date conversion strange output in php

Question

I have problem to convert one of my dates in YYY-d-m format.

I have the array $searchQuery, which when print using print_r, prints the foloowing output:

Array ( [selectedArea] => 0 
        [checkin] => 30/07/2014 
        [checkout] => 01/08/2014 
        [rooms] => 1 
        [adults] => 2 
        [childrens] => 0 )

I have the following code:

        echo "Checkin is:" .$searchQuery['checkin']."<br />";
        $what = strtotime($searchQuery['checkin']);
        echo "New checkin is:" .$newCheckin = date('Y-m-d', $what) ."<br />"; 
        echo "Checkout is:" .$searchQuery['checkout']."<br />";
        $newCheckOutTemp = strtotime($searchQuery['checkout']);
        echo "New checkout is:" .$newCheckout = date('Y-m-d', $newCheckOutTemp) ."<br/>";

Which prints the following:

Checkin is:30/07/2014
New checkin is:1970-01-01 ------>????    
Checkout is:01/08/2014
New checkout is:2014-01-08

I have two questions...why the first date is printing 1970-01-01 when converted, and second, how can i the difference in days between those 2 dates.

Any help will be deeply appreciated.

Regards, John

`30/07/2014` is only valid in UK/European format dates; but the `/` separator tells PHP's strtotime() function that this is US format. and there is no day 7 of month 30. Either change your separator to `-`, whereupon strtotime() will treat this as a UK/European date format; or use `DateTime::createFromFormat()` and specifically tell it that this is `dd/mm/YYYY` — Mark Baker, Jul 28 '14 at 09:44
`strtotime` does not magically understand any and all possible date formats you throw at it. `dd/mm/yyyy` is not a format it expects. — deceze, Jul 28 '14 at 09:45
On your first question: the input $what for date('Y-m-d', $what) will be wrong in some way (try debugging it by echoing every step), so it falls back to the default 1970-01-01, default Unix Time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time) — Dennis Hunink, Jul 28 '14 at 09:45
1970-01-01 is the default Unix timestamp, if you are getting this output then you aren't converting correctly. — OllyBarca, Jul 28 '14 at 09:45
And why then the first date is converted just fine, and the second is not? Anyone can answer on that question? — user2417624, Jul 28 '14 at 09:46
@user2417624 - `01/08/2014` is valid in both US and UK/European formats (though it's a different date (1st August or 8th January) — Mark Baker, Jul 28 '14 at 09:47
Mark, thanks for clarification. I beleive that this will help me to solve my problem. — user2417624, Jul 28 '14 at 09:51

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:30

1

try with datetime()

$now = new DateTime(str_replace('/', '-','30/07/2014'));
echo $now->format('Y-m-d');
$newCheckOutTemp = new DateTime(str_replace('/', '-','01/08/2014'));
echo $newCheckOutTemp->format('Y-m-d');

or with date()

echo date('Y-m-d', strtotime(str_replace('/', '-',$what)));
echo $newCheckout = date('Y-m-d', strtotime(str_replace('/', '-',$newCheckOutTemp)));

For day difference here so many answers :- Date Difference in php on days?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:30

Community

1
1

answered Jul 28 '14 at 09:48

Rakesh Sharma

13,680
5
37
44

Hi Rakesh...Do you know how can I get now the difference between those 2 dates in days? – user2417624 Jul 28 '14 at 10:00

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 28 '14 at 09:59

It appears that strtotime() expects your date format to be m/d/Y. As you are passing the date starting with month 30, it doesn't know how to handle it and returns you the date 1970-01-01. If you look closely at the checkout result, it is probably not the same as you expect (8th of January instead of 1st of August).

What I would do is write a little helper function to handle all your dates.

function formatDate($date) {
    return \DateTime::createFromFormat('m/d/Y', $date)->format('Y-m-d');
}

And then later use it like this:

$newCheckin  = formatDate($searchQuery['checkin']);
$newCheckout = formatDate($searchQuery['checkout']);

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 28 '14 at 09:47

0

I think you have to try: date('Y-m-d', strtotime($what)) instead of date('Y-m-d', $what)

answered Jul 28 '14 at 09:47

Ammar

51
6

date conversion strange output in php

3 Answers3