Merge pull request #255 from kylefarris/master

New Date Helper Function and More Documentation

3 files changed, 87 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/system/helpers/date_helper.php b/system/helpers/date_helper.php
index 553e8d7ee..6c559bb25 100644
--- a/system/helpers/date_helper.php
+++ b/system/helpers/date_helper.php
@@ -491,6 +491,72 @@ if ( ! function_exists('human_to_unix'))
 // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 /**
+ * Turns many "reasonably-date-like" strings into something
+ * that is actually useful. This only works for dates after unix epoch.
+ * 
+ * @access  public
+ * @param   string  The terribly formatted date-like string
+ * @param   string  Date format to return (same as php date function)
+ * @return  string
+ */
+if ( ! function_exists('nice_date'))
+{
+	function nice_date($bad_date='', $format=false) 
+	{
+		if (empty($bad_date))
+		{
+			return 'Unknown';
+		}
+		// Date like: YYYYMM
+		if (preg_match('/^\d{6}$/',$bad_date)) 
+		{
+			//echo $bad_date." ";
+			if (in_array(substr($bad_date, 0, 2),array('19', '20'))) 
+			{
+				$year  = substr($bad_date, 0, 4);
+				$month = substr($bad_date, 4, 2);
+			} 
+			else 
+			{
+				$month  = substr($bad_date, 0, 2);
+				$year   = substr($bad_date, 2, 4);
+			}
+			return date($format, strtotime($year . '-' . $month . '-01'));
+		    
+		}
+		
+		// Date Like: YYYYMMDD
+		if (preg_match('/^\d{8}$/',$bad_date)) 
+		{
+			$month = substr($bad_date, 0, 2);
+			$day   = substr($bad_date, 2, 2);
+			$year  = substr($bad_date, 4, 4);
+			return date($format, strtotime($month . '/01/' . $year));
+		}
+		
+		// Date Like: MM-DD-YYYY __or__ M-D-YYYY (or anything in between)
+		if (preg_match('/^\d{1,2}-\d{1,2}-\d{4}$/',$bad_date))
+		{ 
+			list($m, $d, $y) = explode('-', $bad_date);
+			return date($format, strtotime("{$y}-{$m}-{$d}"));
+		}
+		
+		// Any other kind of string, when converted into UNIX time,
+		// produces "0 seconds after epoc..." is probably bad...
+		// return "Invalid Date".
+		if (date('U', strtotime($bad_date)) == '0')
+		{ 
+			return "Invalid Date";
+		}
+		
+		// It's probably a valid-ish date format already
+		return date($format, strtotime($bad_date));
+	}
+}
+
+// ------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+/**
  * Timezone Menu
  *
  * Generates a drop-down menu of timezones.
diff --git a/user_guide/helpers/date_helper.html b/user_guide/helpers/date_helper.html
index f930ea3ae..29e242696 100644
--- a/user_guide/helpers/date_helper.html
+++ b/user_guide/helpers/date_helper.html
@@ -234,6 +234,20 @@ $unix = human_to_unix($human);</code>
 
 
 
+<h2>nice_date()</h2>
+
+<p>This function can take a number poorly-formed date formats and convert them into something useful. It also accepts well-formed dates.</p> 
+<p>The fuction will return a Unix timestamp by default. You can, optionally, pass a format string (the same type as the PHP date function accepts) as the second parameter. Example:</p>
+
+<code>$bad_time = 199605<br />
+<br />
+// Should Produce: 1996-05-01<br />
+$better_time = nice_date($bad_time,'Y-m-d');<br />
+<br />
+$bad_time = 9-11-2001<br />
+// Should Produce: 2001-09-11<br />
+$better_time = nice_date($human,'Y-m-d');</code>
+
 
 
 <h2>timespan()</h2>
diff --git a/user_guide/libraries/form_validation.html b/user_guide/libraries/form_validation.html
index d9d8a4502..ede1913e0 100644
--- a/user_guide/libraries/form_validation.html
+++ b/user_guide/libraries/form_validation.html
@@ -1042,6 +1042,13 @@ POST array:</p>
 	</tr>
 
 	<tr>
+		<td class="td"><strong>is_unique</strong></td>
+		<td class="td">Yes</td>
+		<td class="td">Returns FALSE if the form element is not unique in a database table.</td>
+		<td class="td">is_unique[table.field]</td>
+	</tr>
+
+	<tr>
 		<td class="td"><strong>valid_email</strong></td>
 		<td class="td">No</td>
 		<td class="td">Returns FALSE if the form element does not contain a valid email address.</td>