PHP convert date

Question

I am trying to convert a date into a different format, but when I do I always get 1970-01-01. Below is a copy of my code.

 $courseDate = $_SESSION['get_course_date']; //value returns '17/03/2014 - Standard Course'
 $regex='((?:(?:[0-2]?\\d{1})|(?:[3][01]{1}))[-:\\/.](?:[0]?[1-9]|[1][012])[-:\\/.](?:(?:[1]{1}\\d{1}\\d{1}\\d{1})|(?:[2]{1}\\d{3})))(?![\\d])'; 
 if ($c=preg_match_all ("/".$regex."/is", $courseDate, $matches)){ //use regex to get just he date
   $get_date=$matches[1][0]; // returns 17/3/2014
   echo date('Y-m-d', $get_date); // output 1970-01-01
 }

Any feedback would be great.

Cheers

1970-01-01 is the epoch date. Something is setting your timestamp to 0 — Zarathuztra
– Zarathuztra, Commented Feb 5, 2014 at 2:30

John Conde · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-05 02:55:59Z

4

Your issue is due to date() requiring a unix timestamp as its second parameter. You are giving it a date string. You can use strtotime() to convert your date to a unix timestamp. We also have to use str_replace() to change the slashes to dashes. This is due to strtotime() defaulting to US format when it sees the / separator. By changing it to a dash it defaults to European format:

echo date('Y-m-d', strtotime(str_replace('/', '-', $get_date)));

Here's an alternative solution that should be easier to manage:

$string = '17/03/2014 - Standard Course';
list($date) = explode(' - ', $string);
$dt = DateTime::createFromFormat('d/m/Y', $date);
echo $dt->format('Y-m-d');

See it in action

edited Feb 5, 2014 at 2:55

answered Feb 5, 2014 at 2:31

John Conde

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