Question

I have strings like:

-4:00
3:15
+8:30

I need to format them as UTC offset values like:

-0400
+0315
+0815

How can I convert the sample strings to the final strings? I know it probably uses some combo of str_replace and sprintf, but I cannot work it out.

Thanks!

Answer 1

In three steps here it is:

$offset = preg_replace('/:/','',$offset);
$offset = preg_replace('/\b(?=\d{3}$)/', '0', $offset);
$offset = preg_replace('/^(?=\d)/m', '+', $offset);

You can remove the m flag on the second regex if you are only passing one offset at a time.