Remove leading zeros from abbreviated date using PHP

Question

I was wondering if there is a way using PHP to change this date format: 08/01/86 (January 8, 1986) in this format: 1.8.86.

Answer 1

<?php

$date = "01.08.86";
$unix = strtotime($date);
echo date('n.j.y', $unix);

Answer 2

How about a regex-based solution:

$str = '01.08.86';
$a = array('/^0(\d+)/','/\.0(\d+)/');
$b = array('\1','.\1');
$str = preg_replace($a,$b,$str);

// $str is now '1.8.86'