PHP Parsing a Date Time String smartly

Question

I'm trying to parse a date time string combination to Date and Time and wanted to know if there a smarter way

Sample Data

9/3/2013 8:50:05 AM
9/4/2013 1:42:28 PM
9/11/2013 12:01:21 PM
....

Here's what I'm doing..Looking thru the list of Date Time string

   <?php
   $x = "9/3/2013 8:50:05 AM"
   $ExDt = str_getcsv(trim($x," ");
   $ExDate = $ExDt[0];
   $ExTm = $ExDt[1] . " " . $ExDt[2];
   $ExTime = date("H:i:s", strtotime($ExTm)); // Change to 24 hour format

   echo $ExDate;
   echo $ExTime;

   ?>

So the only thing you're changing here is to turn the time into 24-hour? — Ja͢ck
– Ja͢ck, Commented Sep 25, 2013 at 5:11
Thanks for your response. strtotime("9/3/2013 8:50:05 AM") did not work for me. — Tim B
– Tim B, Commented Sep 25, 2013 at 14:34

Aaron Gong · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-25 05:43:22Z

7

I feel safer converting with this (timezone not taken into account in the example)

$start = '25/12/2013 10:13:46';
$new_date = DateTime::createFromFormat('d/m/Y H:i:s', $start);
echo $new_date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

answered Sep 25, 2013 at 5:43

Aaron Gong

1,0258 silver badges18 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

inf3rno Over a year ago

Afaik. the createFromFormat converts only 09/04/2013 01:42:28, but not 9/4/2013 1:42:28. At least it did not work by me. :S

Rob · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-25 05:06:29Z

2

$dt = new DateTime('9/3/2013 8:50:05 AM');
echo $dt->format('m/d/Y');
echo $dt->format('H:i:s');

answered Sep 25, 2013 at 5:06

Rob

12.9k4 gold badges44 silver badges57 bronze badges

8 Comments

Phil Over a year ago

I'd still use createFromFormat as that date could be March 9 or September 3.

Rob Over a year ago

@Phil, Please see php.net/manual/en/datetime.formats.date.php Those would still be parsed correctly when using /

Phil Over a year ago

@Rob I think you misunderstand. In non-US locales (such as Aus), 9/3/2013 is Sat, 09 Mar 2013. The DateTime constructor however will interpret that date as Tue, 03 Sep 2013. Using DateTime::createFromFormat allows the developer to remove the ambiguity

Phil Over a year ago

@Rob The point is, we don't know what locale TimB is catering for (all the dates in the question are ambiguous). Using createFromFormat instead of the DateTime constructor allows a developer flexibility. The alternative is to change the input format to an ISO date (YYYY-mm-dd) or use hyphens instead of slashes for non-US date formats (which nobody actually uses). Changing input formats, especially from a CSV file seems much harder to me.

Tim B Over a year ago

The dump is from a card reader and comes in only one date time format as shown above. $dt = new DateTime('9/3/2013 8:50:05 AM'); Did Not work.

|

Flash Thunder · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-25 05:10:15Z

1

$time = strtotime('9/3/2013 8:50:05 AM');
echo date('H:i:s',$time); // 08:50:05
echo date('Y-m-d',$time); // 2013-03-09

answered Sep 25, 2013 at 5:10

Flash Thunder

12.1k10 gold badges55 silver badges103 bronze badges

Comments

srain · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-25 05:09:41Z

0

<?php
$x = "9/3/2013 8:50:05 AM";
$time = strtotime($x);
echo date('m/d/Y', $time), "\n";
echo date('H:i:s', $time), "\n";

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PHP Parsing a Date Time String smartly

4 Answers 4

1 Comment

8 Comments

Comments

See the result here

read more about date time format

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

4 Answers 4

1 Comment

8 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related