Format Date in PHP m/d/y to Y-m-d? - php

Question

I am trying to format a date string i rip from the web the date comes in as m/d/y and I need to insert it into MYSQL currently I get an error PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function format() on a non-object
Code:
<?php
include 'ganon.php';
$id = array(8573, 53816, 7746, 80748, 7714);
for($l=0; $l<sizeof($id); $l++) {
$html = file_get_dom("http://pregame.com/pregamepros/pro-bettor/picks.aspx?id=" . $id[$l]);
$picks = $html('div[class="div-table-col"]');
$array = array();
$j =0;
for($i=0; $i<sizeof($picks); $i+=8) {
$array[$j] = array("date" => trim($picks[$i]->getPlainText()),
"sport" => trim($picks[$i+1]->getPlainText()),
"pick" => trim($picks[$i+2]->getPlainText()),
"score" => trim($picks[$i+3]->getPlainText()),
"odds" => trim($picks[$i+4]->getPlainText()),
"size" => preg_replace('/\$/', "", $picks[$i+5]->getPlainText()),
"winloss" => trim($picks[$i+6]->getPlainText()),
"money" => (int)preg_replace('/\$/', "", $picks[$i+7]->getPlainText()));
$j++;
}
//enter picks into database
//make sure we do not add picks we already have
$mysqli = new mysqli("host", "user", "pass", "db");
if ($mysqli->connect_errno) {
echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: (" . $mysqli->connect_errno . ") " . $mysqli->connect_error;
exit();
}
if($id[$l] == 8573) {
//$query = "SELECT `date` FROM `db`.`vegasrunner` where date=" . date('Y-m-d');
for($i=0; $i<sizeof($array); $i++) {
$query = "SELECT `date`,`pick` FROM `db`.`vegasrunner` where date=" . "'" . $array[$i]["date"] . "'" . " AND pick=" . "'" . $array[$i]["pick"] . "'";
$result = $mysqli->query($query);
$row = $result->fetch_row();
if(sizeof($row) < 1) {
$result->close();
$date = new DateTime();
$date = DateTime::createFromFormat('m/d/y', $array[$i]["date"]);
//$date = $array[$i]["date"];
$sport = $array[$i]["sport"];
$pick = $array[$i]["pick"];
$score = $array[$i]["score"];
$odds = $array[$i]["odds"];
$size = $array[$i]["size"];
$winloss = $array[$i]["winloss"];
$money = $array[$i]["money"];
echo $date->format('Y-m-d');
$query = "INSERT INTO `db`.`vegasrunner` (`date`, `sport`, `pick`, `score`, `odds`, `size`, `winloss`, `money`) VALUES (" . "'" . $date->format('Y-m-d') . "'" . ", '$sport', '$pick', '$score', '$odds', '$size', '$winloss', '$money')";
$mysqli->query($query);
}
} }

Answer 1

The only plausible explanation I can see is if createFromFormat() is failing, which might happen if the input date isn't in the format you're expecting.
Check that the input string is in the format you think, and alter your code to include a check for failure at the createFromFormat() call.

Answer 2

I ended up writing my own function to parse the date. It turns out there was a hidden space before the month.
function formatDate($date) {
//date = 07/12/13
$date = explode('/', $date);
//for some reason in ubuntu month had a space had to get last 2 characters
$month = substr($date[0], -2);
$day = trim($date[1]);
$year = date('y') == $date[2] ? date('Y') : date('Y');
return $year . "-" . $month . "-" . $day;
}