Using Low Replace and Low Nice Date Together

Question

The database has a string which is a date in the format of dd/mm/yyyy (13/03/2014). No, it has not been saved to the database as a proper date/time.

With Low Replace we are able to change the format of this to yyyy/mmm/dd

{exp:low_replace find="/(\d{2})\/(\d{2})\/(\d{4})/" replace="$3/$2/$1" regex="yes"}
  13/03/2014
{/exp:low_replace}

Is it possible to apply Nice Date to the date after Replace has done it's thing as nice date won't work with dd/mm/yyyy? Or do we need to use something like Stash to create a variable for Nice date to work with once Replace has converted it?

Answer 1

I'd recommend changing the value of the date field to dd-mm-yyyy so you don't need to use Low Replace, and instead can use the value directly into Low Nice Date. The query would look something like this:

UPDATE exp_channel_data SET field_id_X = REPLACE(field_id_X, '/', '-');

Where X is the field ID in question.

Answer 2

You might have luck with this...

{exp:low_nice_date date="{exp:low_replace find="/(\d{2})\/(\d{2})\/(\d{4})/" replace="$3/$2/$1" regex="yes"}13/03/2014{/exp:low_replace}" format="%F %Y" parse="inward"}

If that works, consider moving the low_replace into a snippet so it's easier to read

{exp:low_nice_date date="{sn_fixed-date}" format="%F %Y" parse="inward"}

Hope that helps!