PHP String to date conversion

Question

I'm about to pull my hair out people. I've got a form where people select a day and a month from the dropdown menu, and the current year would automatically get concatenated.

On the server I've got this:

$received =  date("Y")."-".$_POST['month']."-".$_POST['day'];
$date = strtotime($received);

$newformat = date('Y F j',$date);
echo $newformat;

Let's say $_POST['month'] == 'April' and $_POST['day'] == '5'

The output always comes out like this:

2013 April 1 (ie the day defaults to 1).

Interestingly if $_POST['day'] == '24' then the output is:

2013 April 2

It's as though it just looks at the first digit.. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Yes - if I do echo $received; I'll get 2013-April-5 - correct output.. — Allen S
– Allen S, Commented Sep 7, 2013 at 1:43
@remyabel - it makes no difference. If I do $newformat = date('Y-F-j',$date); I get the same thing - 2013-April-1 — Allen S
– Allen S, Commented Sep 7, 2013 at 1:46
Drop the dashed in the $received format and see if that helps. — user2417483
– user2417483, Commented Sep 7, 2013 at 1:47

James · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-07 01:59:04Z

2

Is your issue that your "Month" variable is a string instead of an integer, but you are putting it in the date as if it's an integer? 2013-April-5... Try just putting in a 4 instead of April.

Update

To answer your question, you can have your client updated to have options like <option value="1">January</option>, or update your PHP to process it like:

<? $received =  $_POST['month']." ".$_POST['day']." ".date("Y");
$date = strtotime($received);

$newformat = date('Y F j',$date);
echo $newformat; ?>

I think that will work.

edited Sep 7, 2013 at 1:59

answered Sep 7, 2013 at 1:43

James

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4 Comments

Allen S Over a year ago

I think you're right! On the client side the dropdown shows the month as a string - January, February, etc. When the form gets submitted $_POST['month'] is the value of the dropdown which comes in the form of a string. Is there any way to convert that into a date without having to convert the month to an integer?

James Over a year ago

@user1775598 Updated my answer to help.

Allen S Over a year ago

Exactly what I needed thanks! Was the problem that I set $received var with dashes inside or was it the order in which I month, day and year came? Or both?

James Over a year ago

@user1775598 I'd say it was an issue of both. Dashes wouldn't be used when spelling out the month so PHP wouldn't understand the format. Glad I could help though, and don't forget to mark this as the answer if it fixed your problem for future visitors. Thanks~

Funk Forty Niner · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-07 01:54:34Z

1

The problem may lie in your handler and/or your form (without seeing full code in your question).

I've tested it and I get back perfect results.

When I entered 5 for month and 24 for day in the form I build below, I get back 2013 May 24.

Check your syntax in your form and your handler.

In using the following form and handler, I get perfect results

HTML form

<form action="date_handler.php" method="post">
Month: <input type="text" name="month">
<br>
Day: <input type="text" name="day">
<br>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

PHP handler

<?php
$month=$_POST['month'];
$day=$_POST['day'];
$received =  date("Y")."-".$_POST['month']."-".$_POST['day'];
$date = strtotime($received);
$newformat = date('Y F j',$date);
echo $newformat;
?>

answered Sep 7, 2013 at 1:54

Funk Forty Niner

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2 Comments

Allen S Over a year ago

Thanks man. I think the problem is that the $_POST['month'] var was a being parsed as a string instead of an int. Now I'm trying to figure out if it's possible to create a date using a string for the month so that I don't have to convert it to an int.

Funk Forty Niner Over a year ago

@user1775598 You're welcome. Can you post your full code? Maybe there's something in there that's breaking it.

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