Question

I have a document that a string that has a dynamic date but also contains other data I don’t need. A typical string looks something like this

\n\n  \n     \n  Date: Jan. 25, 2012\n  \n  Location:\n     \n       \n         Ukraine,\n       \n      

I wanted to grab the information between Date: and \n as the date shows up in the form above Month. Day, Year – but also as numeric values such as 1.25.2012

Is there a way to do this?

Answer 1

if (preg_match('/Date: ([^\n]+)/', $line, $match)) {
    echo $match[1];
}

$match[1] will contain the date, which is any match after Date: that is not a newline. How to parse it from there, you’ll have to decide.