{"id":1277,"date":"2022-08-30T15:15:11","date_gmt":"2022-08-30T15:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unknownerror.org\/index.php\/2013\/11\/10\/php-zend-custom-date-input-formats-collection-of-common-programming-errors\/"},"modified":"2022-08-30T15:15:11","modified_gmt":"2022-08-30T15:15:11","slug":"php-zend-custom-date-input-formats-collection-of-common-programming-errors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unknownerror.org\/index.php\/2022\/08\/30\/php-zend-custom-date-input-formats-collection-of-common-programming-errors\/","title":{"rendered":"PHP \/ Zend custom date input formats-Collection of common programming errors"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m creating a library component for other developers on my team using PHP and Zend. This component needs to be able to take as input a date (string) and another string telling it the format of that date. Looking through the Zend documentation and examples, I thought I found the solution –<\/p>\n

$dateObject = Zend_Date('13.04.2006', array('date_format' => 'dd.MM.yyyy'));\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
this line, however, throws an error – call to undefined function.<\/p>\n
So instead I tried this –<\/p>\n
$dt = Zend_Locale_Format::getDate('13.04.2006', array('date_format' => 'dd.MM.yyyy'));\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
This gets the job done, but throws an error if a date that is entered isn’t valid. The docs make it look like you can use the isDate() function to check validity –<\/p>\n
Zend_Date::isDate('13.04.2006', array('date_format' => 'dd.MM.yyyy'))\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
but this line always returns false.<\/p>\n
So my questions –<\/p>\n
Am I going about this the right way? If not, is there a better way to handle this via Zend or straight PHP?<\/p>\n
If I do use Zend_Locale_Format::getDate(), do I need to worry about a locale being set elsewhere and changing the results of the call?<\/p>\n
I’m locked into PHP 5.2.6 on windows, btw… so 5.3+ functions & strptime() are out.<\/p>\n
    \n
  1. \n
    Take a look at this post. Maybe it will help.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  2. \n
    You might want to try using the Zend_Date constants instead of strings. The reason I say this is looks like there’s some inconsistency in the docs:<\/p>\n
    \nMM     Month, two digit                   Zend_Date::MONTH       02\nMMMM   Month, localized, complete         Zend_Date::MONTH_NAME  February\n<\/pre>\n
    and then later on:<\/p>\n
    \n
    So, if you are using ‘dd.MM.yyyy’ you will get ’31.December<\/strong>.2007′ but if you use ‘dd.MM.YYYY’ you will get ’31.December.2008′<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
    Shows MM showing a string? So your date would not validate given that format. Have you tried isDate without a format?<\/p>\n
    I’ve got around this issue by doing this:<\/p>\n
    try\n{\n    $myDate = new Zend_Date($date, $format, $locale);\n}\ncatch (Zend_Date_Exception $e)\n{\n    $myDate = new Zend_Date::now();\n}\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
  3. \n
    \n
    $dateObject = Zend_Date(‘13.04.2006’, array(‘date_format’ => ‘dd.MM.yyyy’));<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
    throws an error “undefined function” because it is no function. accordingly to the manual Zend_Date is an Object with a constructor and the format string is not given in an array. you have to write it like this<\/p>\n
    \n
    $dateObject = new Zend_Date(‘13.04.2006’, ‘dd.MM.yyyy’);<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
    and everything is cool.<\/p>\n
    ciao ulf<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    Originally posted 2013-11-10 00:13:54. <\/small><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    I’m creating a library component for other developers on my team using PHP and Zend. This component needs to be able to take as input a date (string) and another string telling it the format of that date. Looking through the Zend documentation and examples, I thought I found the solution – $dateObject = Zend_Date(‘13.04.2006’, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unknownerror.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unknownerror.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unknownerror.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unknownerror.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unknownerror.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unknownerror.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unknownerror.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unknownerror.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unknownerror.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}