Trouble with timezones: PHP DateTime returning wrong date

Question

PHPs DateTime is not doing what I expect it to do here....

class Time_model extends CI_model
{
    public $time_zone;
    public $tz;
    public $dt;

    public function __construct()
    {
        date_default_timezone_set('UTC');
        $this->time_zone = 'Pacific/Auckland';

        $this->tz = new DateTimeZone($this->time_zone);
        $this->dt = new DateTime('now', $this->tz);
    }

    /**
     * dates
     */

    public function getDate()
    {
        $this->dt->getTimezone(); // <--- shows that the timezone is auckland where it is the 02/10/2016 
        return $this->dt->format('Y-m-d'); // <--- yet returns the 01/10/2016! 
    }
}

In Auckland it is a Sunday, yet even when I explicitly change the TimeZone nothing changes, it still shows up as Saturday.

How do I get DateTime to change the date to match the timezone??

Furthermore, if passing the new DateTimeZone object into the DateTime object does absolutely nothing, then what is the point of passing it in the first place? This is really bugging me because I know I have got something completely wrong!

Marek Janoud · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-01 12:01:30Z

2

When you create DateTime second parameter is DateTimeZone of first parameter, when you want to change timezone of DateTime you need to do it after with method setTimezone.

class Time_model extends CI_model
{
    public $time_zone;
    public $tz;
    public $dt;

    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->time_zone = 'Pacific/Auckland';

        $this->tz = new DateTimeZone($this->time_zone);
        $this->dt = new DateTime('now', new DateTimeZone("UTC"));
        $this->dt->setTimezone($this->tz);
    }

    /**
     * dates
     */

    public function getDate()
    {
        $this->dt->getTimezone(); // <--- shows that the timezone is auckland where it is the 02/10/2016 
        return $this->dt->format('Y-m-d'); // <--- yet returns the 01/10/2016! 
    }
}

answered Oct 1, 2016 at 12:01

Marek Janoud

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3 Comments

Jethro Hazelhurst Over a year ago

Thanks for clarifying, so why pass in a DateTimeZone in the first place if you have to manually override it later with setTimezone()?

Marek Janoud Over a year ago

If you have date like '2016-10-01 14:33:21' and you know that this is in timezone 'Europe/Prague' then you could simply do new DateTime('2016-10-01 14:33:21', new DateTimeZone('Europe/Prague')), and its correct.

Marek Janoud Over a year ago

manual override is needed only if you need to change timezone

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