Date function not working with bind_result - php

Question

I have this date format in place in my files. It works great if I do a normal SELECT query, but when I do a prepared statement query that does not have a bind_param and assign it a bind_result variable, I cannot get this to work.
Here is the function. Which it displays in US Central time. How can I get that to Eastern time?
function fixDate($strDateTime) {
$strFormat = 'M, j, Y';
$strFormatTime = '\a\t g:ia';
$intTimeStamp = strtotime($strDateTime);
$strDate = date($strFormat, $intTimeStamp);
$strTime = date($strFormatTime, $intTimeStamp);
if($strDate == date($strFormat)) {
return "Today " . $strTime;
}
elseif($strDate == date($strFormat, strtotime('yesterday'))) {
return "Yesterday " . $strTime;
}
else {
return " on " . $strDate . " " . $strTime;
}
}
The function will work if I do this with a normal SELECT query.
$date = $row2['topic_date'];
$date = fixDate($date);
BUT if I have a bind_result of $date and try to do this
$date = fixDate($date);
It won't work.
How can I get this function to work with a prepared statement's bind_result variable?
UPDATE:
This works..
$query2 = mysqli_query($con,"SELECT * FROM forum_topics
INNER JOIN forum_categories ON
forum_topics.category_id = forum_categories.id
INNER JOIN users
ON forum_topics.topic_creator = users.id
ORDER BY forum_topics.topic_reply_date DESC
LIMIT 3")
or die ("Query2 failed: %s\n".($query2->error));
$numrows2 = mysqli_num_rows($query2);
if($numrows2 > 0){
$topics .= "<table class='top_posts_table'>";
$topics .= "<tr><th class='top_posts_th'>Topic Title</th><th class='top_posts_th'>Replies</th><th class='top_posts_th'>Views</th></tr>";
$topics .= "<tr><td colspan='3'><hr /></td></tr>";
while($row2 = mysqli_fetch_assoc($query2)){
$cid = $row2['cid'];
$tid = $row2['id'];
$title = $row2['topic_title'];
$views = $row2['topic_views'];
$replies = $row['tid2'];
$date = $row2['topic_date'];
$date = fixDate($date);
$creator = $row2['username'];
$topics .= "<tr><td class='top_posts_td'><a href='forum_view_topic.php?cid=".$cid."&tid=".$tid."'>".$title."</a><br /><span class='post_info'>Posted
by: ".$creator."<br>".$date."</span></td><td class='top_posts_td'>0</td><td class='top_posts_td'>".$views."</td></tr>";
$topics .= "<tr><td colspan='3'><hr /></td></tr>";
This doesn't work...
if ($announcements_stmt = $con->prepare("SELECT announcements.id, announcements.user_id, announcements.message, announcements.date, users.username FROM announcements
INNER JOIN users
ON announcements.user_id = users.id")) {
$announcements_stmt->execute();
$announcements_stmt->bind_result($announcements_id, $announcements_user_id, $announcements_messages, $announcements_date, $announcements_username);
if (!$announcements_stmt) {
throw new Exception($con->error);
}
}
$announcements_stmt->store_result();
$announcements_result = array();
$announcements_date = $announcements_date;
$announcements_date = fixDate($announcements_date);
?>
<div class="index_announcements_out">
<div id="announcements_title">League Announcements:</div>
<div class="index_announcements_wrap">
<table class="index_announcements_table">
<?php
while ($row = $announcements_stmt->fetch()) {
?>
<tr class="index_announcements_border">
<td class="index_announcement_pic"></td>
<td class="index_announcement_username_td">FROM: <?php echo $announcements_username; ?><br>on <?php echo $announcements_date; ?></td>
<td class="index_announcement_message_td"><?php echo $announcements_messages; ?></td>
</tr>

Answer 1

Basically, when using bind_result(), you need to do a fetch() before the variables get populated. In this case, you're trying to access them before that happens.
In the given code, it's not necessary to get the fixed $announcements_date outside the while loop, so just replacing <?php echo $announcements_date; ?> with <?php echo fixDate($announcements_date); ?> in the loop should do the trick.