note 59748 added to function.strtotime

strtotime assumes a US-style date in the format mm/dd/yy. This function assumes a UK-style dd/mm/yy format, converts it to US-style and passes it to strtotime. The date parts can be separated with slashes, hypens, dots or spaces. Unambiguous dates such as "2005-05-04" or "4 May 05" pass through unaltered (they don't match the regex). // Returns a timestamp from a string. Assumes en_GB format where ambiguous. function parsedate($value) { // If it looks like a UK date dd/mm/yy, reformat to US date mm/dd/yy so strtotime can parse it. $reformatted = preg_replace("/^\s*([0-9]{1,2})[\/\. -]+([0-9]{1,2})[\/\. -]+([0-9]{1,4})/", "\\2/\\1/\\3", $value); return strtotime($reformatted); } e.g. parsedate("13/11/05"); // 13th November, UK-style parsedate("4/5/05"); // 4th May not 5th April parsedate("13 nov 05"); // Unambiguous parsedate("2005-11-13"); // Unambiguous ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.strtotime.php Edit -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=edit+59748 Delete: added to the manual -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+59748&report=yes&reason=added+to+the+manual Delete: bad code -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+59748&report=yes&reason=bad+code Delete: spam -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+59748&report=yes&reason=spam Delete: useless -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+59748&report=yes&reason=useless Delete: non-english -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+59748&report=yes&reason=non-english Delete: already in docs -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+59748&report=yes&reason=already+in+docs Delete: other reasons -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+59748&report=yes Reject -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=reject+59748&report=yes Search -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php