Date Helper

I added my own little function to CI's "Date" helper file that assists with quick formatting of date strings, particularly those returned from a db table. Feel free to use it, modify it, add your own format strings, whatever.

Simple usage: include the date helper file as you normally would, then pass a date to setDate() along with a format (currently 'short', 'long,' or 'notime'):

$this->include->helper('date');

$date = "2009-06-15":
$shortdate = setDate($date, 'short'); # returns '06 / 15 / 2009 - 9:32AM'
$longdate = setDate($date, 'long'); # returns 'June 15, 2009 - 9:32AM'
$notime = setDate($date, 'notime'); # returns '06 / 15 / 2009'

Here's the snippet:

/**
 * More simplified date stuff
 * by Bob Sawyer / Pixels and Code
 *
 * @access    public
 * @param    string
 * @param    integer
 * @return    integer
 */    
if ( ! function_exists('setDate'))
{
    function setDate($datestr = '',$format = 'long')
    {
        if ($datestr == '')
            return '--';
    
        $time = strtotime($datestr);
        switch ($format) {
            case 'short': $fmt = 'm / d / Y - g:iA'; break;
            case 'long': $fmt = 'F j, Y - g:iA'; break;
            case 'notime': $fmt = 'm / d / Y'; break;
        }
        $newdate = date($fmt,$time);
        return $newdate;
    }
}