CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpdatetime
Jay Bhatt
Jay Bhatt

Reputation: 5651

Create date/time when the format is unknown

I am working on a small application which imports several CSV files from different sites. Each site have their own format for date. Some of the formats are below.

  '2013-12-04 11:32:21 +0000'
  '04/12/2014 +0000'
  '04/12/2014 +0000 11:32:21'
  'Fri Mar 14 18:19:26 +0000 2014'

I need to convert above formats into simple format like 'd-m'Y'. The problem here is that the formats aren't known in advance and I can't go and change the code every time a new CSV files needs to be added to system.

Is there a way using which I can convert all these formats into simple format? I've tried below but it doesn't work and I can't find any other solution.

  $date = DateTime::createFromFormat(strtotime('2013-12-04 11:32:21 +0000'), '2013-12-04 11:32:21 +0000'); 
  print_r($date->format('d-m-Y')); //Doesn't work

Thanks in advance for your help.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2243

Answers (2)

Rakesh Sharma
Rakesh Sharma

Reputation: 13728

try

$date = new DateTime('2013-12-04 11:32:21 +0000');
echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s'); //2013-12-04 11:32:21

Read manual :- http://www.php.net/manual/en/datetime.format.php

if you want all to convert create an array of values and pass in datetime your values

Upvotes: 2

Amal Murali
Amal Murali

Reputation: 76646

PHP understands a lot of date formats. It's not required to use DateTime::createFromFormat() here. Simply pass your date string to the DateTime construct and format it on the go:

Example:

$array = [
  '2013-12-04 11:32:21 +0000',
  '04/12/2014 +0000',
  '04/12/2014 +0000 11:32:21',
  'Fri Mar 14 18:19:26 +0000 2014',
];

foreach ($array as $datestr) {
    $dt = new DateTime($datestr);
    echo $dt->format('Y-m-d') . "\n";
}

Output:

2013-12-04
2014-04-12
2014-04-12
2014-03-14

Demo

Upvotes: 6

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