PHP: convert date into seconds?

Question

I've a date like Tue Dec 15 2009. How can I convert it into seconds?

Answer 1

I assume by seconds you mean a UNIX timestamp.

strtotime() should help.

Answer 2

You mean like an UNIX-timestamp? Try:

echo strtotime('Tue Dec 15 2009');

Answer 3

You can use the strtotime function to convert that date to a timestamp :

$str = 'Tue Dec 15 2009';
$timestamp = strtotime($str);

And, just to be sure, let's convert it back to a date as a string :

var_dump(date('Y-m-d', $timestamp));

Which gives us :

string '2009-12-15' (length=10)

(Which proves strtotime did understand our date ^^ )