PHP strtotime is off by one day

Question

//Convert string to unix timestamp
strtotime( "04/05/2014" );

//Insert into database, convert from unix timestamp first
$sql = "INSERT INTO database ( date ) VALUES ( FROM_UNIXTIME(:date) )";

It's saving to database as 2014-04-04 15:00:00 when I expect it to be 2014-04-05 00:00:00

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

A Unix timestamp is a fixed moment in time. However, MM/DD/YYYY dates are relative pieces of data that depend on time zone.

When you do this:

strtotime( "04/05/2014" );

... you tell PHP to calculate the timestamp that corresponds to midnight in PHP time zone. You then do this:

FROM_UNIXTIME(:date)

... and tell MySQL to calculate the local time (regarding MySQL time zone) that correspond to the timestamp. Thus the shift.

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Time zone conversions in SQL are difficult so I'd avoid them at all cost. I'd feed MySQL with a string that already contains the appropriate local time, e.g.: 2014-04-05 or 2014-04-05 00:00:00. That string is easy to calculate from PHP.

As about PHP, either set the time zone explicitly:

$ts = strtotime( "04/05/2014 +02:00" );

... or adjust the default zone to your liking:

date_default_timezone_set('Europe/Madrid');

I'd also recommend you get familiar with the DateTime class—it's way more powerful than good old timestamps.

Answer 2

date_default_timezone_set('America/Los_Angeles');

becouse of this set your timezone and it will work

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Enjoy :)