What is the way to store time values ​​with php only?

Question

I have a Mysql table that has a column of type TIME .

When I retrieve the values ​​of this TIME column using PHP, how do I store it in a php variable for later use in my php classes?

• Should I store it as a string: "12:45:23"?
• Should I convert it to a fraction of the day: 0.25 - 06:00:00?
• Should I convert it to a few seconds: 15152 - 04:12:32?
• other?

I would like to use the standard php 5 method over time.

Thanks!

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UPDATE

My data is stored in a mysql table of type "TIME", not "DATETIME".

I just want to deal with time (number of hours, minutes and seconds). date doesn't matter in my case, so unix timestamp or date / time objects don't seem to fit.

Answer 1

The best and most common way is the number of seconds, since all php functions work in this format. Also see: "Unix Timestamp"

Answer 2

Use ISO 8601 , which is hh:mm:ss for better understanding and high readability

Answer 3

The unix timestamp is probably best suited for the most common use, as it is also compatible with the entire PHP date and time function and is smaller than a string.

Answer 4

In general, you should always store the date / time value in the original database date and time formats. This allows you to use DB date and time processing functions in queries. Otherwise, this is just a piece of text, and you are stuck with the use of string manipulations, or you must select each time field and manipulate it in your application.

Answer 5

There is no "standard" - it really depends on your requirements.

However, if you need to store date / time information in a canonical format, I would recommend using RFC2822 ( date('r') ), as this ensures that it is always corrected even if the time zone changes due to daylight saving time and etc. if relevant.

If this is not a consideration, then just using a timestamp (aka: unixtime - time() output) may well be sufficient, since it can be trivially converted between the original MySQL date and time format. (Use strtotime to convert to PHP, or just use UNIX_TIMESTAMP or FROM_UNIXTIME. MySQL works in a SQL query.)

Answer 6

There are many options that you have.

PHP has a nice strtotime function that can parse many different formats. Therefore, if you want to keep readable time, you could.

Most often, however, the time format is saved as the number of seconds with a Unix epoch . Remains the need to constantly analyze.

Answer 7

Check out the Date / Time classes . Many of them got most of their usefulness in 5.3, so if you are stuck below this, they will not help you.

Answer 8

Time is an interval, so you can save it in seconds.

The only thing is that seconds are not an object, and you cannot give it convenient functions, and it does not support a certain number of minutes.

For example, you use a time like 45:61:59 , after converting it to seconds, you will not be able to convert it back to this format.

PHP solves these problems using DateInterval

41:61:45 will be saved as

 $interval = new DateInterval('PT41H61M45S'); 

The problem is that DateInterval not as easy to use or useful as it could, so why not create your own class?

Here I created it just for you (or someone else)
(I know I'm late, but this question still pops up in SERP)

