php date format

Question

Hi guys,

I'm trying to insert the current date from a php form into a database.

My query is:

   $sql3="INSERT INTO orderDetails (compName, package, cost, date) VALUES ('$companyName', '$package', '$cost_record', 'date()')";

This produces the following: 0000-00-00 00:00:00 which obviously isn't right.

Can anyone recommend how to get this to display the correct date/time?

Also, I need it in the following format: yyyymmddhhmmss - Is this possible? How would I go about it?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Use SQL NOW() function:

$sql3="INSERT INTO orderDetails (compName, package, cost, date) VALUES ('$companyName', '$package', '$cost_record', NOW()";

Answer 2

$sql3="INSERT INTO orderDetails (compName, package, cost, date) VALUES ('$companyName', '$package', '$cost_record', 'date(dmy)')";

or

$time = date('Ymd g:i');
$sql3="INSERT INTO orderDetails (compName, package, cost, date) VALUES ('$companyName', '$package', '$cost_record', " .$time . ")";

Answer 3

$date = date ( 'Y-m-d H:i:s'); 
$sql3="INSERT INTO orderDetails (compName, package, cost, date) VALUES ('$companyName', '$package', '$cost_record', '$date')";

Answer 4

Refer to the PHP Manual regarding the use of date(): http://php.net/manual/en/function.date.php

So for your needs it would be something like:

$date = date("YmdHis");
$sql3="INSERT INTO orderDetails (compName, package, cost, date) VALUES ('$companyName', '$package', '$cost_record', '$date')";

Also you might take into account the advice from Fabrik. Using UNIX timestamp is probably the most reliable way to go.

Answer 5

I presume your date column is actually of mysql DATETIME type.

$sql3="INSERT INTO orderDetails (compName, package, cost, date) VALUES ('$companyName', '$package', '$cost_record', NOW())";

should do it.

You can store it in DATETIME type (you'll see it as yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss)and then format it to yyyymmddhhmmss when you SELECT it out of the database:

SELECT DATE_FORMAT(date, '%Y%m%d%H%i%s') FROM orderDetails

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/date-and-time-functions.html#function_date-format

Answer 6

You should use php's function time() or mysql's UNIX_TIMESTAMP this is an int(11) and used like so:

INSERT INTO orderDetails (compName, package, cost, date) VALUES ('$companyName', '$package', '$cost_record', UNIX_TIMESTAMP --

Then you create a visual timestamp from php using the date() function.. during your loop in PHP.