DateTime::createFromFormat alternative for PHP < 5.3 with missing strptime

Question

I asked this question a while ago. Now I need to run it on production server, but the server is 5.2.9 ...

How can I write an alternative function that would give me the exact result as the DateTime::createFromFormat function?

Yes, I know there are duplicates, but they all use strptime. But when I try to use it, I get: Fatal error: Call to undefined function strptime().

And no, I have no access on this production server, so I can't change any settings for it.

Firstly, DateTime is a class, not a function. Secondly, it's been available since PHP 5.2.0, so you should be good to go. Probably I'm misunderstanding something. Are you trying to emulate functionality of DateTime class so that it has exactly the same methods and return values? — Andris, Nov 30 '12 at 15:11
@Andris http://php.net/manual/en/datetime.createfromformat.php Notice the small text `PHP 5 >= 5.3.0` — Peon, Nov 30 '12 at 15:17
Ah, I see! So it's the function itself, not just the class. Apologies for the misunderstanding :) — Andris, Nov 30 '12 at 15:39
it's worth pointing out that PHP 5.2 was declared end of life nearly two years ago, and has had zero support since then. If you're still using it, your site is likely to be insecure. It's time to upgrade. (and if you're on a web host that won't upgrade, then you need to be considering moving away from them, because a web host that knowingly runs insecure and unsupported software on its servers is putting themselves and your site at risk) — SDC, Nov 30 '12 at 16:02

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 06 '13 at 23:16

Include this and you can use strptime:

/*
 * This work of Lionel SAURON (http://sauron.lionel.free.fr:80) is licensed under the
 * Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 France License.
 *
 * To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/fr/
 * or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
 */

/**
 * Parse a time/date generated with strftime().
 *
 * This function is the same as the original one defined by PHP (Linux/Unix only),
 *  but now you can use it on Windows too.
 *  Limitation : Only this format can be parsed %S, %M, %H, %d, %m, %Y
 * 
 * @author Lionel SAURON
 * @version 1.0
 * @public
 * 
 * @param $sDate(string)    The string to parse (e.g. returned from strftime()).
 * @param $sFormat(string)  The format used in date  (e.g. the same as used in strftime()).
 * @return (array)          Returns an array with the <code>$sDate</code> parsed, or <code>false</code> on error.
 */
if(function_exists("strptime") == false)
{
    function strptime($sDate, $sFormat)
    {
        $aResult = array
        (
            'tm_sec'   => 0,
            'tm_min'   => 0,
            'tm_hour'  => 0,
            'tm_mday'  => 1,
            'tm_mon'   => 0,
            'tm_year'  => 0,
            'tm_wday'  => 0,
            'tm_yday'  => 0,
            'unparsed' => $sDate,
        );

        while($sFormat != "")
        {
            // ===== Search a %x element, Check the static string before the %x =====
            $nIdxFound = strpos($sFormat, '%');
            if($nIdxFound === false)
            {

                // There is no more format. Check the last static string.
                $aResult['unparsed'] = ($sFormat == $sDate) ? "" : $sDate;
                break;
            }

            $sFormatBefore = substr($sFormat, 0, $nIdxFound);
            $sDateBefore   = substr($sDate,   0, $nIdxFound);

            if($sFormatBefore != $sDateBefore) break;

            // ===== Read the value of the %x found =====
            $sFormat = substr($sFormat, $nIdxFound);
            $sDate   = substr($sDate,   $nIdxFound);

            $aResult['unparsed'] = $sDate;

            $sFormatCurrent = substr($sFormat, 0, 2);
            $sFormatAfter   = substr($sFormat, 2);

            $nValue = -1;
            $sDateAfter = "";

            switch($sFormatCurrent)
            {
                case '%S': // Seconds after the minute (0-59)

                    sscanf($sDate, "%2d%[^\\n]", $nValue, $sDateAfter);

                    if(($nValue < 0) || ($nValue > 59)) return false;

                    $aResult['tm_sec']  = $nValue;
                    break;

                // ----------
                case '%M': // Minutes after the hour (0-59)
                    sscanf($sDate, "%2d%[^\\n]", $nValue, $sDateAfter);

                    if(($nValue < 0) || ($nValue > 59)) return false;

                    $aResult['tm_min']  = $nValue;
                    break;

                // ----------
                case '%H': // Hour since midnight (0-23)
                    sscanf($sDate, "%2d%[^\\n]", $nValue, $sDateAfter);

                    if(($nValue < 0) || ($nValue > 23)) return false;

                    $aResult['tm_hour']  = $nValue;
                    break;

                // ----------
                case '%d': // Day of the month (1-31)
                    sscanf($sDate, "%2d%[^\\n]", $nValue, $sDateAfter);

                    if(($nValue < 1) || ($nValue > 31)) return false;

                    $aResult['tm_mday']  = $nValue;
                    break;

                // ----------
                case '%m': // Months since January (0-11)
                    sscanf($sDate, "%2d%[^\\n]", $nValue, $sDateAfter);

                    if(($nValue < 1) || ($nValue > 12)) return false;

                    $aResult['tm_mon']  = ($nValue - 1);
                    break;

                // ----------
                case '%Y': // Years since 1900
                    sscanf($sDate, "%4d%[^\\n]", $nValue, $sDateAfter);

                    if($nValue < 1900) return false;

                    $aResult['tm_year']  = ($nValue - 1900);
                    break;

                // ----------
                default:
                    break 2; // Break Switch and while

            } // END of case format

            // ===== Next please =====
            $sFormat = $sFormatAfter;
            $sDate   = $sDateAfter;

            $aResult['unparsed'] = $sDate;

        } // END of while($sFormat != "")

        // ===== Create the other value of the result array =====
        $nParsedDateTimestamp = mktime($aResult['tm_hour'], $aResult['tm_min'], $aResult['tm_sec'],
                                $aResult['tm_mon'] + 1, $aResult['tm_mday'], $aResult['tm_year'] + 1900);

        // Before PHP 5.1 return -1 when error
        if(($nParsedDateTimestamp === false)
        ||($nParsedDateTimestamp === -1)) return false;

        $aResult['tm_wday'] = (int) strftime("%w", $nParsedDateTimestamp); // Days since Sunday (0-6)
        $aResult['tm_yday'] = (strftime("%j", $nParsedDateTimestamp) - 1); // Days since January 1 (0-365)

        return $aResult;
    } // END of function

} // END of if(function_exists("strptime") == false)

However, since DateTime::createFromFormat returns an object of DateTime, you can't get the exact same result in PHP < 5.3 (unless your willing to write your own class which behaves exactly like DateTime)

Thank you a lot. It works perfectly for me now. I'm using [this](http://stackoverflow.com/a/8804051/1488915) solution. — Peon, Nov 30 '12 at 15:21

DateTime::createFromFormat alternative for PHP < 5.3 with missing strptime

1 Answers1