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Date_format function not working.


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Hi Larry,

 

Thanks for your reply to my problem with splitting numbers and alphas.

 

I have a new problem now and am baffled.  I am putting together a little blog for which I am using MySQL and php.  The database is populated fine and I can pùll the date as $date from the MySQL,  The problem is when I try to format it as, for example, Monday 27 July 2021.  The code is:

Previous code includes calling $dbc, etc etc.

<?php
date_default_timezone_set('Europe/Madrid');
$blog1 = "SELECT * FROM ZRM ORDER BY Date DESC";
$blog2 = @mysqli_query($dbc, $blog1);
while ($blog3 = @mysqli_fetch_array($blog2))
    {
    $ref = $blog3['Ref'];
    $date = $blog3['Date'];

It all works up to here:
  

    $date2 = date_format($date, 'd/F/Y');
   echo date_format($date, 'j n y') . $date2;
    

As you can see, I have tried a number of formats.  Nothing at all prints and no error messages.  Using double apostrophes neither.  $date prints as: 2021-09-13 13:33:06 .  The strange thing is that I can copy/paste the code into W3Schools and it works perfectly (by adding a line at the top: $date=date_create("2013-03-15");  See https://www.w3schools.com/php/phptryit.asp?filename=tryphp_func_date_format 

For example, W3Schools gives me: 13 Sep 2021 when I run:

<?php
$date=date_create("2021-09-13 13:33:06");
echo date_format($date,"d M Y");
?>

If I have to I can use some string functions to pull the date apart and re-organize it, but date_format should work, no?

As always, your assistance is greatly appreciated.

 

Max

You can see $date as it comes out here: http://www.zrm.es/blog.php

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My inclination is it's either not being stored or retrieved in a format that PHP can use. I'd check/confirm your column type. Also, it's best not to use "Date" as a column name since it's also a keyword in MySQL.

That being said, I'd have MySQL return the data in the format you want, rather than ask PHP to convert it. 

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Larry, you're a star!

Firstly, it didn't cross my mind about 'Date' being a keyword in SQL!!  I have now resolved the issue - code below.  The results can be seen here: http://www.zrm.es/blog.php

Yes, I know that my CSS is shocking, but I am just a hobbyist, not a professional and just hate it!!

Interestingly, experimenting I can't get date_format() in php to work at all.  No matter.  I won't use it again.

Thanks again, Larry.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<?php
$_title = "blog.";
$_description = "blog";
$keyword = "blog";
include ('header.php');
require_once('../users.php');  //This is the $dbc routine.
?><br /><br />
<div style = "width: 80%; margin: auto; ">
<p style = "margin: auto; border: 6px solid rgb(62,60,100); width: 15%; height: 30px; padding: 1.8% 0 0 0; text-align: center; font-family: sans-serif; color: rgb(62,60,100); background-color: rgb(255, 204, 0); font-weight: bold; ">BLOG</p>
<br /><br /><br /><table style = "border: 3px solid rgb(62,60,100); width: 99%; ">
<?php
date_default_timezone_set('Europe/Madrid');  //actually in header.php as well - put this in out of dessperation.
$blog1 = "SELECT * , DATE_FORMAT(Date1, '%W, %e %M %Y') AS 'FD' FROM ZRM ORDER BY Date1 DESC";  //SQL request including the formatted date
$blog2 = @mysqli_query($dbc, $blog1);   //Do the query
while ($blog3 = @mysqli_fetch_array($blog2))    //while loop to extract the data from the array
    {
    $ref = $blog3['Ref'];  //Dont really need this but hey
    $date1 = $blog3['FD'];  //Formatted date
    $comments = $blog3['Comments'];  //Text
    $image = $blog3['Image'];   //image name
    echo '<tr><td><a href = "images/raw/' . $image . '.jpg" target = "_blank"><img src = "images/reduced/' . $image . 'jpg" alt = "Sorry, image missing." title = "Click to enlarge." style = "border: 2px solid black; margin: 5px;  margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin: auto; " /></a></td><td style = "padding: 5%; vertical-align: top; "><p style = "vertical-align: top; text-align: right; "><b>' . $date1 . '</b></p><br /><br /><p>' . $comments . '</p></td></tr>'; 
    }
echo '</table></div>';
include('footer.php');
die();
?>

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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