Convert uncommon date format to timestamp in most efficient manner possible?

Question

I have a date in this format: 20101101120000

I need to convert it to a timestamp with PHP.

I've been searching the PHP docs online, but can't find anything that can convert directly. Does one exist? If not, what's the most efficient way to do the conversion? Thank you for your help.

What would the expected output be for this example? – Gumbo Jan 30 '11 at 14:35 — Gumbo, Jan 30 '11 at 14:35

score 26 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 09 '11 at 09:56

26

You can do this with DateTime::createFromFormat:

$d = DateTime::createFromFormat('YmdGis', '20101101120000');

$d is now a DateTime instance. You can either convert it to a timestamp with $d->getTimestamp() or use the DateTime methods on it.

Note that this requires PHP 5.3.

edited Nov 09 '11 at 09:56

Mob

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answered Jan 30 '11 at 14:37

lonesomeday

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I'd just worked out it was YmdGis when your answer popped up... +1 for the fast response – Mark Baker Jan 30 '11 at 14:40

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 30 '11 at 14:51

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strtotime('20101101120000')

....

answered Jan 30 '11 at 14:51

Mchl

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Have you tried it? Does it work? From the docs: *The function expects to be given a string containing an English date format* – Felix Kling Jan 30 '11 at 14:53
This does work and is most useful when working with MySQL. Also note that it will do the conversion to GMT basing on currently set timezone. – Mchl Jan 30 '11 at 14:55
Interesting... I thought it would be more restrictive regarding this formats but... cool :) +1 – Felix Kling Jan 30 '11 at 14:57
@Felix King: when in doubt check here: http://www.php.net/manual/en/datetime.formats.php – Mchl Jan 30 '11 at 14:58

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 26 '12 at 06:21

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You need the function strptime.

The formats are described at strftime.

edited Aug 26 '12 at 06:21

uınbɐɥs

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answered Jan 30 '11 at 14:55

edgester

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+1 - I don't see why this doesn't have more upvotes! Works back to PHP 4, too. – uınbɐɥs Aug 26 '12 at 06:19
Note: Internally, this function calls the strptime() function provided by the system's C library. This function can exhibit noticeably different behaviour across different operating systems. The use of date_parse_from_format(), which does not suffer from these issues, is recommended on PHP 5.3.0 and later. – mariusnn Sep 23 '13 at 10:48

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 10 '16 at 18:04

I only add to this resolved question because this may be helpful for users who stumble upon here (like I did) and are looking to get an actual datetime timestamp.

My assumption for most folks when they mention timestamp is that they're looking for a normal "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS" timestamp not a unix timestamp which you get when you use the getTimestamp() method (see accepted answer if you are indeed looking for the UNIX Timestamp).

So I will further elaborate on lonesomeday's answer (which is fully correct) for those looking to actually get a valid formated date that they can display to users or insert into their database:

$d = DateTime::createFromFormat('YmdGis', '20101101120000');

$formatedDate = $d->format('Y-m-d H:i:s'); // will return 2010-11-01 12:00:00
$formatedDate = $d->format('m-d-Y h:i A'); // will return 11-01-2010 12:00 PM

Convert uncommon date format to timestamp in most efficient manner possible?

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