php date strange behaviour

Question

I have this code

$daytime=date("D M j G:i:s T Y");

anyone can explain me why in some server the value T returns something like this

Tue Oct 10 12:30:50 -03 2017

while in another server the value T returns something like this

Tue Oct 10 12:30:50 CDT 2017

How can I do to always display the CDT value instead of the numeric value -03 ?

Thank you

Answer 1

Dump the result of date_default_timezone_get() on both servers and see the difference. It depends which timezone identifier your server is set to. Some timezone identifiers will display as +xx or -xx when using the T modifier, while identifiers will be abbreviated.

If you want to force a specific timezone in your application without changing server configuration, you can set it using date_default_timezone_set().