How to grab the first word from a variable that is a string.

[justin7410]

Hey guys,

 

So i have a small yet very simple question more so  than an issue.

 

I am trying to call a variable that is a field from a mysql database. i am using an extract() function so any field title just returns as a variable.

 

i have a member page where i then list the member and want to have on the side of their name the year they are born.

 

for ex.

<h1> Name ( year ) </h1>

So in my data field the year the person is born is given as a full string of text 1984-14-09 Y/dd/m.

 

All i want is the year from this data and to remove the day/month.

 

So i did some research , and i came up  with the solution of using an explode(), creating an array, and then simple echoing the index of that data i want.

 

Problem is that the array is then leaving the entire string as one index in the array, basically not doing what i wanted it to do, which was to split the string into parts, allowing me to then echo whatever part i wanted.

 

 

my code:

 

<h1><a href="#link"><?  echo $member_name; ?>  (<? $arr = explode(' ',trim($member_birth_date));
print_r($arr); ?>)</a></h1>

end result:

 

Jimmy Dean (Array ( [0] => 2006-04-21 ) )

 

instead of

 

Jimmy Dean (Array( [0] => 2006 [1] => - [2] => 04 [3] => - [4] => 21 )

 

any suggestions as to how to get the result i am looking for ?

 

would really appreciate any ideas or solutions

 

thanks guys

[Barand]

Use the correct date format (type DATE, format yyyy-mm-dd) and you can then use MySql's  datetime functions to make life easy

 

eg SELECT YEAR(theDate) from mytable

[justin7410]

Use the correct date format (type DATE, format yyyy-mm-dd) and you can then use MySql's  datetime functions to make life easy

 

eg SELECT YEAR(theDate) from mytable

 

Yes thank you Barand,

 

this was a helpful tip , and i tried it , but before i close this thread an answered

 

if there is any other tips or solutions not having to use Mysql and strickly php function.

[Barand]

One PHP way is

list ($year, $day, $month) = explode ('-', $thedate);

I mentioned the date format as the one you are using is useless for a database - you can't compare dates in that format so therefore you cannot sort them either. Nor can you use the functionality of MySql with first converting them.

Edited May 1, 2013 by Barand