Question: Im trying to assign a variable with timezone info that will change the time of info saved in a database.

Here is my code that doesn't work:

```
<?php 
$timeZone = "- 3600";
$date = date('His', time() $timeZone);
echo $date;
?>

```

But when I do this it works...

```
<?php 
$date = date('His', time() - 3600);
echo $date;
?>

```

Why won't the variable work in there?

Answer: 
It's invalid syntax. Change `$timeZone` to an integer and add it to `time()`.

```
$timeZone = -3600;
$date = date('His', time() + $timeZone);
echo $date;

```

[See a demo](http://codepad.org/lBMNHnj1)
If you want to convert to another timezone, there is a proper way of doing it: [UTC Date/Time String to Timezone](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5746531/php-utc-date-time-string-to-timezone)