PHP date format /Date(1365004652303-0500)/

Question

I am calling an API from where I am getting date /Date(1365004652303-0500)/, I don't understand what format this is. How is this date format called? I was not sure what to google for such type of format.

Can anyone help me out in getting this date in Y-m-d H:i:s format?

The API I am calling is on .NET server. And when I call it using PHP's file_get_contents and json_decode it gives me the following Date format for created date: /Date(1365004652303-0500)/

Answer 1

First you need to understand the format you have

/Date(1365004652303-0500)/ 

Then you have

• time stamp (U) = 1365004652
• Milliseconds (u) = 303
• Difference to Greenwich time (GMT) (O) = -0500

Build a Format

$date = '/Date(1365004652303-0500)/'; preg_match('/(\d{10})(\d{3})([\+\-]\d{4})/', $date, $matches); $dt = DateTime::createFromFormat("U.u.O",vsprintf('%2$s.%3$s.%4$s', $matches)); echo $dt->format('r'); 

Output

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 15:57:32 -0500                             ^                             |= Can you see the GMT ?  

---

interface DateFormatParser {     /**      * @param $string      *      * @return DateTime      */     public function parse($string);  }  abstract class PregDateParser implements DateFormatParser {     protected $pattern, $format, $mask;      public function parse($string) {         $string = (string)$string;          $pattern = $this->pattern;         $format  = $this->format;         $mask    = $this->mask;          $r = preg_match($pattern, $string, $matches);         if (!$r) {             throw new UnexpectedValueException('Preg Regex Pattern failed.');         }         $buffer = vsprintf($mask, $matches);         $result = DateTime::createFromFormat($format, $buffer);         if (!$result) {             throw new UnexpectedValueException(sprintf('Failed To Create from Format "%s" for "%s".', $format, $buffer));         }         return $result;     } }  class JsonTimestampWithOffsetParser extends PregDateParser {     protected $pattern = '/^\/Date\((\d{10})(\d{3})([+-]\d{4})\)\/$/';     protected $format  = 'U.u.O';     protected $mask    = '%2$s.%3$s.%4$s'; }  $date   = '/Date(1365004652303-0500)/'; $parser = new JsonTimestampWithOffsetParser; $dt     = $parser->parse($date);  echo $dt->format('r');