PHP strtotime error when convert some date string to datetime value

Question

I have a trouble with strtotime in php.

$j = "2013-10-27";
for ($x = 0; $x < 100; $x++) {
  $j = date('Y-m-d', strtotime($j) + 86400);
  echo ' '.$j.' <br/>';
}

As the code is self explained, it will add one day to $j and then display to browser. But when $j = "2013-10-27", it prints just one result ("2013-10-27"). If I change $j to another date, this does work, but also stucks at this date (and some other date).

I have written other code to do this work. But does anyone know why it fails, or my code is wrong?

Thank you.

your code showing one result 100 times.where did you use $i ? — Mahmood Rehman, Nov 01 '13 at 04:49
possible duplicate of [Adding days to $Date in PHP](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3727615/adding-days-to-date-in-php) — Pragnesh Chauhan, Nov 01 '13 at 04:52
Well, I don't use $i, but $x just for counting (in this code). — William Truong, Nov 01 '13 at 04:53
I have tested on PHP 5.4.19, PHP 5.3.1 (with XAMPP on Windows 8), and got the same result. So I decide to ask you guys. — William Truong, Nov 01 '13 at 04:56

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 01 '13 at 04:55

This is because you are in a timezone with daylight savings time, and on the 27th October at 1 AM the time reverted to midnight, making it a 25 hour day.

This can be reproduced by setting the timezone:

<?php
date_default_timezone_set('Europe/London');
$j = "2013-10-27";
for ($x = 0; $x < 100; $x++) {
  $j = date('Y-m-d', strtotime($j) + 86400);
  echo ' '.$j.' <br/>';
}

http://codepad.viper-7.com/uTbNWf

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 01 '13 at 04:55

3

strtotime has too many limitations in my opinion. Use the more recent DateTime lib instead

$j = new DateTime('2013-10-27');
$interval = new DateInterval('P1D');
for ($x = 0; $x < 100; $x++) {
    $j->add($interval);
    echo $j->format('Y-m-d'), '<br>';
}

answered Nov 01 '13 at 04:55

Phil

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Consequentially, this takes care of the DST switch mentioned in [Paul's answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/19721032/283366) – Phil Nov 01 '13 at 05:01

PHP strtotime error when convert some date string to datetime value

2 Answers2