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Converting dd/mm/yyyy string into a unix timestamp

Hi,

I have dates stored in my database as strings in the format:

dd/mm/yyyy

and i want to convert them to a unix timestamp when I pull them out of the database so that I can sort them by date.

(when i use sort on the original string it seems to treat it as a nuber e.g. 20/05/1985 as 20051985)

Thanks

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Cornelia Yoder

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Chorch

Hello,

this should work:

$date = '20/05/1985';
list($d, $m, $y) = explode('/', $date);
echo mktime(0, 0, 0, $m, $d, $y);

Anyway, consider storing dates as 'date' in mysql table so that you can order directly in query.

Regards

Ray Paseur

In data base storage, you should use a DATE or DATETIME data type. These use the ISO 8601 date format which looks (more or less) like YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.

The ISO format lets you sort the dates. It also lets you use strtotime() to get UNIX timestamps from the dates or parts of the dates without the overhead of mktime(). This means it is easy to do date-related calculations.

Using a combination of date() and strtotime() you will find that your life gets much easier fast! So I vote with YoderCM on the approach - refactor the database to incorporate the correct data type. More information is available here:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/date-and-time-functions.html

HTH, ~Ray