php - Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'Exception' with message 'DateTime::__construct(): Failed to parse time string

Question

I get this error

( ! ) Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'Exception' with message 'DateTime::__construct(): Failed to parse time string (06-28-2014 07:43:58 ) at position 0 (0): Unexpected character' in /Users/matt/Desktop/Likes/forgot/activate.php on line 17

When trying to do this

//DB query
$stmt = $con->prepare("SELECT token_created_at from reset WHERE token = :urltoken");
$stmt->bindValue(':urltoken', $_GET['token']);
$stmt->execute();
$stmt->setFetchMode(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
while($row = $stmt->fetch()) {
     $token_created_at = $row['token_created_at'];
}

//Remove after testing
echo $token_created_at;

$my_dt = new DateTime($token_created_at);

//Modify error
$expires_at = $my_dt->modify('+1 hour');

//Return current time to match
$current_time = date('m-d-Y H:i:s ', time());

Line 17 is $my_dt = new DateTime($token_created_at); and this is my time format 06-28-2014 07:43:58.

This is how I generate token_created_at, $time_gen = date('m-d-Y H:i:s ', time());.

Answer 1

The date string you're passing is not supported by the DateTime parser. You must create a DateTime object by using createFromFormat. This method allows you to specify the custom format when creating a new DateTime object:

$my_dt = DateTime::createFromFormat('m-d-Y H:i:s', $token_created_at);

If you're still getting an error that means that your $token_created_at is not in the format you specified:

$now = date('m-d-Y H:i:s'); //string(19) "06-28-2014 15:00:47"

var_dump(DateTime::createFromFormat('m-d-Y H:i:s', $now));
object(DateTime)#1 (3) {
  ["date"]=>
  string(19) "2014-06-28 15:00:47"
  ["timezone_type"]=>
  int(3)
  ["timezone"]=>
  string(13) "Europe/Berlin"
}

Edit

I see your problem - the format string has a space after s. The format strings must match exactly:

$my_dt = DateTime::createFromFormat('m-d-Y H:i:s ', $token_created_at);