php.net |  support |  documentation |  report a bug |  advanced search |  search howto |  statistics |  random bug |  login
Bug #55527 DateTime::__construct throws Exception even when timezone is specified
Submitted: 2011-08-28 22:23 UTC Modified: 2015-08-24 15:25 UTC
Votes:4
Avg. Score:3.5 ± 0.9
Reproduced:4 of 4 (100.0%)
Same Version:1 (25.0%)
Same OS:2 (50.0%)
From: john at zerocrates dot org Assigned: cmb (profile)
Status: Closed Package: Date/time related
PHP Version: 5.3.8 OS: All
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
View Developer Edit
Welcome! If you don't have a Git account, you can't do anything here.
If you reported this bug, you can edit this bug over here.
(description)
Block user comment
Status: Assign to:
Package:
Bug Type:
Summary:
From: john at zerocrates dot org
New email:
PHP Version: OS:

 

 [2011-08-28 22:23 UTC] john at zerocrates dot org
Description:
------------
The DateTime constructor throws an Exception warning that it is not safe to rely 
on the system's timezone settings if you try to construct a DateTime object and 
haven't somehow specified a timezone, whether by using date_default_timezone_set, 
the date.timezone setting, or the $timezone argument of DateTime itself.

However, there is another way to specify the timezone for a DateTime object, by 
passing a time string which includes a timezone as the first argument to the 
constructor. When such a string is given, the $timezone argument is ignored and 
the timezone given in the string is always used.

However, this doesn't prevent the Exception from being thrown, even though a 
timezone is being specified. To avoid the Exception, you have to have a default 
timezone set, or you have to pass a DateTimeZone as the second argument, even 
though neither would actually be used for creating the object.

Test script:
---------------
<?php

ini_set('date.timezone', NULL);

try {
    $date = new DateTime('2011-08-28T00:00:00+0000');
    echo $date->format('O');
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo 'Exception thrown.';
}

echo PHP_EOL;

date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');
try {
    $date = new DateTime('2011-08-28T00:00:00+0000');
    echo $date->format('O');
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo 'Exception thrown.';
}

Expected result:
----------------
+0000
+0000

Actual result:
--------------
Exception thrown.
+0000

Patches

Pull Requests

History

AllCommentsChangesGit/SVN commitsRelated reports
 [2011-10-10 00:22 UTC] john at zerocrates dot org
-Operating System: Linux +Operating System: All
 [2011-10-10 00:22 UTC] john at zerocrates dot org
Switching "OS" field to "All", this is OS-independent.
 [2014-10-02 08:17 UTC] headsup at hotmail dot com
After a few hundred lines of flawless code, whenever using the method POST (not GET) the function error_get_last() catches the following, despite of setting the timezone in the first line of the code with date_default_timezone_set('Europe/Lisbon');

Array
(
    [type] => 2
    [message] => Unknown: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'Europe/London' for '1.0/DST' instead
    [file] => Unknown
    [line] => 0
)


Curiously, at the end of the script, after printing the array above, printing date_default_timezone_get() gets me 'Europe/Lisbon', as set in the first line.
 [2015-08-24 15:25 UTC] cmb@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Closed -Assigned To: +Assigned To: cmb
 [2015-08-24 15:25 UTC] cmb@php.net
The exception is due to the warning that the default timezone has
not been set. This warning has been removed as of PHP 7[1], so the
issue is resolved, see <https://3v4l.org/4iVJ8>.

@headsup: this would be another issue, so please open a new
ticket.

[1] <https://wiki.php.net/rfc/date.timezone_warning_removal>
 
PHP Copyright © 2001-2025 The PHP Group
All rights reserved.
Last updated: Wed May 07 17:01:30 2025 UTC