How to parse a date string in PHP?

Question

With a date string of Apr 30, 2010, how can I parse the string into 2010-04-30 using PHP?

Gordon · Accepted Answer · 2010-05-04 17:17:11Z

67

Either with the DateTime API (requires PHP 5.3+):

$dateTime = DateTime::createFromFormat('F d, Y', 'Apr 30, 2010');
echo $dateTime->format('Y-m-d');

or the same in procedural style (requires PHP 5.3+):

$dateTime = date_create_from_format('F d, Y', 'Apr 30, 2010');
echo date_format($dateTime, 'Y-m-d');

or classic (requires PHP4+):

$dateTime = strtotime('Apr 30, 2010');
echo date('Y-m-d', $dateTime);

answered May 4, 2010 at 17:17

Gordon

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Comments

mickmackusa · Accepted Answer · 2022-10-03 08:28:34Z

13

Try strtotime() to convert to a timestamp and then date() to get it in your own format.

mickmackusa♦

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answered May 4, 2010 at 17:06

zaf

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There's also a date_parse function that converts a string into an array with keys year, month, day, etc.