regex to get datetime from string in php

Question

I'm using regex to get date time from a string in proper format. if string is 2/12/2013 2 : 31 AM then i use below code to remove spaces before and after : to get 2/12/2013 2:31 AM

$dtTime = preg_replace('/(\s+\:\s+)/', ':', $dtTime);

But what to do when string is 2/12/2013 2 31 AM to get 2/12/2013 2:31 AM? I tried to use below code but not worked

$dtTime = preg_replace('/[^\/0-9](\d+\s\d+)/', ':', $dtTime)

Note that date may be separated by / or -

Purpose of above code is to get date and time separately from a string by:

    $dtime = strtotime($dtTime);
    $rtime = date('H:i:s',$dtime); // 08:50:05
    $rdate = date('Y-m-d',$dtime);

What are you going to do with this string next? Explode/extract data? Maybe this manipulations are excess then and it can be done other way? — Oleg Dubas
– Oleg Dubas, Commented May 12, 2014 at 13:53
after this, i'm getting date and time by $dtime = strtotime($dtTime); $rtime = date('H:i:s',$dtime); $rdate = date('Y-m-d',$dtime); — Raza Ahmed
– Raza Ahmed, Commented May 12, 2014 at 13:55
Where do you get such malformed datetime? Try to solve the problem at the root. — Halcyon
– Halcyon, Commented May 12, 2014 at 13:55

Oleg Dubas · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-12 14:07:35Z

1

You can perform:

$dtTime  = preg_replace("! (\d+) (: )?(\d+) (A|P)M!", " $1:$3 $4M", $dtTime);

It will make both lines look like "2/12/2013 2:31 AM"

answered May 12, 2014 at 14:07

Oleg Dubas

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Comments

Phil Perry · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-12 14:18:07Z

1

If you have no control over the original printed or written format, you're just going to have to be prepared to handle a wide variety of time and date formats. Look for markers widely used for one or the other (AM/PM after some sort of time, \d{4} is a year, int > 31 must be either a year or minute or second, / and - are usually used with dates, : usually used with times, etc.) to give a clue as to what you're seeing. Don't forget that date and time could come in either order, or only one of them. If you can't plausibly match one of a number of patterns, it will just have to fail as too ambiguous input.

You're not going to do this with a single regexp!

answered May 12, 2014 at 14:18

Phil Perry

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SubjectCurio · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-12 14:05:06Z

0

I would probably approach this a different way, match the groups of numbers individually and then reformat back into a valid date, using something like /(\d+)|AM|PM/

Example here

Combined with preg_match_all(), you could do this

$pattern = '/(\d+)|AM|PM/';
$string = '2/12/2013 2 31 AM';

preg_match_all($pattern,$string,$matches);

[0] => Array
    (
        [0] => 2     // month
        [1] => 12    // day
        [2] => 2013  // year
        [3] => 2     // hour
        [4] => 31    // minutes
        [5] => AM    // ante/post meridiem
    )

From that, you can format your result into anything you want

answered May 12, 2014 at 14:05

SubjectCurio

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Oscar M. · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-12 14:21:16Z

0

You should use the native DateTime class to interpret it and reformat/clean it up instead. It'll handle parsing a variety of input better than a regex. This book by the extension's author also helps in figuring out how best to handle Dates and Times in PHP.

$dtime = new DateTime($dtTime);
$rtime = $dtime->format('H:i:s'); // 08:50:05
$rdate = $dtime->format('Y-m-d');

If you're incoming format doesn't change, use createFromFormat to make $dtime

$dtime = DateTime::createFromFormat('m/d/Y H : i A', $dtTime);

edited May 12, 2014 at 14:21

answered May 12, 2014 at 14:09

Oscar M.

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2 Comments

Raza Ahmed Over a year ago

Uncaught exception 'Exception' with message 'DateTime::__construct(): Failed to parse time string (2/12/2013 2 31 AM) at position 10 (2)

Oscar M. Over a year ago

Updated with potential fix

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