PHP select statement from MySql to Excel. Help with formatting date to YYYYMMDD

Question

Note: In the MySql database, "dob" is varchar and in this format: mm/dd/yyyy

Date of birth, Cvrg Effective Date, & Cvrg Expiration Date need to be changed from mm/dd/yyyy to yyyymmdd when it arrives in excel. Any help is greatly appreciated. Please see the code below:

    <?php 
    if($qry == "ok"){
     // get db connection
     include("connection string goes here");

     $select = "SELECT 'A' AS 'Transaction Type', policyno AS 'UHCSR Policy No', school                 AS 'Campus Location Description', Code AS 'Campus Location Number', '' AS 'Date Received by         UHCSR', '' AS 'Date Stamped By School', '' AS 'Social Security Number', SSN AS 'StudentID Number', 
      lname AS 'LastName', fname AS 'FirstName', mi AS 'Middle Initial', dob AS 'Date of Birth', gender AS 'Gender',
      concat( concat(address1, ' '), address2) AS '(Mailing) Address Ln 1','' AS '(Mailing) Address Ln 2',city AS '(Mailing) City', state AS '(Mailing) State', zipcode AS '(Mailing) ZipCode', '' AS '(Mailing) ZipCode Suffix', 
      '' AS '(Permanent) Address Ln 1', '' AS '(Permanent) Address Ln 2', '' AS '(Permanent) City', '' AS '(Permanent) State', '' AS '(Permanent) ZipCode', '' AS '(Permanent) ZipCode Suffix', email AS 'Email Address', replace(phone, '-', '') AS 'Telephone Number', 'ITL' AS 'Insured Category Code', '' AS 'Insured Type Code', 'A' AS 'Insured (Row)ID Code', period AS 'Period Code', semester AS 'Cvrg Period Description',
      trim(left(coveragedate, locate('-', coveragedate)-1)) AS 'Cvrg Effective Date',
      trim(replace(right(coveragedate, locate('-', coveragedate)+0),'-','')) AS 'Cvrg          Expiration Date',
      noadfee AS 'Premium Amount', quantity AS 'Coverage Period Quantity', '' AS 'Primary Insured SSN', SSN AS 'Primary Insured Student ID', '' AS 'Organization Name',  '' AS 'Organization Number', '' AS 'Dependent Coverage Code',  '' AS 'Check Number',  '' AS 'Credit Card Number',  '' AS 'Credit Card Expiration Month',  '' AS 'Credit Card Expiration Year', tedfee AS 'Amount Paid', paytype AS 'Pay Type'
     FROM intenrollment
     WHERE confirm = 'Y' and amountpaid != '0' and (policyno LIKE '%200473-%' OR policyno LIKE '%2060-%'  OR policyno LIKE '%202377-%' or policyno='')";

      if ( $smon != "None" and $sday != "None" and $syear != "None" and $emon != "None" and $eday != "None" and $eyear != "None" )
      {
       $startdate = strtotime("$smon $sday, $syear");
       $enddate = strtotime("$emon $eday, $eyear");
       $select .= "AND applydate BETWEEN $startdate AND $enddate ";
      } elseif ( $smon != "None" and $sday != "None" and $syear != "None" ) {
       $startdate = strtotime("$smon $sday, $syear");
       $select .= "AND applydate > $startdate ";
      } elseif ( $emon != "None" and $eday != "None" and $eyear != "None" ) {
       $enddate = strtotime("$emon $eday, $eyear");
       $select .= "AND applydate < $enddate ";
      }

      $select .= "ORDER BY school ASC, lname ASC";

      // run query
      $export = mysql_query($select) or die(mysql_error());
      $fields = mysql_num_fields($export);

      // get field info for headers
      $header = '';
      for ( $i = 0; $i < $fields; $i++ )
      {
       $header .= mysql_field_name($export, $i) . "\t";
      }

      // extract data and convert into excel readable format
      $data = '';
      while ( $row = mysql_fetch_row($export))
      {
       $line = '';
       foreach ( $row as $value )
       {
        if ( ( !isset($value) ) OR ( $value == "" ) )
        {
         $value = "\t";
        } 
        else 
        {    
         $value = str_replace('"', '""', $value);
        $value = '="' . $value . '"' . "\t";
     //        ^
     //        Added an equal sign
        }
        $line .= $value;
       }
       $data .= trim($line)."\n";
      }
      $data = str_replace("\r", "", $data);

      // return message if query returns no data
      if ( $data == "" )
      {
       $data = "\n(0) Records Found!\n";
      }

