I just went all through the PHP manual and can't find what i need.
A form has a dual function where it will display dates from mySQL if they exist in US english date format m/d/y.
strftime() works fine as long as there is a date argument.
When i display the same form as a blank the default time is shown which is not desired.
How can I format a date, but force a blank for new data ?
I just went all through the PHP manual and can't find what i need.
A form has a dual function where it will display dates from mySQL if they exist in US english date format m/d/y.
strftime() works fine as long as there is a date argument.
When i display the same form as a blank the default time is shown which is not desired.How can I format a date, but force a blank for new data ?
Wow! the silence is deafening!
So, there is no trick to use with an existing PHP method, then?
The reason for your problem isn't clear (at least to me). If you have a value from the DB then you format it. If you don't, then you make the field blank. You then use the result as a value in a type=text field and you should have the right result.
The reason for your problem isn't clear (at least to me). If you have a value from the DB then you format it. If you don't, then you make the field blank. You then use the result as a value in a type=text field and you should have the right result.
Thanks for the reply.
What you say is exactly what I thought would happen too.
However in my application, the form is sometimes displayed as a blank form, with the value attributes nulled . Normally, there is a pHP echo of a formatted date from a SQL query.
Nulls work for everything but the date because it it goes though
strftime().
When I display what should be null, a "todays date " is displayed.
According to the PHP manual this is default behavior for this function.
My question is if there is a way to trick it so the the default is not invoked, and I can have a blank input box.
I'm still missing something. If you are always displaying what is in the db and hoping that a null value in the db will be displayed as a blank when the default is to display the current local time, then I don't think you can get there from here. Check the value from the db before you get to the form and only do the strftime if there is a date. Otherwise leave it as null / blank.
I'm still missing something. If you are always displaying what is in the db and hoping that a null value in the db will be displayed as a blank when the default is to display the current local time, then I don't think you can get there from here. Check the value from the db before you get to the form and only do the strftime if there is a date. Otherwise leave it as null / blank.
When the form is displayed blank, there was no query done!
I null the variables. The variable is echoed in the input tags's value attribute inside of the strftime(). When this is echoed with the null , it defaults to todays date. That's the issue.
That's exactly it, don't do that. Don't put the strftime inside the Value. Do it all first before the form (a bit of IF - ELSE). Get the right value in a variable then use that variable in the Value.
That's exactly it, don't do that. Don't put the strftime inside the Value. Do it all first before the form (a bit of IF - ELSE). Get the right value in a variable then use that variable in the Value.
Yes. That's what I ended up doing. If the form was to be presented as blank, I tested for the existence of the array. If false, the variable was set to null .
If true, the variable was set to all of the strftime() business.
The input value attribute now only echoes a variable that results from the above tests.
works fine.
I am a coding minimalist. If it looks like a lot of code to do a simple thing, I try to boil it down. In this case there was no "simple trick", so it resulted in a few more lines than I though it should.
Just trying to keep things as simple as possible...
Thanks for the input.
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