Parse multiple dates from same string in php

Question

I had a technical test and one of the things I had to do is a program that has an input of two dates, and has to output the months with 5 sundays between these two dates. A string $dates has the two dates in the same line example: juny 2014 october 2014 I need to use these two dates to do stuff.

In this point, I was thinking to do two separate strings to work with each date, like this:

$arrayDates = split(" ",$dates);

Then:

$firstDate = $dates[0].$dates[1];
$secondDate = $dates[2].$dates[3];

But I see this way of doing things too obvious and not dynamyc. Somebody knows a better or more elegant/apropriate way to do this?

Edit: this is the full code

<?php
date_default_timezone_set('UTC');

//output month with five sundays

foreach(file($argv[1]) as $date){

    $totalDays=prepareDateArray($date);
    calculateSundays($totalDays,$date);
}

function prepareDateArray(&$date){
$regexPattern = "/([a-z]+ [0-9]{4})/i";
$matchCount = preg_match($regexPattern, $date, $matches);
if($matchCount == 0)return;
$date = preg_replace("#  +#",' ',$date);
$date = split(' ',$date);

$totalDays = parseDate($date);
return $totalDays;
}

function parseDate(&$date){

    $nIndex = count($date);
    if($nIndex%2==0){
        //Add first day of the month to first Date
        $date[0] = '01-'.$date[0].'-'.$date[1];
        //Get lastMonthDay
        $lastMonthDay = date('t', strtotime($date[2].'-'.$date[3])); 
        //Add last day of the month to secondDate
        $date[1] = $lastMonthDay.'-'.$date[2].'-'.$date[3];
        //Calculates distance between dates in days
        $firstDate = strtotime($date[0]);
        $secondDate = strtotime($date[1]);
        if($firstDate>$secondDate)exit('First date must be earlier than second date');
        $datediff = $secondDate - $firstDate;
        unset($date[2],$date[3]);

        return $datediff/(60*60*24);
    }else{
        exit('Insert valid input');
    }
}

function calculateSundays($totalDays,$tempDate){

    $sundays=0;
    $output=0;
    for($day=1;$day<=$totalDays;$day++)
    {
        $dayOfWeek = date('w', strtotime($tempDate[0].' + '.$day.' days'));
        if($dayOfWeek == 0)$sundays++;
        if($sundays == 5){
            $output++;
            $sundays = 0;
        }
    }
    if($output == 0)print("Wrong date \n");
    else print($output."\n");
}
?>

they are basically trying to see your knowledge of iterations along with manipulating the date with PHP. What have you tried in order to get the 5 Sundays you mentioned? — CodeGodie
– CodeGodie, Commented Jan 27, 2016 at 18:23
I did it with a for loop. First I get the total days of the months, then I get the first day of the month and with a for loop I go through first to last day of the month calculating how many iterations are sunday. What do you think it would be the better approach? I can edit up there if you need to see more code.. — Alfro
– Alfro, Commented Jan 27, 2016 at 18:40
please edit your original question (you can do that by clicking the "edit" link above) and paste the code you mentioned to get the 5 Sundays. — CodeGodie
– CodeGodie, Commented Jan 27, 2016 at 18:42
Sure, I've added all the code. Sorry for the delay, was very busy! — Alfro
– Alfro, Commented Jan 29, 2016 at 9:02

Cihan Uygun · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-27 18:09:29Z

You can create a simple regex for this operation can you check out the code below;

<?PHP
    header('Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf8');
    $regexPattern = "/([a-z]+ [0-9]{4})/i"; //This will match a letters + space + 4 digit number together
    $inputString = "juny 2014 october 2014 february 2016 march 2017 july 2010 FEBRUARY 2014";
    $matchCount = preg_match_all($regexPattern, $inputString, $matches);
    print_r($matches);
?>

You will get an output like that;

Array

(

[0] => Array
    (
        [0] => juny 2014
        [1] => october 2014
        [2] => february 2016
        [3] => march 2017
        [4] => july 2010
        [5] => FEBRUARY 2014
    )


[1] => Array
    (
        [0] => juny 2014
        [1] => october 2014
        [2] => february 2016
        [3] => march 2017
        [4] => july 2010
        [5] => FEBRUARY 2014
    )

)

And working example is here http://ideone.com/LuQqEN

Darkcoder · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-17 20:29:36Z

0

i use same as cihan-uygun code but my Regx expression is little change

here is code

example : I need dates output from these strings

2020 Ice Harbor All-Ages Master/Expert - Nov 21, 2020
2020 Ice Harbor Scholastic Open (Nov 21, 2020 - Nov 22, 2020)

<?php $regexPattern = "/[A-Z]{3} [0-9]{2}\, [0-9]{4}/i";                    
preg_match_all($regexPattern, $stringgosehere, $matches); ?>

answered Sep 17, 2020 at 20:29

Darkcoder

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