Timestamp from String PHP

Question

I have a ridiculous string provided by data that isn't adjustable and I need to convert it to a timestamp in a consistent manner.

5162016

sometimes 2 digit month, sometimes leading zeros sometimes not.

I tried using DateTime

$time = \DateTime::createFromFormat("njY", "5162016");
$timestamp = $time->getTimestamp();

I tried both njY and mdY but both return a timestamp that converts to 05/01/0020

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Perhaps you could check the string length. But it would be impossible to differentiate 1122016 between 12 January and 2 November unless the day portion consistently has a leading zero. — Michael Berkowski
– Michael Berkowski, Commented Apr 10, 2016 at 12:48

Federkun · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-10 13:02:00Z

1

Normalize your data, so that the month will be always with a leading zero.

$normalizedDate = str_pad("5162016", 8, 0, STR_PAD_LEFT);
$time = \DateTime::createFromFormat("mdY", $normalizedDate);
$timestamp = $time->getTimestamp();

This only works if the Day of the month is always a 2 digits with leading zeros.

edited Apr 10, 2016 at 13:02

answered Apr 10, 2016 at 12:53

Federkun

37.1k8 gold badges82 silver badges93 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

Michael Berkowski Over a year ago

Isn't clear if there is a leading zero for the day portion. Unless there is, this cannot be used reliably.

Federkun Over a year ago

So, both months and days can or cannot have leading zero? one time just month, another just day, some time both? then there's no way to distinguish them

secondman Over a year ago

Perhaps a combination? Remove the last 4 since that's the only reliable section. Then count the remaining characters. 2 and 4 should be reliable knowing we have either both 2 digit or both 1 digit. 3 on the other hand ... I would think perhaps if the first digit is not 0 or 1, then we have a single digit month, and can pad that with 0. Otherwise we have a 2 digit month and the day is the single. Is something like this possible?

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Timestamp from String PHP

1 Answer 1

3 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

3 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related