International Date Formatter Helper

By Amburi Roy

IntlDateFormatterHelper is a PHP class designed to parse and reformat dates from various regions and locales. This helper allows you to handle dates in different languages and formats, making it easier to work with international date formats.

Prerequisites

Ensure you have the following installed on your system:

• PHP 7.4.33
• Composer version 2.4.2
• PHPUnit 9.5.10

Setup

Step 1: Install Dependencies

First, you need to install all required dependencies using Composer. Open your terminal and navigate to the project directory, then run:

composer install

Usage

Example 1: Convert Dates from German to English

Let's convert a date written in German to English. For instance, the date in German is 'So., 01.01.2023', and we want to convert it to 'Sunday 1st of January 2023'.

1. Define the date, locale, input date format, and output date format:

   $date = 'So., 01.01.2023';
   $locale = Locales::DE_LOCALE;
   $inputDateFormat = 'EEEEEE., d.m.y';
   $outputDateFormat = 'l jS \of F Y';

2. Use IntlDateFormatterHelper to convert the date:

   $intlDateFormat = new IntlDateFormatterHelper($locale);
   $enDate = $intlDateFormat->formatStrToStr($date, $inputDateFormat, $outputDateFormat);
   echo 'From '. $date .' to '. $enDate . "<br />";

Example 2: Convert Dates from French to English

Now, let's convert a date from French to English. For instance, the date in French is 'Lundi, 08 Juillet 2013 09:09', and we want to convert it to 'Monday 8th of July 2013 09:09:00 AM'.

1. Define the date, locale, input date format, and output date format:

   $date = 'Lundi, 08 Juillet 2013 09:09';
   $locale = Locales::FR_LOCALE;
   $inputDateFormat = 'EEEE, dd MMMM y hh:mm';
   $outputDateFormat = 'l jS \of F Y h:i:s A';

2. Use IntlDateFormatterHelper to convert the date:

   $intlDateFormat = new IntlDateFormatterHelper($locale);
   $enDate = $intlDateFormat->formatStrToStr($date, $inputDateFormat, $outputDateFormat);
   echo 'From '. $date .' to '. $enDate . "<br />";

Output

When you run the above code, you should see the following output:

Additional Methods

The helper also includes the parseTimestamp() and parseDate() methods. Use these methods as needed to handle other date parsing and formatting tasks. You can extend the Locales interface to add more locales.

Running Tests

To execute all tests, run the following command:

phpunit src/tests

Alternatively, you can use:

./vendor/bin/phpunit src/tests

Running the Project

To execute index.php locally on port 8080, run:

php -S localhost:8080 -t .

You should see a message indicating that the PHP development server has started:

[Fri Dec 30 01:41:07 2022] PHP 7.4.33 Development Server (http://localhost:8080) started

Technologies Used

• PHP 7.4.33
• Composer version 2.4.2
• PHPUnit 9.5.10

This project uses simple PHP functions, making it easy to integrate into various PHP frameworks.

Conclusion

By following this tutorial, you should be able to set up and use the IntlDateFormatterHelper to handle international date formats effectively. Feel free to customize and extend the functionality to suit your specific needs.