how to use mysql now() function in cakephp for date fields?

Question

I have this code in my cakephp project:

$this->data['MyObject']['expire_date'] = 'NOW()';

and...

$this->MyObject->save($this->data);

But this won't save data in database. After googling I found I can use now() like this. But it seems wrong, what is the correct way to use it?

PS: My MySQL field is of type 'DATE'. It works if I use like this:

$this->data['MyObject']['expire_date'] = date( 'Y-m-d', mktime(0, 0, 0, date("m"), date("d")+30,   date("Y")));

Solution 1

$this->data['MyObject']['expire_date'] = DboSource::expression('NOW()');

Solution 2

For cakephp 2.x users:

$db = $this->MyObject->getDataSource(); 


$this->data['MyObject']['expire_date'] = $db->expression('NOW()');

Solution 3

You can shorten that to

$this->data['MyObject']['expire_date'] = date('Y-m-d H:i:s'); 

By default, date() will take the present time, if you do not pass it a second 'timestamp' argument.

This method is preferable to calling DboSource::expression() especially when you want to set it in the controller for various reasons, instead of in the model.