PHP or MySQL Date Format for Day of Week

Question

I have a column that stores a 1-digit value for Day of Week:

0 = Sunday
1 = Monday
...
6 = Saturday

I tried PHP date('l', $row['dow']) and MySQL DATE_FORMAT(dow, '%w') but neither return the Day of Week word.

Is it possible in PHP or MySQL to do this or do I just need to create an array() var?

Thanks for the down vote. Just trying to learn something, that's all. Someday I'll be at your level and can assist someone with these types of sincere questions. — H. Ferrence, Oct 22 '12 at 14:30
You mean the opposite of [day of the week to day number (Monday = 1, Tuesday = 2)](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4961793/day-of-the-week-to-day-number-monday-1-tuesday-2)? Just asking, I'd say it's likely this has been asked before, so instead of asking it again, this needs some research on the site first. — hakre, Oct 22 '12 at 14:31
Related: [want to print full Name of the day](http://stackoverflow.com/q/7063336/367456) — hakre, Oct 22 '12 at 14:41

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 22 '12 at 14:22

2

$dow = date('l', strtotime("Sunday +{$row['dow']} days"));

Demo: http://codepad.viper-7.com/LzZDHf

answered Oct 22 '12 at 14:22

Ben Swinburne

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couldn't get this to work. Using @deceze's answer and setting up an array(). – H. Ferrence Oct 22 '12 at 14:37
What were you trying? An array won't have locale support, but chances are you won't need it. Perhaps I/we can help. – Ben Swinburne Oct 22 '12 at 16:38

deceze · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-22T14:30:53.053

2

You need a full date/timestamp for any of the date formatting functions to work. Just a "1" or "2" doesn't mean anything to these functions (or at least not what you want it to mean). If you are storing a full timestamp, there's no real need to store the day of the week again separately. Otherwise, you'll need to translate those otherwise meaningless numbers to a word yourself.

edited Oct 22 '12 at 14:30

answered Oct 22 '12 at 14:24

deceze

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So the answer is you cannot do this in PHP using date() or MySQL using DATE_FORMAT() -- based on my question. You must setup your own array. Thanks for the answer @deceze ! – H. Ferrence Oct 22 '12 at 14:36

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 22 '12 at 14:42

on date( 'l' ):

l (lowercase 'L') - A full textual representation of the day of the week - Sunday through Saturday

you should use date( 'w' ):

w - Numeric representation of the day of the week - 0 (for Sunday) through 6 (for Saturday)

Edit: ah, so you want the text representation from (only) the numer. Then a simple map would be enough:

$dayNames = array( 'Sunday', 'Monday', ..., 'Saturday' );
$day = $dayNames[$row['dow']];

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 22 '12 at 14:21

0

http://php.net/manual/bg/function.date.php

here are all codes for php date format

From your database select your how date and with php use date('l', strtotime($date))

answered Oct 22 '12 at 14:21

Svetoslav

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Thanks @Svetlio -- but I have them already (keep them printed and pinned on my b-board next to my desk. My question is: can I take a single value of, say "2" and get PHP or MySQL to return "Tuesday" without creating an array()? I can create the array, no problem. Just preferring to do it a little simpler if possible...that's all. – H. Ferrence Oct 22 '12 at 14:23
I tried that earlier @Svetlio -- each value returns "Wednesday". My suspicion is is it defaulting to the UNIX start date of 1/1/1970. – H. Ferrence Oct 22 '12 at 14:25
do you have dates before 1970 ? – Svetoslav Oct 22 '12 at 14:27
No @Svetlio - -I have no dates. I simply have a column `day tinyint(1) UNSIGNED`. It contains a "0", or a "1", or a "2", or a "3", or a "4", or a "5", or a "6". That's it. – H. Ferrence Oct 22 '12 at 14:31
Then just create 1 php array eg.. $dates = array(0=>"Sunday", 1=>"Monday"....); and call it $dates[$row["dow"]] ; When you dont have Timeformat you cant use time functions .. – Svetoslav Oct 22 '12 at 14:39

PHP or MySQL Date Format for Day of Week

4 Answers4