convert mysql timestamp into actual date and time?

Question

I have dates stored in a mysql table, they are set to store as CURRENT TIMESTAMP in each row and are stored as follows:

2010-05-29 01:17:35

but what i am trying to do is somehow use PHP to be able to seperate everything and create a date more like:

May 29 2010 1:17 AM

can anyone at least direct me in the right path that i should take. any help is greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

echo date('M j Y g:i A', strtotime('2010-05-29 01:17:35'));

http://php.net/manual/zh/function.date.php

Answer 2

You have two solutions :

• Use strtotime() to parse the date to a timestamp, and date() to re-format it to a string
• Or use the DateTime class

In PHP code, this would mean using :

echo date('M j Y g:i A', strtotime('2010-05-29 01:17:35'));

Or :

$dt = new DateTime('2010-05-29 01:17:35');
echo $dt->format('M j Y g:i A');

strtotime + date is the solution you'll see used the most ; but it is not the best solution : with those, you'll work on UNIX Timestamps, which means a limited range of dates (from 1970 to 2038, if using 32 bits integers) .

ON the other hand, using the DateTime class, there will be no limit to the range of dates you can work with.

Answer 3

If you have a DATETIME field in your table and you only want the date field, then:

SELECT DATE_FORMAT(timestamp,'%M %D, %Y') FROM Mytable;

or:

SELECT DATE_FORMAT(timestamp,'%Y-%m-%d') FROM Mytable;

where timestamp is your column name.