How to convert date into integer number in php?

Question

I have an mysql database with a date column and i am using datatype datetime.

But now i want change my datatype from datetime to long integer

I would like to know how to convert date to any integer value.

Let say i have a date

i.e 2012-03-27 18:47:00

so I was wondering if it's possible to convert into any integer number like 131221154

Answer 1

Use strtotime function of PHP.

The function expects to be given a string containing an English date format and will try to parse that format into a Unix timestamp (the number of seconds since January 1 1970 00:00:00 UTC), relative to the timestamp given in now, or the current time if now is not supplied.

echo strtotime('2012-03-27 18:47:00'); //--> which results to 1332866820

And to make it back again, just use the date function of PHP:

$long = strtotime('2012-03-27 18:47:00'); //--> which results to 1332866820
echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $long);