Convert uncommon date format to timestamp in most efficient manner possible?

Question

I have a date in this format: 20101101120000

I need to convert it to a timestamp with PHP.

I've been searching the PHP docs online, but can't find anything that can convert directly. Does one exist? If not, what's the most efficient way to do the conversion? Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

You can do this with DateTime::createFromFormat:

$d = DateTime::createFromFormat('YmdGis', '20101101120000');

$d is now a DateTime instance. You can either convert it to a timestamp with $d->getTimestamp() or use the DateTime methods on it.

Note that this requires PHP 5.3.

Answer 2

strtotime('20101101120000')

....

Answer 3

You need the function strptime.

The formats are described at strftime.