      // setup headers with no caching
      header("Content-type: application/octet-stream");
      header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=data.xls");
      header("Pragma: no-cache");
      header("Expires: 0");
      print "$header\n$data";
     } else {
     ?> 
     <style>
     body,td,table {font-family:Arial; font-size:10px;} 
     select {font-family:Arial; font-size:12px;}
     </style>
     <table align="center">
     <tr><td align=center><a href="index.php"><font size=2>Back to          Menu</font></a></td></tr>
     <tr><td>
     <form action="extract2.php" method="post">
     Start:
     <select name='smon' size='1'>
     <option value="None">Month</option>
     <option value='January'>January</option>
     <option value='February'>February</option>
     <option value='March'>March</option>
     <option value='April'>April</option>
     <option value='May'>May</option>
     <option value='June'>June</option>
     <option value='July'>July</option>
     <option value='August'>August</option>
     <option value='September'>September</option>
     <option value='October'>October</option>
     <option value='November'>November</option>
     <option value='December'>December</option>
     </select>&nbsp;

     <select name="sday">
     <option value="None">Day</option>
     <?
     for($ctr=1; $ctr<=31;++$ctr){
       if($row[sday] == $ctr){
         print("<option value='$ctr' selected>$ctr</option>");
       }
       else{
         print("<option value='$ctr'>$ctr</option>");
       }
     }
     echo "</select>&nbsp";

     echo "<select name='syear' size='1'>";
       $today = getdate(); 
       $yr = $today['year']; 
     ?>
     <option value="None">Year</option>";
     <option value='2005'>2005</option>";
     <option value='2006'>2006</option>";
     <option value='2007'>2007</option>";
     <option value='2008'>2008</option>";
     <option value='2009'>2009</option>";
     <option value='2010'>2010</option>";
     </select>&nbsp;-&nbsp;
     End:
     <select name='emon' size='1'>
     <option value="None">Month</option>
     <option value='January'>January</option>
     <option value='February'>February</option>
     <option value='March'>March</option>
     <option value='April'>April</option>
     <option value='May'>May</option>
     <option value='June'>June</option>
     <option value='July'>July</option>
     <option value='August'>August</option>
     <option value='September'>September</option>
     <option value='October'>October</option>
     <option value='November'>November</option>
     <option value='December'>December</option>
     </select>&nbsp;

     <select name="eday">
     <option value="None">Day</option>
     <?
     for($ctr=1; $ctr<=31;++$ctr){
       if($row[eday] == $ctr){
         print("<option value='$ctr' selected>$ctr</option>");
       }
       else{
         print("<option value='$ctr'>$ctr</option>");
       }
     }
     echo "</select>&nbsp";

     echo "<select name='eyear' size='1'>";
       $today = getdate(); 
       $yr = $today['year']; 
     ?>
     <option value="None">Year</option>";
     <option value='2005'>2005</option>";
     <option value='2006'>2006</option>";
     <option value='2007'>2007</option>";
     <option value='2008'>2008</option>";
     <option value='2009'>2009</option>";
     <option value='2010'>2010</option>";
     </select>&nbsp;
     <input type="submit" value="Select">
     <input type="hidden" name="qry" value="ok">  
     </tr>
     <tr><td align=center style="font-famiy:Tahoma; font-size:12px; color:777777;">If          you do not enter a date, all records will be displayed.</td></tr>
     </form>
     </table><p>

     <?
     }
     ?>

Answer 1

Given a date in a specific format, you can generally just do a quick conversion using date and strtotime as follows:

// convert old date string to YYYYmmdd format
$date = date('Ymd', strtotime($old_date_string));

Answer 2

you can use mysql date_format function like

DATE_FORMAT(dob,'%Y%m%d') AS 'Date of Birth',

gives 20100118 for today

edit : becouse dob is varchar you should check it in foreach and just use string functions or cballou's answer will work for you

foreach ( $row as $key => $value )
   {
    if ( ( !isset($value) ) OR ( $value == "" ) )
    {
     $value = "\t";
    } 
    else 
    {
 if($key == 'Date of Birth') {
    $exploded_value = explode("/",$value);
    $value = $value[2].$value[0].$value[1];
    // or according to cballou's answer
    //$value = date('Ymd',strtotime($value));
 }
     $value = str_replace('"', '""', $value);
    $value = '="' . $value . '"' . "\t";
 //        ^
 //        Added an equal sign
    }
    $line .= $value;
   }