PHP date returning wrong value

Question

I have a date format like this 'Tue May 01 00:00:00 +1000 2012' (from array data on json file)

when I use date() function it returning April, :D

      echo date('F Y', strtotime('Tue May 01 00:00:00 +1000 2012'));

      //it returning "April 2012"

Any ideas how to fix this?

Many Thanks!

Notice the timezone specification on the provided date/time? When it's May 1st over there, it's still April 31 on your own timezone. How to fix it? You can simply remove the +1000 to get the result you want, but I 'm not sure if that's fixing or breaking it. — Jon
– Jon, Commented Apr 26, 2013 at 23:24

Jon · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-26 23:53:12Z

2

Instead of using the old date/time functions that mess things up because they implicitly involve your local time zone, use DateTime:

$date = new DateTime('Tue May 01 00:00:00 +1000 2012');
echo $date->format('F Y');

This will also work corrrectly for any date, regardless of the timezone (UTC+10 hours or anything else).

answered Apr 26, 2013 at 23:53

Jon

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hjpotter92 · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-26 23:33:26Z

2

You will need to check both the timezones. Or set a custom one for both date and strtotime calls.

Since you are using +1000 as your timezone-offset; I'm assuming it is Australia. You can use the date_default_timezone_set() call to set timezone to Australia.

echo date('F Y', strtotime('Tue May 01 00:00:00 +1000 2012'));
date_default_timezone_set('Australia/Queensland');
echo date('F Y', strtotime('Tue May 01 00:00:00 +1000 2012'));

Here is the codepad link: http://codepad.org/tPC8DEQp

edited Apr 26, 2013 at 23:33

answered Apr 26, 2013 at 23:23

hjpotter92

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4 Comments

Jon Over a year ago

Irrelevant. The timezone is specified inline in the input.

Jon Over a year ago

@hjpotter92: This will only work for dates where the TZ specification is +1000 -- in which case, why (globally) change the timezone instead of (locally) removing the +1000 from the string? Also, Queensland does not observe DST right now, but it could do so in the future (as it has in the past) and if that happens then you have a bug. So even if you wanted to change the TZ, it would be better to change it to Etc/GMT+10.

hjpotter92 Over a year ago

@Jon Using Etc/GMT-10 seems to solve the problem now: codepad.org/kxQj2sEO

Jon Over a year ago

@hjpotter92: Right, -10 is correct. But all of these solutions are less than satisfactory. I have added an answer of my own.

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