MySQL STR_TO_DATE() returns invalid date

Question

Our website requires signing up. Lately it has become apparent that the signup process fails on many occasions. I implemented several logs in my PHP code to start tracking this. Including one to track outputs from mysql_last_error() when possible.

My next step was to write a script that generates sign-up requests with random values for the different required fields. My logic was that if this yields an issue - the problem is with the back-end logic, and if it doesn't - the problem is with server loads. (BTW, was this sound logic?)

When sending many of these (I'd say about 150) I got only three errors, and the mysql_last_error log showed this:

• [Wed May 21 13:20:45.000000 2014] Incorrect date value: '1964-11-31' for column 'dob' at row 1

• [Wed May 21 13:48:37.000000 2014] Incorrect date value: '1963-11-31' for column 'dob' at row 1

• [Wed May 21 13:48:37.000000 2014] Incorrect date value: '1967-02-29' for column 'dob' at row 1

The request is sent in a JSON format, and its dob field is in mm/dd/yyyy format. The SQL in my PHP code subsequently looks like this:

"STR_TO_DATE('".$cleanUser['dob']."', '%m/%d/%Y')"

I tried performing this operation inside MySQL Workbench as well, to isolate it from possible bad code. but it failed there as well. I simply don't understand what's the problem, and why it occurs only on some dates.

All help will be greatly appreciated, Thanks in Advance

Answer 1

November only has 30 days, so the date 1964-11-31 doesn't exist.

And 1967 is not a bissextile year, so february only has 28 days this year.

BTW, use parameterized query instead of SQL concatenation to avoid leaving your queries open to SQL injection.

Answer 2

I think error come from data format. %m means months in words. January, February .etc So could you please use mm or MM format to date

You can see more details at php manual page http://www.php.net/manual/en/datetime.formats.date.php