Convert from MySQL datetime to another format with PHP

To convert a date retrieved from MySQL into the format requested (mm/dd/yy H:M (AM/PM)):

// $datetime is something like: 2014-01-31 13:05:59
$time = strtotime($datetimeFromMysql);
$myFormatForView = date("m/d/y g:i A", $time);
// $myFormatForView is something like: 01/31/14 1:05 PM

Refer to the PHP date formatting options to adjust the format.

If you are using PHP 5, you can also try

$oDate = new DateTime($row->createdate);
$sDate = $oDate->format("Y-m-d H:i:s");

An easier way would be to format the date directly in the MySQL query, instead of PHP. See the MySQL manual entry for DATE_FORMAT.

If you'd rather do it in PHP, then you need the date function, but you'll have to convert your database value into a timestamp first.

Use the date function:

<?php
    echo date("m/d/y g:i (A)", $DB_Date_Field);
?>

You can also have your query return the time as a Unix timestamp. That would get rid of the need to call strtotime() and make things a bit less intensive on the PHP side...

select  UNIX_TIMESTAMP(timsstamp) as unixtime from the_table where id = 1234;

Then in PHP just use the date() function to format it whichever way you'd like.

<?php
  echo date('l jS \of F Y h:i:s A', $row->unixtime);
?>

or

<?php
  echo date('F j, Y, g:i a', $row->unixtime);
?>

I like this approach as opposed to using MySQL's DATE_FORMAT function, because it allows you to reuse the same query to grab the data and allows you to alter the formatting in PHP.

It's annoying to have two different queries just to change the way the date looks in the UI.

The approach I suggest works like the following. First, you create a basic datetime object from a mysql-formatted string; and then you format it the way you like. Luckily, mysql datetime is ISO8601-compliant, so the code itself could look quite simple and elegant. Keep in mind though that datetime column doesn't have a timezone information, so you need to convert it appropriately.

Here's the code:

(new ISO8601Formatted(
    new FromISO8601('2038-01-19 11:14:07'),
    'm/d/Y h:iA'
))
    ->value();

It outputs 01/19/2038 11:14AM -- hopefully what you expect.

This example uses meringue library. You can check out some more of it if you fancy.

Direct output e.g. in German format:

  echo(date('d.m.Y H:i:s', strtotime($row["date_added"])));

$date = "'".date('Y-m-d H:i:s', strtotime(str_replace('-', '/', $_POST['date'])))."'";