how to convert time format from number to string? - php

Question

i fetched from created field date and time like this format 2011-3-10 17:26:50 and i want to convert to this format March 13, 2010 how can i do this with php or cakephp 1.3
<?php
$i = 0;
foreach($articles as $$article ):
?>
<tr>
<td><?php echo $article['Article']['title']; ?></td>
<td><?php echo $article['Article']['created'];;?></td>
</tr>
<?php endforeach; ?>

Answer 1

I presume you mean "fetched" as in retrieving from MySQL. The simplest/quickest (but also the most like to blow up and kick your dog) is to simply do
$timestamp = strtotime($date_from_database);
$formatted = date('F j, Y', $timestamp);

Answer 2

PHP has a function strtotime($string), that will take dates/time strings in a variety of formats (including MySQL's datetime format) and convert it to a Unix timestamp integer (number of seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC). You can then use date('F j, Y', $time) to convert that integer into whatever string representation you want, using the tokens found here
Two additional considerations are localization and timezone awareness. I won't go into the first since it doesn't seem like you need it, but where timezone matters, it can be easier to use PHP's DateTime classes, which you can read about [here]. Here's an example:
<?php
// for example, if you're storing times in UTC in your DB
$dbTimezone = new DateTimeZone('UTC');
// we'll use this for displaying times in the user's timezone.
// for example, my timezone:
$displayTimezone = new DateTimeZone('America/Toronto');
foreach ($articles as $article):
// Create a timezone-aware DateTime object from your article's creation date
$dt = new DateTime($article['Article']['create'], $dbTimezone);
$dt->setTimezone($displayTimezone);
echo $dt->format('F j, Y');
endforeach;

Answer 3

something like this ?
I'm guessing your datetime format. you may need to adjust it.
echo date('F d, Y',date_create_from_format('Y-n-d h:i:s','2011-3-10 17:26:50'));
date_create_from_format

Answer 4

This will solve it:
$date = date_create_from_format('Y-m-j H:i:s', $article['Article']['created']);
echo date_format($date, 'F d, Y');

Answer 5

You could easily use the Cakephp Time Helper.
//Add to appcontroller or articles_controller
var $helpers = array('Time');
//Add this to view file
echo $this->Time->niceShort($article['Article']['created']);
Besides niceShort there are more options that might fit your needs better. Check CakePHP documentation.
Thanks,