PHP - Convert server timestamp to localtime?

[cmayo]

Sorry if this is been asked before, but I need to convert a server timestamp in the form of "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS" to a different timezone.

I have the local GMT offset in a configuration variable, is there an easy way to maybe convert the server timestamp to GMT, then apply the local offset to the GMT timestamp and arrive at a localized version of the timestamp? How would I code that?

Or am I making this too hard?

Thanks,
Chuck

 

[jpadie]

let's assume that your server is based in New York (EST) and you want to convert to your local timezone, based in Toulouse, France (CET).

//set local timezone
date_default_timezone_set("Europe/Paris");

//get server time as a unix timestamp
$unixtime = strtotime($servertime . ' EST'); //append EST to denote New York time

//convert to human readable local time
echo 'server time is '.date('r', $unixtime);

 

[cmayo]

Thanks very much for the suggestion, but my server's running PHP 4.4.4 and doesn't support date_default_timezone_set.

Also, I really need something that'll convert a MySQL-type timestamp like "2008-01-24 09:57:17" (server time) to the same sort of timestamp adjusted to the users' local time, i.e. "2008-01-24 07:57:17."

I did find some code online which seems to nicely convert the current server time to local time...

// Convert current servertime to GMT so the local time can be calculated 
function fetchGMT() 
{ 
    return mktime () + ((date('O')/100 )/-1)*60*60 ; 
}
 
// What is the hour offset for OUR timezone? 
// We are in GMT -6, so -6 is our offset! 
$localoffset=-6 ; 

$gmt=fetchGMT();  // Get GMT time 
$timezoneoffset=$localoffset* 60*60; // Get offset between local and GMT 
$local_time=$gmt+$timezoneoffset ; // Add offset to get local time

...but I'm getting myself all tripped up trying to modify that function to accept and return the timestamp. I dunno why these time functions confuse me so much...

Any ideas?

 

[jpadie]

//set local timezone
putenv("TZ=Europe/Paris");

//get server time as a unix timestamp
$unixtime = strtotime($servertime . ' EST'); //append EST to denote New York time

//convert to human readable local time
echo 'server time is '.date('r', $unixtime);

your code is just a maths solution - try to use the built in functions of php to handle the time zone (and daylight savings time etc) conversions for you.