Time() disrepancy

PHP
1

<?php

$currtime = date(‘m/d/Y H:m:s’, time());
$currunixtime = time();
$currtime2unix = strtotime($currtime);

echo "Currtime $currtime ";
echo "Currunixtime $currunixtime ";
echo "Currtime2unix $currtime2unix ";

?>

I was expecting $currunixtime and $currtime2unix to be the same, but I can’t figure out why they aren’t

Alex

2

It’s the time format that’s the problem.

It’s not H:m:s
It should be H:i:s

See: http://php.net/manual/en/function.date.php for the formatting parameters.

3

Paul is right, the discrepancy is significant not just a second or two. Any ideas how to
correct this.

I need to calculate the difference between current time and the time saved in my database’s datetime column.
I figured I woud convert the db column to integer with strtotime(…) and subtract it from time().

So what’s the best/accurate way of doing this.

4

It’s not time() that’s responsible.

You’ll see the number of seconds discrepancy with the following:

echo $currunixtime - $currtime2unix;

For me now it’s 1200 seconds, and a short time ago it was around 400

The discrepancy remains constant until the seconds tick over to a new minute, at which point the discrepancy climbs by another 60.

5

because you’re calling time() twice; they may be executing at 2 different seconds in time. (I’m assuming by discrepancy you mean 1-2 second, and not like… a day or year or something)

try

 
<?php
$currunixtime = time();
$currtime = date('m/d/Y H:m:s', $currunixtime);
$currtime2unix = strtotime($currtime);

echo "Currtime $currtime ";
echo "Currunixtime $currunixtime ";
echo "Currtime2unix $currtime2unix ";

?>
6

It’s the conversion to a displayed date that’s causing the issue.

You see the time difference with
echo strtotime(date(‘m/d/Y H:m:s’, time())) - time();

7

Yep, the format was the culprit. Thank you Paul.