you can store it in a sql db and have your php code understand it without worrying about the format and things like that.
In php, if you use the time() function, it will return the epoch time.
And if you ever want to display it in a user friendly way. you can use the following code:
$epoch = time();
$dt = new DateTime("$epoch"); // convert UNIX timestamp to PHP DateTime
echo $dt->format('Y-m-d H:i:s'); // output = 2012-08-15 00:00:00
As you can see, the format of the date is very flexible and thus easy to use.
A nice example to find the date 1 week ago:
$epoch = time() - 604800; //604800 seconds = 7 days
$dt = new DateTime("$epoch"); // convert UNIX timestamp to PHP DateTime
echo $dt->format('Y-m-d H:i:s'); // output = 2012-08-15 00:00:00

How do I evaluate a timestamp in PHP?

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;
}
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 .
the magical function strtotime does all the work for you. seriously check it out for adding, manipulating and even reading human readable forms of dates. Then the date function is good for formatting it back into any form.
For many input formats, strtotime is the way to go. However, its heuristical approach may lead to surprising results, so if you only want to parse a specific format, use strptime.

Datetime value from database is three hours behind

I am using DATETIME as a column type and using NOW() to insert. When it prints out, it is three hours behind. What can I do so it works three hours ahead to EST time?
I am using php date to format the DATETIME on my page.
If the date stored in your database by using NOW() is incorrect, then you need to change your MySQL server settings to the correct timezone. If it's only incorrect once you print it, you need to modify your php script to use the correct timezone.
Edit:
Refer to W3schools' convenient php date overview for information on how to format the date using date().
Edit 2:
Either you get GoDaddy to change the setting (doubtful), or you add 3 hours when you insert into the table. Refer to the MySQL date add function to modify your date when you set it in the table. Something like date_add(now(), interval 3 hour) should work.
Your exact problem is described here.
Give gmdate() and gmmktime() a look. I find timestamp arithmetic much easier if you use GMT, especially if your code runs on multiple machines, or modifying MySQL server settings isn't an option, or you end up dealing with different timezones, day light savings, etc.
I would suggest inserting the date in UTC time zone. This will save you a lot of headache in the future (Daylight saving problems etc...)
"INSERT INTO abc_table (registrationtime) VALUES (UTC_TIMESTAMP())"
When I query my data I use the following PHP script
<? while($row = mysql_fetch_array($registration)){
$dt_obj = new DateTime($row['message_sent_timestamp']." UTC");
$dt_obj->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone('Europe/Istanbul'));
echo $formatted_date_long=date_format($dt_obj, 'Y-m-d H:i:s'); } ?>
You can replace the datetimezone value with one of the available php timezones here:

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