date() is showing December 1969

Question

$sql = "SELECT * FROM news ORDER BY `news_id` DESC LIMIT 1";
$result = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error());
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
$date = $row['time_posted'];
echo "<i> " .date("Y/m/d", $date) . "</i>: ";

I used timestamp in mysql. So, what's the problem?

Answer 1

The unix epoch (timestamp 0) is January 1, 1970 at midnight. If you live in a timezone behind GMT, it'll show up as sometime in the evening of December 31, 1969. $date is most likely 0

Answer 2

date('Y/m/d', strtotime($date));

TIMESTAMP columns are not displayed as unix timestamps (anymore).

TIMESTAMP columns are displayed in the same format as DATETIME columns. In other words, the display width is fixed at 19 characters, and the format is 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS'.