I have to create timestamp for 8 PM everyday to compare it with some timestamp in database. How can I create it?
$ts = '2015-05-12 12:00:20'
is what I have stored in database.
I need this $ts_8pm = '2015-05-12 20:00:00' so that I can take some action when this meets.
It will be easier to create it dynamically each day:
// Date-time will have value of 'now'
$dateTime = new DateTime();
// Override current time
$dateTime->setTime(20, 0);
$timestamp = $dateTime->getTimestamp();
Parsing a string makes very little sense, as you would have to generate that string first.
strtotime is specifically there for that purpose
strtotime — Parse about any English textual datetime description into a Unix timestamp
$ts_8pm=strtotime('2015-05-12 20:00:00');
You can also use this, better, approach
$format = 'Y-m-d H:i:s';
$date = DateTime::createFromFormat($format, '2015-05-12 20:00:00');
$ts_8pm=$date->format('U');
