Timezone: Mysql save UTC and PHP read America/Sao_Paulo

Question

I would like to save at mysql in UTC timezone and read with PHP using America/Sao_Paulo timezone.

Im using YII framework. Its not working property, how could I do that?

main.php:

'timezone' => 'America/Sao_Paulo',

'db'=>array(
...
    'initSQLs'=>array("SET time_zone = '+00:00'"),
...
)

Answer 1

Try this on your mysql console or gui:

mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo | mysql -u root -p mysql

Then use again:

SET time_zone='America/Sao_Paulo';

You also can change by this:

SET time_zone = 'Brazil/West';

Source: http://blog.will.eti.br/2013/mysql-unknown-or-incorrect-time-zone-americasao_paulo/

Answer 2

Do this in your PHP code:

date_default_timezone_set('UTC');

Now PHP operates in UTC. It's up to you to convert to user local times but you have a common ground.

And in MySQL use UTC_TIMESTAMP() for your DATETIME needs. It uses UTC time regardless of the MySQL settings so you don't need to worry anymore.