Rearranging HTML elements with PHP

Question

The RSS feed I read from was recently updated and messed up quite a few things, I fixed most of the issues but this I can't figure.

How the date was formatted previously:

<div>
    <div>
        <div>
            13 </div>
    </div>
</div>
<div>
    <div>
        <div>
            July </div>
    </div>
</div>
<div>
    <div>
        <div>
            2012 </div>
    </div>
</div>

How it is right now:

<div>
    <div>
        <div>13th July, 2012</div>
    </div>
</div>

So:

Day Month and Year has to be separated in their own DIVs (most difficult)
"th" and "," needs to be removed (this is easy with str_replace)

Now the problem is I could do this with jQuery in minutes but it has to be done with PHP before it gets saved, and since the divs have no class/id its even more difficult for me.

For this problem? Nothing cause I just can't figure how to separate these. Other issues I've fixed and str_replaces are no problem either. — eozzy, Nov 19 '12 at 13:54
Couldn't you just use `strip_tags` in PHP to get the date and then use `strtotime` to normalize the date? Then you can generate whatever HTML you want. — Darrrrrren, Nov 19 '12 at 13:55
This should get you somewhat in the right direction: `explode(',', date('d,F,Y', strtotime('13th July, 2012')));` — Ja͢ck, Nov 19 '12 at 13:56

Darrrrrren · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-19T14:02:51.317

4

You can use strip_tags in PHP to get the date and then use strtotime to normalize the date.

Then you can generate whatever HTML you want.

EDIT: here is your solution:

<?php
//at this point, $string = the input you wish to modify
$string = "
<div>
    <div>
        <div>13th July, 2012</div>
    </div>
</div>
";

//get normalised time
$time = strtotime(trim(strip_tags($string)));

//with normalised time, generate your new output
echo "
<div>
    <div>
        <div>
            ".date("d",$time)." </div>
    </div>
</div>
<div>
    <div>
        <div>
            ".date("F",$time)." </div>
    </div>
</div>
<div>
    <div>
        <div>
            ".date("Y", $time)." </div>
    </div>
</div>
";
?>

edited Nov 19 '12 at 14:02

answered Nov 19 '12 at 13:56

Darrrrrren

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I already do and what I now have is the best output – eozzy Nov 19 '12 at 13:58
I have edited my answer to provide you your solution. – Darrrrrren Nov 19 '12 at 14:01

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 19 '12 at 13:55

Without writing the actual code for you, a solution would be:

Use a DOM parser to get the information you need (the date div contents);
explode on the space character;
(int) the first number and rtrim the month to get rid of the comma.

Or use @Darrrrrren's solution which is way better...

Rearranging HTML elements with PHP

2 Answers2