Date format conversion results wrong date

Question

I tried converting

12-18-1997

to

18-12-1997

with this code

$new_date = date('d-m-Y', strtotime('12-18-1997'));

but it results in 18-12-1969

If I have to convert full date alongwith time then its converting fine but in the date I posted in question there is no time.

Please dont mark it duplicate. If I have to convert full date alongwith time then its converting fine but in the date I posted in question there is no time. — Muhammad Imran Tariq, Jul 30 '13 at 18:18

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 30 '13 at 18:12

0

Use DateTime instead of strtotime():

$date = DateTime::createFromFormat( 'm-d-Y', '12-18-1997');
echo $date->format( 'd-m-Y');

You can see from this demo that it prints:

18-12-1997

answered Jul 30 '13 at 18:12

nickb

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I am getting this error. Fatal error: Call to undefined method DateTime::createFromFormat() – Muhammad Imran Tariq Jul 30 '13 at 18:17
@ImranTariq - Then PHP is older than version 5.3, and it's time to upgrade. – nickb Jul 30 '13 at 18:39
I checked Program Versions from cpanel. There PHP version is: 5.3.24 – Muhammad Imran Tariq Jul 30 '13 at 18:42

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 30 '13 at 18:13

0

strtotime is good, but it's not psychic or omniscient. you're feeding it a time string it's not able to parse properly:

php > var_dump(strtotime('12-18-1997'));
bool(false)

Since you simply assumed it's succeeding, you feed that false back to date(), where it's type-cast to an integer 0. However, your result is impossible, since int 0 as a date is Jan 1/1970. With timezone conversions, it'd be 31-12-1969 for you, NOT 18-12.

If you can't feed strtotime a format it understands, then use date_create_from_format and TELL it what what the format is:

$date = date_create_from_format('m-d-Y', '12-18-1997');
$text = date('d-m-Y', $date);

answered Jul 30 '13 at 18:13

Marc B

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error comes. Call to undefined function date_create_from_format() – Muhammad Imran Tariq Jul 30 '13 at 18:33
Then your PHP version is too old. Definitely time to upgrade. – Marc B Jul 30 '13 at 18:37
I checked Program Versions from cpanel. There PHP version is: 5.3.24 – Muhammad Imran Tariq Jul 30 '13 at 18:40
then something is very weird in your php install, because datetime was added in 5.3.0 – Marc B Jul 30 '13 at 18:43

Date format conversion results wrong date

2 Answers2