How do I properly store a datetime in Symfony 3?

Question

I'm trying to store a mysql datetime in a Symfony repo and am getting an error. Tried several suggestions from the web and here on stack but nothing makes this error go away. This is what I'm trying to do (code is abbreviated for clarity)

My entity field:

/**
 * @var \DateTime
 *
 * @ORM\Column(name="created", type="datetime")
 */
private $created;

My repo code:

$reservedays = 84;
$now = new \DateTime('NOW');
$now->modify('+' . $reservedays .' days');
$payment = new AppBundle\Entity\Payment;
$payment->setCreated( $now->format('Y-m-d h:i:s') );

But I am consistently getting this error:

Error: Call to a member function format() on string
500 Internal Server Error - FatalErrorException 

Stack Trace:
1. in vendor/doctrine/dbal/lib/Doctrine/DBAL/Types/DateTimeType.php at line 53  -

    public function convertToDatabaseValue($value, AbstractPlatform $platform)
    {
        return ($value !== null)
            ? $value->format($platform->getDateTimeFormatString()) : null;
    }
    /**

As you can see I want to take the current date and add 84 days to it and then store it into a mysql datetime but no matter what I've tried this error keeps coming up. Anyone?

Pass the actual datetime object: $payment->setCreated( $now); — Cerad, Mar 18 '17 at 22:59
$now is a string according to its calling format() function. That shouldn't be. Try taking out NOW as a param in your repo — Bango, Mar 18 '17 at 23:00
Also see [this SO post](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1995562/now-function-in-php) — Bango, Mar 18 '17 at 23:02

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 18 '17 at 23:49

It's not necessary to use 'NOW' when creating new DateTime object. You can simply use $now = new \DateTime() for actual date/time.

To your case - it's completely o.k. to create DateTime object, modify it by adding XYdays, so:

$reservedays = 84;
$now = new \DateTime();
$now->modify('+' . $reservedays .' days');

But then you should to use DateTime object as a setCreated() method param, because the $created property has \DateTime type. The Doctrine layer in Symfony takes care of proper persisting data to the DB, so this should work fine:

$payment = new AppBundle\Entity\Payment;
$payment->setCreated($now);

rhinosforhire · Answer 2 · 2017-05-11T05:53:29.897

You're trying to save a string in a datetime column. Stop calling format() // <- Returns a string and it'll work.

Also, you can simplify everything by initializing $createdAt in your Payment object's constructor method. A constructor is called whenever a new instance of that class is invoked. You can also pass variables into the constructor.

For example

// AppBundle\Entity\Payment
//...
class Payment
{
    //...
    // Set a default value for the passed-in variable.
    public function __construct($reserveDays = 0)
    {
        $this->createdAt = new \DateTime('+'.$reserveDays.' days');
    }
}

Usage

// AppBundle\Controller\PaymentController.php
//...
$payment = new AppBundle\Entity\Payment(84);

Your answer was correct as well but Honza's answer closely resembled the code I posted so I accepted his to avoid any confusion to others who might read this answer. — pogeybait, Mar 19 '17 at 05:03

How do I properly store a datetime in Symfony 3?

2 Answers2

For example

Usage