date function for php

Question

Would the date function for php recognize this code, and convert it to a Date Stamp

$date= date('$_POST["Month1"]/$_POST["Date1"]/$_POST["Year1"]');

?

No, because of [single quotes](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3446216/what-is-the-difference-between-single-quoted-and-double-quoted-strings-in-php). — BlitZ, Feb 14 '14 at 09:33
PHP handles variables inside [single quotes](http://us1.php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php#language.types.string.syntax.single) as plain strings, not as variables. — Anthony, Feb 14 '14 at 09:37
and the format? take a look at the documentation http://es1.php.net/manual/es/function.date.php — aleation, Feb 14 '14 at 09:37
@aleation - oh, man, I didn't even notice that it was the wrong function. driving with blinders, gets me every time. — Anthony, Feb 14 '14 at 09:45

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 14 '14 at 09:36

Your syntax is unclear and not works because of single quotes. Better try with:

$date = date($_POST["Month1"] . '/' . $_POST["Date1"] . '/' . $_POST["Year1"]);

If your post data contains format, like m, d, Y - it's ok. But if you pass date like 4, 21, 2014 - date() will not work. Convert it to timestamp with:

$timestamp = strtotime($_POST["Month1"] . '/' . $_POST["Date1"] . '/' . $_POST["Year1"]);

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 14 '14 at 09:43

Your syntax is wrong, as already stated, but it's also better for avoiding formatting issues to actually just pass in the variables individually to mktime(), like this:

$timestamp = mktime(0, 0, 0, $_POST["Month1"], $_POST["Date1"], $_POST["Year1"]);

That way you aren't having to pass the variables you already have broken up through any extra steps.

date function for php

2 Answers2