Question

I have a user input where the user inputs time and date as ‘9.30am’ and ’01/02/2012′. I am trying to convert this to a unix timestamp to aid ordering when dragging the data back out of the database but strptime() is confusing me as I am unsure as to whether this is actually returning a unix timestamp that I need.

Answer 1

Using PHP’s built-in DateTime class…

$objDate = DateTime::createFromFormat('H:ia d/m/Y', '9:30am 1/2/2012');
$timestamp = $objDate->getTimestamp();

…returns a Unix timestamp.

Documentation:

1. PHP DateTime Class

   a. DateTime::createFromFormat

   b. DateTime::getTimestamp

To add your variables, use it like so…

$objDate = DateTime::createFromFormat('H:ia d/m/Y', "$time $date");
$timestamp = $objDate->getTimestamp();

Or…

$time_date = sprintf("%s %s", $time, $date); // concatenates into a single var
$objDate = DateTime::createFromFormat('H:ia d/m/Y', $time_date);
$timestamp = $objDate->getTimestamp();

Note: Make sure that your variables conform with the following…

$time = hh:mm (and “am” or “pm” is appended)

$date = dd/mm/yyyy