Tag Archives: php how to

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Better way to write php code – part 2

With the help of an example i would explain a very common but erroneous approach new php developers seem to follow (i have seen some ‘old’ ones repeating the same error though). Here it is, Continue reading

Better way to write php code – part 1

A few tips on writing php code that can save a php developer a lot of future troubles and “huffs and puffs” occurring due to different php compiler settings, changing of hosting environment etc. Here is first one. Continue reading

Convert month name to month number in php

While working with a CJ run reports script i needed to convert “month name” into “month number” so i could store it in the database in date format. After doing some cleaning stuff i was ending with the month name, a three character string as “Jan”,”Mar”,”Apr” etc. Here is the quick work around i applied to get the month number automatically from the month name.

$month_name = "Jan"; //which i get from file name (Range_from_1_Jan_2009_to_3_Mar_2009.txt)
$month_number = "";

for($i=1;$i<=12;$i++){
	if(strtolower(date("M", mktime(0, 0, 0, $i, 1, 0))) == strtolower($month_name)){
		$month_number = $i;
		break;
	}
}

Now as php snippet code line 5 date(“M”, mktime(0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0))) returns a three letter represantion of month name i get month “1″ if i pass $month_name=”Jan” and so on. If i had full month name like “January” i could make it work by replacing “M” with “F” where “F” format parameter is a full represantion of year name.

Special Note: Do not forget to see user comments down the page to find even smarter solutions :)