PHP error when using date_diff() function within DataTables $columns array - php

Question

Forgive me, this is a long one. I want to give all the background for this question.
I am using DataTables server-side processing for a project. My goal is to utilize the echo function to echo the number of days between today's date and dates in a column of my database called CreatedDate, which is a DateTime type.
I was trying to get the basic functionality working outside of DataTables first, and the function below works as intended, and outputs an $current_date of the number of days between $date and $date as: "16 days live", "15 days live", etc.:
$sql = "SELECT CreatedDate FROM Estimates";
$result = $conn->query($sql);
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
// output data of each row
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
$created_date = $row["CreatedDate"];
$date = new DateTime($created_date);
$current_date = new DateTime();
$diff = date_diff($date, $current_date);
echo $diff->format('%d days live');
}
} else {
echo "No results";
}
In my DataTables $columns array, I am trying to achieve the same effect:
// date variable
$created_date = 'CreatedDate';
$current_date = new DateTime();
// array of database columns which should be read and sent back to DataTables.
// the 'db' parameter represents the column name in the database, while the 'dt'
// parameter represents the DataTables column identifier.
$columns = array(
array( 'db' => 'Client', 'dt' => 0 ),
array( 'db' => 'EstimateNumber', 'dt' => 1 ),
array( 'db' => 'Status', 'dt' => 2 ),
array( 'db' => 'CurrentEstimateTotal', 'dt' => 3 ),
array(
'db' => $created_date,
'dt' => 4,
'formatter' =>
function ($created_date, $row) use ($current_date) {
$date = new DateTime($created_date);
$diff = date_diff($date, $current_date);
echo $diff->format('%d days live');
}
)
);
I keep recieving an error of:
PHP Notice: Trying to get property of non-object.
How can I fix this? I am having a hard time getting a var_dump() of the $created_date and $date variables within the DataTables array to see what the problem is.
For more information about DataTables server-side processing, I am using this template as a base for my DataTables script. The DataTables script also uses this helper class. Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Just return your string from callback.
'formatter' =>
function ($created_date, $row) use ($current_date) {
$date = new DateTime($created_date);
$diff = date_diff($date, $current_date);
return $diff->format('%d days live'); //That will solve your problem
}