Is there a simple way to convert one date format into another date format in PHP?
I have this:
$old_date = date('y-m-d-h-i-s'); // works
$middle = strtotime($old_date); // returns bool(false)
$new_date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $middle); // returns 1970-01-01 00:00:00
But I'd of course like it to return a current date rather than the crack 'o dawn. What am I doing wrong?
The second parameter to date() needs to be a proper timestamp (seconds since January 1, 1970). You are passing a string, which date() can't recognize.
You can use strtotime() to convert a date string into a timestamp. However, even strtotime() doesn't recognize the y-m-d-h-i-s format.
PHP 5.3 and up
Use DateTime::createFromFormat. It allows you to specify an exact mask - using the date() syntax - to parse incoming string dates with.
PHP 5.2 and lower
You will have to parse the elements (year, month, day, hour, minute, second) manually using substr() and hand the results to mktime() that will build you a timestamp.
But that's a lot of work! I recommend using a different format that strftime() can understand. strftime() understands any date input short of the next time joe will slip on the ice. for example, this works:
$old_date = date('l, F d y h:i:s'); // returns Saturday, January 30 10 02:06:34
$old_date_timestamp = strtotime($old_date);
$new_date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $old_date_timestamp);
Try this:
$old_date = date('y-m-d-h-i-s');
$new_date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', strtotime($old_date));
$old_date = date('y-m-d-h-i-s'); // works
you are doing wrong here, this should be
$old_date = date('y-m-d h:i:s'); // works
separator of time is ':'
I think this will help...
$old_date = date('y-m-d-h-i-s'); // works
preg_match_all('/(\d+)-(\d+)-(\d+)-(\d+)-(\d+)-(\d+)/', $old_date, $out, PREG_SET_ORDER);
$out = $out[0];
$time = mktime($out[4], $out[5], $out[6], $out[2], $out[3], $out[1]);
$new_date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $time);
OR
$old_date = date('y-m-d-h-i-s'); // works
$out = explode('-', $old_date);
$time = mktime($out[3], $out[4], $out[5], $out[1], $out[2], $out[0]);
$new_date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $time);
This native way will help to convert any inputted format to the desired format.
$formatInput = 'd-m-Y'; //Give any format here, this would be converted into your format
$dateInput = '01-02-2018'; //date in above format
$formatOut = 'Y-m-d'; // Your format
$dateOut = DateTime::createFromFormat($formatInput, $dateInput)->format($formatOut);
You need to convert the $old_date back into a timestamp, as the date function requires a timestamp as its second argument.
Easiest and simplest way to change date format in php
In PHP any date can be converted into the required date format using different scenarios for example to change any date format into Day, Date Month Year
$newdate = date("D, d M Y", strtotime($date));
It will show date in the following very well format
Mon, 16 Nov 2020
And if you have time as well in your existing date format for example if you have datetime format of SQL 2020-11-11 22:00:00 you can convert this into the required date format using the following
$newdateformat = date("D, d M Y H:i:s", strtotime($oldateformat));
It will show date in following well looking format
Sun, 15 Nov 2020 16:26:00
I know this is old, but, in running into a vendor that inconsistently uses 5 different date formats in their APIs (and test servers with a variety of PHP versions from the 5's through the latest 7's), I decided to write a universal converter that works with a myriad of PHP versions.
This converter will take virtually any input, including any standard datetime format (including with or without milliseconds) and any Epoch Time representation (including with or without milliseconds) and convert it to virtually any other format.
To call it:
$TheDateTimeIWant=convertAnyDateTome_toMyDateTime([thedateIhave],[theformatIwant]);
Sending null for the format will make the function return the datetime in Epoch/Unix Time. Otherwise, send any format string that date() supports, as well as with ".u" for milliseconds (I handle milliseconds as well, even though date() returns zeros).
Here's the code:
<?php
function convertAnyDateTime_toMyDateTime($dttm,$dtFormat)
{
if (!isset($dttm))
{
return "";
}
$timepieces = array();
if (is_numeric($dttm))
{
$rettime=$dttm;
}
else
{
$rettime=strtotime($dttm);
if (strpos($dttm,".")>0 and strpos($dttm,"-",strpos($dttm,"."))>0)
{
$rettime=$rettime.substr($dttm,strpos($dttm,"."),strpos($dttm,"-",strpos($dttm,"."))-strpos($dttm,"."));
$timepieces[1]="";
}
else if (strpos($dttm,".")>0 and strpos($dttm,"-",strpos($dttm,"."))==0)
{
preg_match('/([0-9]+)([^0-9]+)/',substr($dttm,strpos($dttm,"."))." ",$timepieces);
$rettime=$rettime.".".$timepieces[1];
}
}
if (isset($dtFormat))
{
// RETURN as ANY date format sent
if (strpos($dtFormat,".u")>0) // Deal with milliseconds
{
$rettime=date($dtFormat,$rettime);
$rettime=substr($rettime,0,strripos($rettime,".")+1).$timepieces[1];
}
else // NO milliseconds wanted
{
$rettime=date($dtFormat,$rettime);
}
}
else
{
// RETURN Epoch Time (do nothing, we already built Epoch Time)
}
return $rettime;
}
?>
Here's some sample calls - you will note it also handles any time zone data (though as noted above, any non GMT time is returned in your time zone).
