I have a SQL-query sent from PHP to MySQL, which f.e. looks like this:
SELECT (now()-table.created) FROM table Now I need to replace the MySQL-function "now()" with a a date from PHP (because it's not always "now" I want in the query), but it doesn't work when I pass PHPs "time()" to MySQL.
What PHP method could I use?
MySQL has a function called UNIX_TIMESTAMP and FROM_UNIXTIME,
-- NOW() => time() SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP(NOW()) -- time() => DATETIME() SELECT FROM_UNIXTIME(1366223878) 
Hm, well, it depends on the format that table.created is stored in.
If it's a UNIXTIME value (i.e. the same format as PHP's time), then all you need to do is interpolate it in the right way:
<?php $dbobj->query('SELECT ('.time().'-table.created) FROM table'); ?> ... if, instead, table.created is a datetime or similar value, you'll need to create the appropriate date format:
<?php $dbobj->query("SELECT ('".date('Y-m-d H:i:s', time())."'-table.created) FROM table"); ?> 
date() doesn't appear to be deprecated or recommended against on the documentation page. You may get a lot more from the newer class approaches, but for a simple case like this where you're taking an explicit epoch time and converting it into an explicit format, date() should be perfectly acceptable. That said, learning newer, more robust methods never hurt anyone, so I can't recommend against your suggestion.Use the newer DateTine object;
$date = new DateTime('NOW'); $query = "SELECT * FROM table where date > ".$date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s') The NOW in the DateTime object will be accurate to your liking, as it's stored on the moment you seem to want it, unlike when done in MySQL, which may be (micro/milli)seconds later.
DateTime