[SOLVED] match separator and format a date

[ravi181229]

Hi,

 

I would like to format a date.

first it should search for . - / (date separators) and if finds split it.

I was using :

$date_arr = preg_split("/[.|-|\/]/", $date);

 

but it does not work.

 

Please help me with this.

 

Thanks for your time.

 

Ravi

[nrg_alpha]

You pattern is /[.|-|\/]/

Are you trying to use a character class? (if so, this won't work because you are escaping the [ and ] characters...) Is this more along the lines of what you are looking for?

 

#[./-]#

 

 

I find it easier to use delimiters other than /..../ (especially when there is going to be a / character within the patter.. just saves from having to escape it). I also direct you to have a look at how to ask regex questions. Please take note of #2 and #3 in particular (but reading them all is even better )

[effigy]

You can split on \D+.

[nrg_alpha]

You can split on \D+.

 

That's an even smarter solution. Granted, in that case, couldn't you simply use \D? (unless there is some date format that I'm not thinking of that would require one [or more consecutive] non digit characters, as I'm thinking along the lines of 02/27/09, or 02-27-09, etc...).

 

In either case, your solution is even more simplified.

[effigy]

I think it's best to include the + since it doesn't hurt. If the data is coming from a user they could have a typo—"02/27//2009" for instance—which, when split, would create 4 elements rather than 3. However, if there are any delimiters on the ends, this would still create empty elements. I recommend:

 

preg_split('/\D+/', $string, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY)

[nrg_alpha]

Ah, ok. Wasn't thinking along the lines of typos and what not.. I agree in hind sight.. better to be safe than sorry.

[ravi181229]

Thanks a lot for you help.

Your answers got my work done.

 

Final code (which works according to my expectations) :

 

    function excel_MDY2DMY($mdy) {

        $date_arr = preg_split("/(\.|-|\/)+/", $mdy);

        $dmy = (count($date_arr) == 1) ? date("Y-m-d", strtotime($date_arr[0])) : $date_arr[2]."-".$date_arr[0]."-".$date_arr[1];

        return $dmy;

    }

 

Thanks for your time.

Ravi 

[effigy]

/(\.|-|\/)+/

 

Why are you using this and not a character class? This kind of alternation is not optimal.

[nrg_alpha]

Well, I'm glad it works, but I am still confused why you would use "/(\.|-|\/)+/"

If you just want to extract the numbers, why not simply use Effigy's pattern instead?

 

$date_arr = preg_split('/\D+/', $mdy, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);

 

Note that alternations (...|...|...) are less efficient than character classes [...] or short-hand character classes like \D