Dates after 01-01-2039 converted in PHP is shown as 01-01-1970

Question

I have converted a date 01-01-2039 using php date() function:

echo date("d-m-Y",strtotime('01-01-2039'));

Output is shown as: 01-01-1970

Any solution for this?

Using that simple example works as expected when tried [here](http://phptester.net/). — Paul T., Apr 11 '20 at 12:34
This is the [Unix Timestamp Epoch problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem). — Martin, Apr 11 '20 at 12:34
@Martin ... can't store code at that site, I simply copy/pasted that one line, and clicked run. — Paul T., Apr 11 '20 at 12:37
Whart version of PHP are you using? You probably need to either update your PHP version or update your php.ini settings . You may also need to update your OS to being a 64bit system — Martin, Apr 11 '20 at 12:39
Does this answer your question? [PHP & mySQL: Year 2038 Bug: What is it? How to solve it?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2012589/php-mysql-year-2038-bug-what-is-it-how-to-solve-it) — Martin, Apr 11 '20 at 12:42
I have Windows 10 64 bit system & PHP version is 7.3.2. @Martin — Sujith Kamath, Apr 11 '20 at 12:43
@SujithKamath try [this post](https://stackoverflow.com/a/864402/3536236) to update your PHP.ini — Martin, Apr 11 '20 at 12:46
@Martin The PHP is 32 bit version (x86). Hence the problem i guess. — Sujith Kamath, Apr 11 '20 at 12:50
Yes, that's the cause. You need to uninstall and reinstall PHP as the 64 bit version. — Martin, Apr 11 '20 at 12:52

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 11 '20 at 12:55

This Answer from comment conversation

The problem is caused by the Unix Timestamp Epoch problem.

The solution to this for native PHP is to use the 64bit PHP version that correctly handles this particular integer overflow.

echo (PHP_INT_SIZE===8)?"64 bit ":"32 bit ";

This above code shows the PHP version.

If 32bit PHP is present then that needs to be replaced by the 64bit PHP

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 11 '20 at 13:08

In addition to @Martin's answer, I want to point out the ambiguity caused by some date formats when using strtotime.

In the manual:

Dates in the m/d/y or d-m-y formats are disambiguated by looking at the separator between the various components: if the separator is a slash (/), then the American m/d/y is assumed; whereas if the separator is a dash (-) or a dot (.), then the European d-m-y format is assumed. If, however, the year is given in a two digit format and the separator is a dash (-), the date string is parsed as y-m-d.

To avoid potential ambiguity, it's best to use ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD) dates or DateTime::createFromFormat() when possible.

$dt = DateTime::createFromFormat('d-m-Y', '01-01-2039');
echo $dt->format('d-m-Y');

Dates after 01-01-2039 converted in PHP is shown as 01-01-1970

2 Answers2