PHP change format of date

Question

Is it possible through PHP to change the format of this date

Jan 1 1900 12:00AM

to

01/01/1990

mm/dd/yyy

RTFM (I recently learned this acronym and I LOVE IT... It applies to so many questions here) — Ethan, Jun 06 '13 at 18:26
I assume you mean "Jan 1 1990" in the first line, and not 1900. — matt, Jun 06 '13 at 18:26
Why are you interested in this wonky date format? It might mislead the readers. One can't say for sure whether it is in the `mm/dd/yyyy` or `dd/mm/yyyy` format. — Lion, Jun 06 '13 at 18:30
@Lion if he is only using it in the U.S. it would make sense because most people assume that format here. — Ethan, Jun 06 '13 at 18:51

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 06 '13 at 18:25

3

Two functions will help: strtotime and date.

So do this:

date("m/d/Y", strtotime("Jan 1 1990 12:00AM"))

answered Jun 06 '13 at 18:25

matt

vascowhite · Answer 2 · 2013-06-06T18:42:04.273

1

$date = DateTime::createFromFormat('M d Y H:ia', 'Jan 1 1900 12:00AM');
echo $date->format('m/d/Y');

Or, if you are a fan of one liners:-

echo DateTime::createFromFormat('M d Y H:ia', 'Jan 1 1900 12:00AM')->format('m/d/Y');

edited Jun 06 '13 at 18:42

answered Jun 06 '13 at 18:35

vascowhite

I never knew about `DateTime::createFromFormat`... will definitely use this in the future. – Ethan Jun 06 '13 at 18:52
@Ethan Once you start using those classes you'll realise how powerful they are. They make [seemingly complex problems](http://stackoverflow.com/q/16712277/212940) suddenly [very simple](http://stackoverflow.com/a/16712661/212940). – vascowhite Jun 06 '13 at 18:59
I've used DateTime before, just never that method. Any idea if there is any simpler way to do what I did [here](https://gist.github.com/etaubman/5609636)? – Ethan Jun 06 '13 at 20:08
@Ethan I'm not sure it's any simpler https://github.com/vascowhite/TimeAgo/blob/master/TimeAgo.php – vascowhite Jun 06 '13 at 21:10

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 06 '13 at 18:25

0

You could parse that into a timestamp with strtotime() and then use the PHP date() function to format it.

answered Jun 06 '13 at 18:25

Mike

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 06 '13 at 18:26

0

strtotime and strftime are the easiest to work with.

$stamp = strtotime('Jan 1 1900 12:00AM');
echo strftime("%m/%d/%G", $stamp);

See the full strftime documentation to output your date in any format.

answered Jun 06 '13 at 18:26

jterry

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 06 '13 at 18:32

No, because Jan 1 1900 1200AM is never going to equal 01/01/1990. Check you year. But if you want a simple what to convert string to time try this:

<?php
$d = 'Jan 1, 1900 12:00AM';
echo date("m/d/y",strtotime($d));
?>

I would pass this into a function first that removed the time element and then converts only the data portion.

score -1 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 06 '13 at 18:24

-1

see the date function:

//replace the time() with yours
echo date('m/d/Y', time()); // = 06/06/2013

answered Jun 06 '13 at 18:24

sjkm

please explain down vote – sjkm Jun 06 '13 at 18:29
I didn't downvote, but I assume it's because you didn't actually take the input date and parse it. You just didn't the output format part. – matt Jun 06 '13 at 20:09

6 Answers6