UNIX Time stamp and MYSQL

I am storing the date of entry in mysql via TIMESTAMP and default value UNIX_TIMESTAMP, however when I bring it back it's 2011-08-16 11:43:52 and if I try to style it with

<?= date('F j, o', $a['time']) ?>

It just does the timestamp from zero, bringing back开发者_开发百科 December 31, 1970

Why? And how can I fix it?

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Use

SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP(field)

When UNIX_TIMESTAMP() is used on a TIMESTAMP column, the function returns the internal timestamp value directly, with no implicit “string-to-Unix-timestamp” conversion.

Manual

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A MySQL TIMSTAMP column is stored as YYYY-MM-DD HH-MM-SS, even if you input a UNIX_TIMESTAMP it will still be stored in that format.

So what you can do is:

<?= date('F j, o', strtotime($a['time'])) ?>

Demo: http://codepad.org/jBLR2KpH

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date() takes a number and not a string. MySQL always returns your date as a string regardless of its internal representation. Try this:

<?php echo date("F j, o", strtotime($a['time']); ?>