Date Limitation PHP

Question

I am trying to separate time from the given string date & time. I simply tried with following example.

$time = '2014-01-20 10:45:45';
echo '<br>'.$finalTime = date("H:i:s",strtotime($time));
echo '<br>'.$date = date("d F Y",strtotime($time));

I am getting correct date and time.

10:45:45
20 January 2014

But when I tried with given string, no correct result.

$time = '1899-12-30 19:30:00';
echo '<br>'.$finalTime = date("H:i:s",strtotime($time));
echo '<br>'.$date = date("d F Y",strtotime($time));

PHP is always returning me following result.

00:00:00
01 January 1970

I am not sure whether is there any limitation on date function that is not returning 1899. Is that so?

[It would work if you were on 64-bit machine.](http://3v4l.org/3S8I3) — Glavić, Jan 03 '14 at 14:56

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 03 '14 at 14:51

3

Your date is before the unix epoch. DateTime() allows you to work around that.

$dt = new DateTime("1899-12-30 19:30:00");
echo $dt->format("d F Y");
echo $dt->format("h:i:s");

answered Jan 03 '14 at 14:51

John Conde

+1 for the 'before unix epoch' explanation. – naththedeveloper Jan 03 '14 at 14:55

jszobody · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-03T15:27:09.343

2

$time = '1899-12-30 19:30:00';
$dt = new DateTime($time);
echo $dt->format('d F Y H:i:s');

The strtotime() method is limited by the Unix epoch, which is Jan 1, 1970.

Update: As Mark comments below, your code would work all the way back to 1901 (as a negative timestamp), see here: http://3v4l.org/CSJte

edited Jan 03 '14 at 15:27

answered Jan 03 '14 at 14:51

jszobody

Negative values for unix timestamps will give dates prior to 1970, but only as far back as 1901 as a 32-bit signed integer – Mark Baker Jan 03 '14 at 15:13
@MarkBaker Interesting. Updated answer, thanks. – jszobody Jan 03 '14 at 15:27

2 Answers2