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Bug #64369 strtotime() doesn't return false for some invalid formats
Submitted: 2013-03-06 13:47 UTC Modified: 2013-03-06 16:11 UTC
From: gen dot work at gmail dot com Assigned:
Status: Not a bug Package: Date/time related
PHP Version: 5.4.12 OS: Ubuntu 12.10
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
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 [2013-03-06 13:47 UTC] gen dot work at gmail dot com 
Description:
------------
strtotime() doesn't return false for some invalid formats.


Test script:
---------------
var_dump(strtotime('invalid_string'));
var_dump(strtotime('-1 monthZ'));
var_dump(strtotime('-1 monthsx'));


Expected result:
----------------
bool(false)
bool(false)
bool(false)

Actual result:
--------------
bool(false)
int(1360161652)
int(1360201252)

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 [2013-03-06 14:30 UTC] derick@php.net 
Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not
a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at
http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report
a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php

That is because they are not invalid. "Z" is a timezone abbreviation:

derick@whisky:~ $ php -r 'var_dump(date_parse("-1 monthZ"));'
array(17) {
  'year' =>
  bool(false)
  'month' =>
  bool(false)
  'day' =>
  bool(false)
  'hour' =>
  bool(false)
  'minute' =>
  bool(false)
  'second' =>
  bool(false)
  'fraction' =>
  bool(false)
  'warning_count' =>
  int(0)
  'warnings' =>
  array(0) {
  }
  'error_count' =>
  int(0)
  'errors' =>
  array(0) {
  }
  'is_localtime' =>
  bool(true)
  'zone_type' =>
  int(2)
  'zone' =>
  int(0)
  'is_dst' =>
  bool(false)
  'tz_abbr' =>
  string(1) "Z"
  'relative' =>
  array(6) {
    'year' =>
    int(0)
    'month' =>
    int(-1)
    'day' =>
    int(0)
    'hour' =>
    int(0)
    'minute' =>
    int(0)
    'second' =>
    int(0)
  }
}

And "SX" is (monthS + X), with X also be a timezone abbreviation:

derick@whisky:~ $ php -r 'var_dump(date_parse("-1 monthsx"));'
array(17) {
  'year' =>
  bool(false)
  'month' =>
  bool(false)
  'day' =>
  bool(false)
  'hour' =>
  bool(false)
  'minute' =>
  bool(false)
  'second' =>
  bool(false)
  'fraction' =>
  bool(false)
  'warning_count' =>
  int(0)
  'warnings' =>
  array(0) {
  }
  'error_count' =>
  int(0)
  'errors' =>
  array(0) {
  }
  'is_localtime' =>
  bool(true)
  'zone_type' =>
  int(2)
  'zone' =>
  int(660)
  'is_dst' =>
  bool(false)
  'tz_abbr' =>
  string(1) "X"
  'relative' =>
  array(6) {
    'year' =>
    int(0)
    'month' =>
    int(-1)
    'day' =>
    int(0)
    'hour' =>
    int(0)
    'minute' =>
    int(0)
    'second' =>
    int(0)
  }
}
 [2013-03-06 14:30 UTC] derick@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Not a bug
 [2013-03-06 15:28 UTC] gen dot work at gmail dot com 
Then following this logic '-1 months' should be parsed as 1 month + S, where S is a timezone abbreviation?
 [2013-03-06 15:49 UTC] derick@php.net 
"months" alone is a variant keyword for "month", so no.
 [2013-03-06 16:11 UTC] gen dot work at gmail dot com 
True, but this means that for timezone abbreviation "Z" you simply put "1 monthZ", but for "S" you have to write "1 monthsS", which is not so obvious.
 
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