title: why do I need to use strtotime() to convert mySQL time to PHP time?
body: <p>I have a column of a type "time" in mySQL database. I am displaying it in a 12 hour format on a website. Why do I need to use strtotime()? </p>
  
  <pre><code>$time = date('g:i a', strtotime( $time)) ; 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I know that it works, I am just wondering why I need to use a special function to convert one type of "time" into another. Does PHP consider mySQL time column type a string? </p>