Convert a date string to PHP format - strtotime()

During the development of a PHP calendar, I needed to convert a string to a PHP date, let's assume the following string:

"2015/01/29"

I wanted to convert this date to a format understandable by PHP: 2015-01-29.

The following code shows in two steps the use of the strtotime() and getDate() function to convert a date string in a PHP:

// (1) returns a Unix timestamp, such as 1422486000
$time = strtotime("2011/05/21"); 

// (2) getDate() returns an array that contains the 
// information of that timestamp, or the local time if no 
//timestamp is given
$date = getDate($time); 

print_r($date); 

?> 

The structure of the $date variable will be displayed like this:

Array
(
 [seconds] => 0
 [minutes] => 0
 [hours] => 0
 [mday] => 29
 [wday] => 4
 [my] => 1< br /> [year] => 2015
 [yday] => 28
 [weekday] => Thursday
 [month] => January
 [0] => 1422486000
)

it works and even if it's not the best structure you can get, it's at least possible to get the basic information about the day, month, and current year.

Resources:
Converting string to Date and DateTime