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.