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up vote 0 down vote favorite

This question already has an answer here:

I'm stuck trying to convert a string in a Javascript format into a format I can use in PHP for filtering.

An example of the date string that I'm given is "Thu Jan 01 2015 00:00:00 GMT-0800 (Pacific Standard Time)"

Let's say I have that assigned to a variable $z. When I run the following, I get an unexpected result:

$z = "Thu Jan 01 2015 00:00:00 GMT-0800 (Pacific Standard Time)";
$value = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', strtotime($z));

This gives me $value = "1970-01-01 00:00:00", obviously not what I wanted. I've also tried the following with no luck:

$value = DateTime::createFromFormat('D M d Y H:i:s',$z); //Fails

Now I'm pretty sure that the timezone info is what is messing everything up, but I just can't seem to figure out what to do here. I'm using Laravel 5, so I've also attempted similar operations with Carbon. Does anyone have any suggestions?

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marked as duplicate by Rizier123 php Jul 13 '15 at 5:19

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
up vote 2 down vote accepted

Your code gives the error Trailing data (using DateTime::getLastErrors()). This is because your pattern doesn't take in consideration the timezone after the time ( GMT-0800 (Pacific Standard Time) ) .

So you need to use the T operator to match the GMT-0800 part, and a generic + symbol to just igonre the rest. Your final pattern will be: 

$value = DateTime::createFromFormat('D M d Y H:i:s T +',$z);

which gives 

 DateTime Object
(
    [date] => 2015-01-01 00:00:00.000000
    [timezone_type] => 1
    [timezone] => -08:00
)

Good luck !

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1  
Wahib: Thanks for the help on this! You know, I tried the format 'D M d Y H:i:s |' before because I thought the pipe symbol would do what the + did. Apparently not. Your help is MUCH appreciated! – ChemProfMatt Jul 13 '15 at 5:51

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