strtotime() malfunction with year 1959 and previous

[rodiniaweb]

Description

Today is September 18th. The following code:

<?php

date_default_timezone_set('Europe/Madrid');
echo date('Y-m-d',strtotime('1959'));

Resulted in this output:

2024-09-18

But I expected this output instead:

1959-09-18

If you use 1960 and following years, it works as expected.

PHP Version

PHP 8.3.10

Operating System

No response

[damianwadley]

"1959" could be a time or it could be a year. strtotime() resolves the ambiguity by interpreting it as a time.
"1960" cannot be a time.

If you know that the value is going to be in a particular format then use "create from format" functions/methods. Or, if you have an exact year and only care about an accurate date portion, mktime.

https://3v4l.org/9X8pm