An object class for converting dates in PHP

Wednesday, January 23, 2008, 12:57 AM
Source Code by John (Article #172)

One of my really, really bad weaknesses as a programmer is a tendency to not tidy up commonly-used code into object classes. Of course, one of the primary reasons for this is that object-oriented programming is not necessary for anything to function. Another reason is that I tend to be a tinkerer. I like to dip in and out of the code constantly rechecking the functionality. I rarely have a sustained bout of steady coding.

But, I thought it would be a fun bit of teaching to show you the construction of an object-oriented piece of PHP code. The code I chose is my old date conversion code. This code converts dates from either SQL (yyyy-mm-dd) or regular (mm/dd/yyyy) format to SQL, regular or full English expression (Saturday, February 2, 2008).

/*

The following class was found at http://blog.procontentanddesign.com/

*/

class dateconv {

var $date;
var $sql;
var $flag;

function set_date($new_date) {
$this->date = $new_date;
}

function get_date() {
return $this->date;
}

function get_sql() {
//Check if the date already is SQL-style and return that if it is.
if(stristr($this->date , '-')){
return $this->date;
//Check if the date is regular, do conversion and return the converted value.
}elseif(stristr($this->date , '/')){
list($m, $d, $y)=explode('/', $this->date);
$sql='$y-$m-$d';
return $sql;
}else{
return 'Invalid Date Format';
}
}

function lose_sql() {
if(stristr($this->date , '-')){
list($y, $m, $d)=explode('-', $this->date);
$m=$m+0;
$d=$d+0;
$sql='$m/$d/$y';
return $sql;
}elseif(stristr($this->date , '/')){
return $this->date;
}else{
return 'Invalid Date Format';
}
}

function get_full_english() {
$flag=FALSE;
if(stristr($this->date , '/')){
list($month, $day, $year)=explode('/', $this->date);
$month=$month+0;
$day=$day+0;
$flag=TRUE;
}elseif(stristr($this->date , '-')){
list($year, $month, $day)=explode('-', $this->date);
$month=$month+0;
$day=$day+0;
$flag=TRUE;
}
if($flag==TRUE){
$dayname=date('l', mktime(0, 0, 0, $month, $day, $year));
$monthname=date('F', mktime(0, 0, 0, $month, $day, $year));
$englishdate='$dayname, $monthname $day, $year';
return $englishdate;
}else{
return 'Invalid date format';
}
}
}

// Make sure to include the file with your class in it.
include 'dateconv.php';

// Gotta create 'new' instances of the objects you intend to use.
$today = new dateconv();
$todays = new dateconv();

// We're gonna set a regular date and an SQL-tyle date.
$today->set_date('2/2/2008');
$todays->set_date('2008-02-02');

// Convert the regular date to SQL, English and a regular date.
echo 'Converting '. $today->get_date() . '

';
echo $today->get_sql() . '!

';
echo $today->get_full_english() . '!

';
echo $today->lose_sql() . '!

';

// Convert the SQL date to SQL, English and a regular date.
echo 'Converting '. $todays->get_date() . '!

';
echo $todays->get_sql() . '!

';
echo $todays->get_full_english() . '!

';
echo $todays->lose_sql() . '!

';

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Download dateconv-oop.zip