when inserting a date into a MySQL DB using PHP what is the best format so that I can sort by date later. I started using
$current_time = date("Y-m-d");
Is this the best practice?
Add a comment
|
3 Answers
If you are able to control your database fields then I would recommend using MySQL's built in Timestamp data type. You can set it to the current time by default.
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `your_table` (
`date` timestamp NOT NULL default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
If not then I would reccomend just storing the default PHP Unix formatted timestamp in an integer field.
$current_time = time();
Comments
The database handles dates internally for storing and sorting. Y-m-d format is good
Comments
You do not ever need to generate the current date or time in PHP to insert it into a query. Use the MySQL constants CURRENT_DATE and CURRENT_TIMESTAMP in the query instead.
INSERT INTO table (name, date) VALUES ('Bob', CURRENT_DATE)