 class Time extends DateInterval { const SEC_IN_MINUTE = 60; const SEC_IN_HOUR = 3600; const SEC_IN_DAY = 86400; const SEC_IN_YEAR = 31536000; private $interval, $time; // takes an $time input of 48:23:12 or seconds or DateInterval spec public function __construct($time){ // support interval spec format if (strpos($time, 'P') === 0) { parent::__construct($time); } else // support seconds if (is_int($time)) { parent::__construct('PT' . $time . 'S'); } else // support 00:00:00 format if (preg_match('/([0-9]+):([0-9]+):([0-9]+)/', $time, $match)) { $this->time = $time; $this->h = (int)$match[1]; $this->i = (int)$match[2]; $this->s = (int)$match[3]; parent::__construct('PT' . $this->h . 'H' . $this->i . 'M' . $this->s . 'S'); // support human format // eg "5 minutes" } elseif(strtotime($time)) { $dt = new DateTime('@0', new DateTimeZone('UTC')); $dt->modify($time); parent::__construct('PT' . $dt->getTimeStamp() . 'S'); }else { throw new Exception('"' . $time . '" is an unknown time format'); } } public function toSeconds(){ $zero = new DateTime('@0'); // zero date return $zero->add($this)->getTimestamp(); } public function toMinutes(){ return $this->toSeconds() / 60; } public function toHours(){ return $this->toMinutes() / 60; } public function toDays(){ return $this->toHours() / 24; } public function toYears(){ return $this->toHours() / 365; } // recalculate carry over points // this is to convert a time like 22:98:74 to 23:39:14 // warning: intervals don't know how long a month is, and as such can't support them public function recalculate() { $zero = new DateTime('@0'); // zero date $to = clone $zero; $to = $to->add($this); $diff = $zero->diff($to); foreach ($diff as $k => $v) $this->$k = $v; $dt = new DateTime('@0'); // zero date $dt->add(new self('P'.$this->m.'M')); $seconds = $dt->getTimeStamp(); // add what was months to days $this->m = 0; $this->d += $seconds / 86400; // move excess days to years if($this->d > 365){ $this->y = floor($this->d / 365); $this->d = $this->d % 365; } return $this; } // remove all whole chunks of interval from seconds and return the amount of chunks protected function popTimeSpan(&$seconds, $interval){ $timespan = $seconds / $interval; $timespan = floor($timespan); $seconds -= $timespan * $interval; return $timespan; } // a special version of format() that will maintain the full interval in the formatted string // warning: it does not support %m or %M, which will always be converted to 0 public function reformat($format){ $seconds = $this->toSeconds(); if(strpos($format, '%y')!==false || strpos($format, '%Y')!==false){ $timespan = self::popTimeSpan($seconds, self::SEC_IN_YEAR); $format = str_replace('%y', $timespan, $format); $format = str_replace('%Y', str_pad($timespan,4,'0',STR_PAD_LEFT), $format); } if(strpos($format, '%m')!==false || strpos($format, '%M')!==false){ $format = str_replace('%m', '0', $format); $format = str_replace('%M', '00', $format); } if(strpos($format, '%d')!==false || strpos($format, '%D')!==false){ $timespan = self::popTimeSpan($seconds, self::SEC_IN_DAY); $format = str_replace('%d', $timespan, $format); $format = str_replace('%D', str_pad($timespan,2,'0',STR_PAD_LEFT), $format); } if(strpos($format, '%h')!==false || strpos($format, '%H')!==false){ $timespan = self::popTimeSpan($seconds, self::SEC_IN_HOUR); $format = str_replace('%h', $timespan, $format); $format = str_replace('%H', str_pad($timespan,2,'0',STR_PAD_LEFT), $format); } if(strpos($format, '%i')!==false || strpos($format, '%I')!==false){ $timespan = self::popTimeSpan($seconds, self::SEC_IN_MINUTE); $format = str_replace('%i', $timespan, $format); $format = str_replace('%I', str_pad($timespan,2,'0',STR_PAD_LEFT), $format); } if(strpos($format, '%s')!==false || strpos($format, '%S')!==false){ $timespan = floor($seconds); $format = str_replace('%s', $timespan, $format); $format = str_replace('%S', str_pad($timespan,2,'0',STR_PAD_LEFT), $format); } return $this->format($format); } } $time = new Time('23:10:15'); echo 'Seconds: '.$time->s.'<br>'; // 15 echo 'toSeconds: '.$time->toSeconds().'<br>'; // 83415 // lets try with times that are above 24 hour $time = new Time('48:10:16'); echo 'Seconds: '.$time->s.'<br>'; // 16 echo 'toSeconds: '.$time->toSeconds().'<br>'; // 173416 // lets try with times that are messy $time = new Time('23:98:75'); echo 'Seconds: '.$time->s.'<br>'; // 75 echo 'toSeconds: '.$time->toSeconds().'<br>'; // 88755 echo 'Formatted: '.$time->format('%Y-%d %H:%i:%s').'<br>'; // 00-0 23:98:75 echo 'Recalculated: '.$time->reformat('%Y-%d %H:%i:%s').'<br>'; // 0000-1 00:39:15 // lets try with months!! $time = new Time('13044:98:74'); echo 'Seconds: '.$time->s.'<br>'; // 74 echo 'toSeconds: '.$time->toSeconds().'<br>'; // 46964354 echo 'Formatted: '.$time->format('%Y-%d %H:%i:%s').'<br>'; // 00-0 13044:98:74 echo 'Recalculated: '.$time->reformat('%Y-%d %H:%i:%s').'<br>'; // 0001-178 13:39:14 // ok, now with years $time = new Time('87630:98:74'); // 10 years, 30 hours 98 minutes and 74 seconds echo 'Time: 87630:98:74<br>'; echo 'Formatted at year level: '.$time->format('%Y-%d %H:%i:%s').'<br>'; // 00-0 87630:98:74 echo 'Formatted at day level: '.$time->format('%d %H:%i:%s').'<br>'; // 0 87630:98:74 echo 'Formatted at hour level: '.$time->format('%H:%i:%s').'<br>'; // 87630:98:74 echo 'Formatted at minute level: '.$time->format('%i:%s').'<br>'; // 98:74 echo 'Formatted at second level: '.$time->format('%s seconds').'<br>'; // 74 seconds echo 'Formatted at year + second level: '.$time->format('%y years %s seconds').'<br>'; // 0 years 74 seconds echo 'Recalculated at year level: '.$time->reformat('%Y-%d %H:%i:%s').'<br>'; // 0010-1 07:39:14 echo 'Recalculated at day level: '.$time->reformat('%d %H:%i:%s').'<br>'; // 3651 07:39:14 echo 'Recalculated at hour level: '.$time->reformat('%H:%i:%s').'<br>'; // 87631:39:14 echo 'Recalculated at minute level: '.$time->reformat('%i:%s').'<br>'; // 5257899:14 echo 'Recalculated at second level: '.$time->reformat('%s seconds').'<br>'; // 315473954 seconds echo 'Recalculated at year + second level: '.$time->reformat('%y years %s seconds').'<br>'; // 10 years 113954 seconds echo 'Test %a: '.$time->reformat('%a').'<br>'; // (unknown) echo 'Test %R: '.$time->reformat('%r').'<br>'; // echo 'Test %r: '.$time->reformat('%R').'<br>'; // + 

Now you can take MySQL time and easily do whatever you want with it.

 $time = new Time('864:23:59'); $seconds = $time->toSeconds(); $formatted_time = $time->reformat('%d days %h:%i:%s'); 

Feel free to edit this and make it shorter or better.