Use DB expression or PHP datetime as timestamp?

Question

I have a timestamp behavior (yii2) that looks like this (taken from user guide example)...

public function behaviors()
{
    return [
            'timestamp' => [
                    'class' => TimestampBehavior::className(),
                    'value' => new Expression('NOW()'),
            ],
         ];
}

But is it not better to use a PHP DateTime expression like...

'value' => (new /DateTime('NOW'))->format('Y-m-d H:i:s')

Seems to me like it would be better to work with one clock rather than possibly two (in case the database server is separate and time not in sync, which is not unlikely.) Especially if I'm using DateTime in my code to check other conditions.

Which approach is better and why?

One drawback with using DB Expressin in yii2 is that the model attribute is not updated after $model->save(). It still contains "new Expression('NOW()')". To get the actual value the model need to be loaded from database with "$model->refresh()". By using PHP datetime the final value is present right away. (Found that out when making a Rest API with the default Rest classes. After creating something the value echoed back still was an Expression and not a value.) — karpy47
– karpy47, Commented Nov 8, 2015 at 17:19

iamawebgeek · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-22 14:32:38Z

1

Expression class created a DBMS function inside the SQL query, it works no matter which date type (or format, it is possible to force the date format in some DBMS) you have in your column. If you change the value of a behavior you should take care the format and type of your column does match, otherwise some time you would get an error.

answered May 22, 2015 at 14:32

iamawebgeek

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