Convert uncommon date format to timestamp in most efficient manner possible?

Question

I have a date in this format: 20101101120000

I need to convert it to a timestamp with PHP.

I\'ve been searching the PHP docs online, but can\'t find anything

Answer 1

You can do this with DateTime::createFromFormat:

$d = DateTime::createFromFormat('YmdGis', '20101101120000');

$d is now a DateTime instance. You can either convert it to a timestamp with $d->getTimestamp() or use the DateTime methods on it.

Note that this requires PHP 5.3.