A PostgreSQL timestamp field not formated in the same way when updated with PHP.

Question

I have a timestamp with timezone field in PostgreSQL. When I update this field, I use something like this:

$date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');

Although the SQL works fine, the date saved seem a little bit different to a classic timestamp with timezone date.

Example:

Default value set to "now()":
date 2009-04-06 14:39:53.662522+02

Update with a date set in php:
$date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
date 2009-04-06 14:39:53+02

The numbers removed on update are probably milliseconds but I'm not sure. I would like to know if there is a means to obtain with PHP the same format of date?

Answer 1

You can use the microtime() PHP function to get the microseconds.

Answer 2

If you only need one second resolution of timestamp you have to design your database accordingly, as by default resolution is better than a second.

Use for example the following column definition:

last_access_time timestamp with time zone not null
    default date_trunc('second',now())
    constraint last_access_time_full_second check (
        date_trunc('second',last_access_time)=last_access_time
    )