Explode using two delimeters from date string - php

Question

I have a string
$string="2012-1-12 51:00:00.5";
How can i explode this to date,month,year,hour,minutes,second without using date function.
I was trying like this please let me know the feasible solution for this,
My try:
$string="2012-1-12 51:00:00.5";
$pieces = explode(" ", $date);
$pieces = explode("-", $date);
$pieces = explode(":", $date);
Out Put:
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[0] => 2012-1-12
[1] => 51:00:00.5
)
[1] => Array
(
[0] => 2012
[1] => 1
[2] => 12 51:00:00.5
)
[2] => Array
(
[0] => 2012-1-12 51
[1] => 00
[2] => 00.5
)
)

Answer 1

You can use preg_split since you need to explode on 3 parameters, This works -
$string="2012-1-12 51:00:00.5";
$pieces = preg_split("/[-: ]/", $string);
var_dump($pieces);
/*
array
0 => string '2012' (length=4)
1 => string '1' (length=1)
2 => string '12' (length=2)
3 => string '51' (length=2)
4 => string '00' (length=2)
5 => string '00.5' (length=4)
*/

Answer 2

As mentioned in the comment to your query three explodes would be needed:
list($date, $time) = explode(" ", $string);
list($year, $month, $day) = explode("-", $date);
list($hours, $mins, $sec) = explode(":", $time);
/*print the values of $year, $date and so on*/
Hope this helps. Of course this would work assuming all date-time values in your application are in the above format.