convert date to unixtime php

Question

I have a form which posts date information month, day, yeah, hour, minute, am/pm. How do i encode/decode this to and from unixtime using php?

Answer 1

mktime() - Get Unix timestamp for a date

echo mktime(23, 24, 0, 11, 3, 2009);
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To handle AM/PM just add 12 to hours if PM.

mktime($isAM ? $hrs : ($hrs + 12), $mins, $secs, $m, $d, $y);

Alternatively you could use strtotime():

strtotime() - Parse about any English textual datetime description into a Unix timestamp

echo strtotime("2009-11-03 11:24:00PM"); 
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Answer 2

Use the mktime function