Translating date to default language or selected language

Question

I have to display a date that I pick from my DB, the date is always displayed in english, my site is bilangue, EN/DE.

my PHP code

    setlocale(LC_ALL, "de_DE.utf8");
    ...
    $myDate='2016-06-17'; //example
    echo strftime(date_format(date_create($myDate), "l, j  F Y "))

But this doesn't work, I get it always in EN Friday, 17 June 2016

UPDATE : I could use

strftime("%B %e, %G",date_timestamp_get(date_create($myDate)))

I get Juni 17, 2016 ,but then I lose the name of the day so I have to use also date_format

Possible duplication: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12716427/output-php-date-with-the-right-language](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12716427/output-php-date-with-the-right-language) — Alisson Linneker, Jun 16 '16 at 10:56
What is the result of `setlocale`? (try `var_dump(setlocale(LC_ALL, "de_DE.utf8"))`) — Jocelyn, Jun 16 '16 at 10:59
OK, so the locale used exists on your system. The problem is elsewhere then. — Jocelyn, Jun 16 '16 at 11:05
@AlissonLinneker The OP here is already using `setlocale` and `strftime` as suggested in the answer of the question you linked to. — Jocelyn, Jun 16 '16 at 11:06
@smile22121 On new code, use: `strftime("%A, %e %B %G",date_timestamp_get(date_create($myDate)));` — Alisson Linneker, Jun 16 '16 at 11:19

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 16 '16 at 11:18

3

The following code gives the expected result:

setlocale(LC_ALL, "de_DE.utf8");
$myDate='2016-06-17'; //example
echo strftime("%A, %e %B %Y", date_create($myDate)->getTimestamp());

According to the documentation, strftime arguments are a format string and a timestamp. The second argument you provided is not a timestamp.

answered Jun 16 '16 at 11:18

Jocelyn

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You are my hero, Thanks a lot – smile 22121 Jun 16 '16 at 11:21

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 16 '16 at 11:18

There're mainly two problems:

Don't stick to one proper date data type and mix it with too many strings.
Don't use functions as the documentation explains.

The strftime() function expects a Unix timestamp as second argument but date_format() returns a string (it could return a string with a timestamp but it doesn't because of l, j F Y). You are also using strftime() wrong: the first argument is the format, not the timestamp. Additionally, you are using DateTime objects as proxy without any benefit.

Try something simpler:

setlocale(LC_ALL, "de_DE.utf8");
$myDate = strtotime('2016-06-17'); //example
echo strftime('Write proper format there', $myDate);

Translating date to default language or selected language

2 Answers2