I am confused by the behavior of createFromFormat.
private function _event_date($eventdate) {
$this->_logger->err($eventdate);
$dt = new DateTime();
$dt->createFromFormat(DATE_ISO8601, $eventdate);
$formatted = $dt->format("m/d/Y");
$this->_logger->err($formatted);
return $formatted;
}
I call _event_date several times. I expect that when I create a new DateTime object, that it will accept the $eventdate and result in a new formatted date.
Strangely enough (to me), my output looks like so:
2013-04-04 15:10:26 UTC error _event_date 2013-04-05T21:00:00-0400
2013-04-04 15:10:26 UTC error _event_date 04/04/2013
2013-04-04 15:10:26 UTC error _event_date 2013-04-12T20:00:00-0400
2013-04-04 15:10:26 UTC error _event_date 04/04/2013
2013-04-04 15:10:26 UTC error _event_date 2013-04-16T18:00:00-0400
2013-04-04 15:10:26 UTC error _event_date 04/04/2013
2013-04-04 15:10:26 UTC error _event_date 2013-04-17T19:30:00-0400
2013-04-04 15:10:26 UTC error _event_date 04/04/2013
2013-04-04 15:10:26 UTC error _event_date 2013-04-18T20:00:00-0400
2013-04-04 15:10:26 UTC error _event_date 04/04/2013
It appears that for some reason, DateTime is holding on to my original $eventdate value.
Why is this? Am I misunderstanding something about how createFromFormat works? Am I missing something about PHP's object model? Did PHP put something in my drink?
-------------- Answer ----------------
Marc B's answer below does fix the issue:
// month/day/year
private function _event_date($eventdate) {
$this->_logger->err($eventdate);
$dt = DateTime::createFromFormat(DATE_ISO8601, $eventdate);
$formatted = $dt->format("m/d/Y");
$this->_logger->err($formatted);
return $formatted;
}
Which yields the correct results:
2013-04-04 15:34:56 UTC error _event_date 2013-04-04T19:30:00-0400
2013-04-04 15:34:56 UTC error _event_date 04/04/2013
2013-04-04 15:34:56 UTC error _event_date 2013-04-05T21:00:00-0400
2013-04-04 15:34:56 UTC error _event_date 04/05/2013
2013-04-04 15:34:56 UTC error _event_date 2013-04-12T20:00:00-0400
2013-04-04 15:34:56 UTC error _event_date 04/12/2013
2013-04-04 15:34:56 UTC error _event_date 2013-04-16T18:00:00-0400
2013-04-04 15:34:56 UTC error _event_date 04/16/2013
2013-04-04 15:34:56 UTC error _event_date 2013-04-17T19:30:00-0400
2013-04-04 15:34:56 UTC error _event_date 04/17/2013
2013-04-04 15:34:56 UTC error _event_date 2013-04-18T20:00:00-0400
2013-04-04 15:34:56 UTC error _event_date 04/18/2013