如何将自定义字段转换为PHP日期格式？含具体转换示例

Hey Pete, great questions about PHP date conversion—let's break this down clearly for you.

1. Converting Custom Date Fields to PHP Date Objects/Formats #

First off, the key here is knowing the exact format of your custom date field. PHP's DateTime class is your best friend here because it’s far more reliable than strtotime() (especially for non-standard date formats).

Here’s the general workflow:

• Use DateTime::createFromFormat() (or its procedural sibling date_create_from_format()) to parse your custom date string into a DateTime object. You’ll pass the format of your input string as the first parameter.
• Once you have the DateTime object, you can use its format() method to output the date in any format you need.

For example, if your custom field uses the format YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM (like your sample), you’d start by parsing it like this:

$customDateString = "2018/02/28 16:21";
$dateObject = DateTime::createFromFormat('Y/m/d H:i', $customDateString);

2. Converting "2018/02/28 16:21" to "28th February 2018 at 16:21" #

Building on the above, here’s a complete, tested solution for your specific conversion:

// Your input date string from the custom field
$inputDate = "2018/02/28 16:21";

// Parse the input into a DateTime object (match the input format exactly)
$dateObj = DateTime::createFromFormat('Y/m/d H:i', $inputDate);

// Handle cases where the input might be invalid
if ($dateObj) {
    // Format to your desired output
    $formattedDate = $dateObj->format('jS F Y \a\t H:i');
    echo $formattedDate; // Output: 28th February 2018 at 16:21
} else {
    echo "Oops, invalid date format provided!";
}

Let’s break down the format string used in format():

• j: Day of the month without leading zeros (e.g., 28 instead of 28)
• S: English ordinal suffix for the day (th, st, nd, rd)
• F: Full textual month name (e.g., February)
• Y: Four-digit year (e.g., 2018)
• \a\t: Escaped "at" text (since a and t are reserved date format characters, backslashes treat them as literal text)
• H:i: 24-hour time format with minutes (e.g., 16:21)

This approach is robust, handles edge cases (like invalid dates), and is easy to adapt if your custom field format changes later.

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Pete