$utctime1="2018-10-30T06:10:11.2185007-07:00";
$utctime2="2018-10-30T06:10:11.2185007";
$utctime3="2018-10-30T06:10:11.2185007 PDT";
$utctime4="2018-10-30T13:10:11.2185007Z";
$utctime5="2018-10-30T13:10:11Z";
$dttm="10/30/2018 09:10:11 AM EST";
echo "<pre>";
echo "<b>Epoch Time to a standard format</b><br>";
echo "<br>Epoch Tm: 1540905011 to STD DateTime ----RESULT: ".convertAnyDateTime_toMyDateTime("1540905011","Y-m-d H:i:s")."<hr>";
echo "<br>Epoch Tm: 1540905011 to UTC ----RESULT: ".convertAnyDateTime_toMyDateTime("1540905011","c");
echo "<br>Epoch Tm: 1540905011.2185007 to UTC ----RESULT: ".convertAnyDateTime_toMyDateTime("1540905011.2185007","c")."<hr>";
echo "<b>Returned as Epoch Time (the number of seconds that have elapsed since 00:00:00 Thursday, 1 January 1970, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), minus leap seconds.)";
echo "</b><br>";
echo "<br>UTCTime1: ".$utctime1." ----RESULT: ".convertAnyDateTime_toMyDateTime($utctime1,null);
echo "<br>UTCTime2: ".$utctime2." ----RESULT: ".convertAnyDateTime_toMyDateTime($utctime2,null);
echo "<br>UTCTime3: ".$utctime3." ----RESULT: ".convertAnyDateTime_toMyDateTime($utctime3,null);
echo "<br>UTCTime4: ".$utctime4." ----RESULT: ".convertAnyDateTime_toMyDateTime($utctime4,null);
echo "<br>UTCTime5: ".$utctime5." ----RESULT: ".convertAnyDateTime_toMyDateTime($utctime5,null);
echo "<br>NO MILIS: ".$dttm." ----RESULT: ".convertAnyDateTime_toMyDateTime($dttm,null);
echo "<hr>";
echo "<hr>";
echo "<b>Returned as whatever datetime format one desires</b>";
echo "<br>UTCTime1: ".$utctime1." ----RESULT: ".convertAnyDateTime_toMyDateTime($utctime1,"Y-m-d H:i:s")." Y-m-d H:i:s";
echo "<br>UTCTime2: ".$utctime2." ----RESULT: ".convertAnyDateTime_toMyDateTime($utctime2,"Y-m-d H:i:s.u")." Y-m-d H:i:s.u";
echo "<br>UTCTime3: ".$utctime3." ----RESULT: ".convertAnyDateTime_toMyDateTime($utctime3,"Y-m-d H:i:s.u")." Y-m-d H:i:s.u";
echo "<p><b>Returned as ISO8601</b>";
echo "<br>UTCTime3: ".$utctime3." ----RESULT: ".convertAnyDateTime_toMyDateTime($utctime3,"c")." ISO8601";
echo "</pre>";
Here's the output:
Epoch Tm: 1540905011 ----RESULT: 2018-10-30 09:10:11
Epoch Tm: 1540905011 to UTC ----RESULT: 2018-10-30T09:10:11-04:00
Epoch Tm: 1540905011.2185007 to UTC ----RESULT: 2018-10-30T09:10:11-04:00
Returned as Epoch Time (the number of seconds that have elapsed since 00:00:00 Thursday, 1 January 1970, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), minus leap seconds.)
UTCTime1: 2018-10-30T06:10:11.2185007-07:00 ----RESULT: 1540905011.2185007
UTCTime2: 2018-10-30T06:10:11.2185007 ----RESULT: 1540894211.2185007
UTCTime3: 2018-10-30T06:10:11.2185007 PDT ----RESULT: 1540905011.2185007
UTCTime4: 2018-10-30T13:10:11.2185007Z ----RESULT: 1540905011.2185007
UTCTime5: 2018-10-30T13:10:11Z ----RESULT: 1540905011
NO MILIS: 10/30/2018 09:10:11 AM EST ----RESULT: 1540908611
Returned as whatever datetime format one desires
UTCTime1: 2018-10-30T06:10:11.2185007-07:00 ----RESULT: 2018-10-30 09:10:11 Y-m-d H:i:s
UTCTime2: 2018-10-30T06:10:11.2185007 ----RESULT: 2018-10-30 06:10:11.2185007 Y-m-d H:i:s.u
UTCTime3: 2018-10-30T06:10:11.2185007 PDT ----RESULT: 2018-10-30 09:10:11.2185007 Y-m-d H:i:s.u
Returned as ISO8601
UTCTime3: 2018-10-30T06:10:11.2185007 PDT ----RESULT: 2018-10-30T09:10:11-04:00 ISO8601
The only thing not in this version is the ability to select the time zone you want the returned datetime to be in. Originally, I wrote this to change any datetime to Epoch Time, so, I didn't need time zone support. It's trivial to add though.
For completeness I'm adding an answer using the Carbon library, which is very common and used in large projects like the Laravel framework.
The Carbon constructor can be passed a date string (anything that is recognized by strtotime()) or a DateTime object. If you're dealing with a date string that can't be parsed easily, Carbon provides the Carbon::createFromFormat() static creator method.
$carbon = new Carbon("January 3 2025 4:28 am");
// or
$date = new \DateTime("January 3 2025 4:28 am");
$carbon = new Carbon($date);
// or
$carbon = Carbon::createFromFormat("Y-d-m/H:i", "2025-03-01/04:28");
Now that you have a native Carbon object, you can use the Carbon::format() method to output it in whatever format you need:
echo $carbon->format("l jS \\of F Y h:i A");
// Friday 3rd of January 2025 04:28 AM
There are a lot of helper methods to quickly output certain formats, such as Carbon::toDateTimeString() which outputs in MySQL format.