convert integer date into formatted text

Question

I have an sql database with a date column like this yyyymmdd (20111109), i usually sort my return queries by the date.

I would like to know how to convert this to the (D jS M) or (Wed 9th Nov).

For the month, date, and ordinal suffix, im using substr along with case. but its the weekday im getting frustrated with.

Is there a simpler method?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

If you are interested in something more sophisticated:

  $date = DateTime::createFromFormat('Ymd', '20111109');
  echo $date->format('D jS M');

This should be more reliable in the long run.

Answer 2

This should work:

date_default_timezone_set('America/Los_Angeles');
$date = strtotime($your_string);
$formatted_date = date('D jS M', $date);
echo $formatted_date;