php date formatting not working

Question

$t = DateTime::createFromFormat('Gi', '900');
$time_str = $t->format('gi a');
echo $time_str; //outputs 600 pm instead of 9am. Why? and How do I get 9am?

I am not sure where I am going wrong.. I am following what is given here in terms of date formatting: http://php.net/manual/en/function.date.php

Thanks!

no idea why but this works > DateTime::createFromFormat('G i', '9 00'); i guess its because the time must be separated in some way — Manse
– Manse, Commented Feb 10, 2012 at 16:33

JYelton · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-10 16:52:50Z

2

The documentation you linked is for the date() function. The DateTime::createFromFormat is not the same (though the format strings are pretty much identical).

I expect the format parsing is having trouble recognizing the difference between the hour and minute components.

If you split them up with a space, you get the desired result:

$t = DateTime::createFromFormat('G i', '9 00');
$time_str = $t->format('gi a');
echo $time_str;
// Output is 900 am

Edit:

The inability for PHP to parse a format string like Gi is a known bug. The parser for G doesn't know whether to read 9 or 90 and in the latter case that 90 is too high.

edited Feb 10, 2012 at 16:52

answered Feb 10, 2012 at 16:36

JYelton

36.6k28 gold badges139 silver badges196 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

crazyphoton Over a year ago

Ah thanks! that helps! Thing is, for quick computation of time (and because I need to use them as array indices), I am storing them as numbers [0 to 2359]. So the best way to convert them to am/pm for printing would be to split them to hour and min, subtract 12 etc?

JYelton Over a year ago

If you pad the time string with a leading zero, it seems to parse that correctly. 0900 = 900 am However I would strongly consider putting a colon between the hours and minutes components of the output time when using am/pm, as it is standard formatting.

crazyphoton Over a year ago

Yes, that is true. But 01000 fails. It was simpler to just do it manually :)

JYelton Over a year ago

Well you wouldn't pad a 4-digit time; only when the hour component is 1 digit. Padding generally implies adding characters so that output is a fixed-width across expected values. Example: str_pad($time, 4, "0", STR_PAD_LEFT);

Manse · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-10 16:36:41Z

2

As i said in my comment this works :

$t = DateTime::createFromFormat('G i', '9 00');
$time_str = $t->format('gi a');
echo $time_str.PHP_EOL;

Cannot find any where written down - but suspect the time needs to be separated ... either by space or colon or something else

answered Feb 10, 2012 at 16:36

Manse

38.1k11 gold badges88 silver badges112 bronze badges

2 Comments

Jovan Perovic Over a year ago

That makes perfect sense. Good answer! ;)

crazyphoton Over a year ago

Thanks! I accepted the other answer because of the link to the bug :)

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

php date formatting not working

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related