Changing format of DateTime() function

[ShaolinF]

When using DateTime() create a date from a string I encounter one problem. In the UK the date is structured as dd/mm/yy but the date method only accepts the mm/dd/yy format. How can I change this ?

 

 

$date = new DateTime('31/05/10'); // fails

$date = new DateTime('05/31/10'); // works

 

[requinix]

D/M/Y won't work, but I think D-M-Y does. Or some other symbol.

 

In PHP 5.3+ you can use DateTime::createFromFormat:

$date = DateTime::createFromFormat("31/05/10", "d/m/y");

Otherwise you can break the date apart and reassemble into M/D/Y format:

$dateparts = preg_split('/\D+/', "31/05/10");
$date = new DateTime($dateparts[1] . "/" . $dateparts[0] . "/" . $dateparts[2]);

[jcbones]

Format accepted by the DateTime class: (sorry about the formatting, forums can mess up columns pretty good.)

Description 	                                                                       Format 	                                             Examples
American month and day 	                                                mm "/" dd 	                                         "5/12", "10/27"
American month, day and year 	                                        mm "/" dd "/" y 	                                     "12/22/78", "1/17/2006", "1/17/6"
Four digit year, month and day with slashes 	                    YY "/" mm "/" dd 	                                 "2008/6/30", "1978/12/22"
Four digit year and month (GNU) 	                                    YY "-" mm 	                                         "2008-6", "2008-06", "1978-12"
Year, month and day with dashes 	                                     y "-" mm "-" dd 	                                 "2008-6-30", "78-12-22", "8-6-21"
Day, month and four digit year, with dots, tabs or dashes 	    dd [.\t-] mm [.-] YY 	                             "30-6-2008", "22.12\t1978"
Day, month and two digit year, with dots or tabs 	                dd [.\t] mm "." yy 	                                 "30.6.08", "22\t12\t78"
Day, textual month and year 	                                            dd ([ \t.-])* m ([ \t.-])* y 	                         "30-June 2008", "22DEC78", "14 III 1879"
Textual month and four digit year (Day reset to 1) 	            m ([ \t.-])* YY 	                                     "June 2008", "DEC1978", "March 1879"
Four digit year and textual month (Day reset to 1) 	           YY ([ \t.-])* m 	                                     "2008 June", "1978-XII", "1879.MArCH"
Textual month, day and year 	                                           m ([ .\t-])* dd [,.stndrh\t ]+ y 	                 "July 1st, 2008", "April 17, 1790", "May.9,78"
Textual month and day 	                                                   m ([ .\t-])* dd [,.stndrh\t ]* 	                     "July 1st,", "Apr 17", "May.9"
Day and textual month 	                                                   d ([ .\t-])* m 	                                         "1 July", "17 Apr", "9.May"
Month abbreviation, day and year 	                                  M "-" DD "-" y 	                                         "May-09-78", "Apr-17-1790"
Year, month abbreviation and day 	                                   y "-" M "-" DD 	                                     "78-Dec-22", "1814-MAY-17"
Year (and just the year)                                                  	YY 	                                                     "1978", "2008"
Textual month (and just the month) 	                                  m 	                                                     "March", "jun", "DEC"

 

What this tells you is that if you are going to use a 2 digit year, you can separate the day month and year with dots(.) or tabs.  Otherwise, you can separate with dots(.),tabs, or dashes(-) if you use a 4 digit year.