Use date_format in model or controller? - php

Question

I have retrieving a date and time from the database in this format:
2017-11-25 21:08:48
What I had done before using MVC was:
$date = date_create($row['article_date']);
$article_date = date_format($date, "d F Y - h:ia");
echo $article_date;
I am not sure how to do this using MVC.
My model:
public function getPosts() {
$this->db->query("SELECT `id`, `title`, `article`, `article_date`, `slug` FROM `news`");
$results = $this->db->resultSet();
return $results;
}
The controller:
public function index() {
$posts = $this->postModel->getPosts();
$data = [
'posts' => $posts
];
$this->view('posts/index', $data);
}
Then in the view I would have:
<?php foreach ($data['posts'] as $post){ ?>
// some html here
<?php echo $post->article_date; ?>
I can't just use date_format on the $post->article_date without first using date_create. But I just am not sure where I would use date_create i.e.: would you do that in the model or controller before passing to the view?

Answer 1

Ideally you'd do it in neither, and instead do it in the view:
<?php foreach($data['posts'] as $post){ ?>
// Some HTML here
<?php
$date = date_create($post->article_date);
$article_date = date_format($date, "d F Y - h:ia");
echo $article_date;
} // Remember to close the foreach!
?>
However, note that you don't need to mess around with date_create() at all, and can simply use date() in combination with strtotime() instead:
echo date('d F Y - h:ia', strtotime($post->article_date));
Hope this helps! :)