php - strtotime doesn't return value while it works with value as hardcoded string -

i reading data excel , import them db. having strange problem. ok except date section. code section is:

$dob = $cells[$i][6]; echo $dob.'<br>'; $timestamp = strtotime($dob); echo 'time- '.$timestamp; echo 'time2- '.strtotime('01-01-2000');exit; 

and output is:

01-01-2000 time- time2- 946677600 

the value used in excel file same 01-01-2000 can see output.

i don't understand why strtotime function can return value hardcoded string version not variable read excel file?

thanks help.

solution: in case faces same problem how handled it.

$dob_temp = $cells[$i][6]; $dob_numbers = preg_replace("/[^0-9]/","",$dob_temp); $timestamp = strtotime(substr($dob_numbers,0,2).'-'.substr($dob_numbers,2,2).'-'.substr($dob_numbers,4,4)); $dob = date('y-m-d', $timestamp); 

it's string retrieve excel file has odd characters - example dash rather hyphen trips strtotime.

example:

<?php $dob = '01―01―2000'; echo $dob.'<br>'; $timestamp = strtotime($dob); echo 'time- '.$timestamp; echo 'time2- '.strtotime('01-01-2000');exit; 

http://codepad.org/zkiqehho

you may want clean dates coming file or use datetime::createfromformat pass format matches contents of string.