Adding a character in the middle of a string

Question

There's probably a simple solution to this that will cause a facepalm. I have time stored as a 4 character long string ie 1300.

I'm trying to display that string as 13:00. I feel like there has to be a solution to this that is more elegant than what I'm doing at the moment.

I currently have:

$startTime = get_field($dayStart, $post->ID);
$endTime = get_field($dayEnd, $post->ID);

        for ($x=0; $x = 4; $x++){

            if(x == 2){
                $ST .= ':';
                $ET .= ':';
            } else {
                $ST .= $startTime[x];
                $ET .= $endTime[x];
            }

        }

$startTime = $ST;
$endTime = $ET;

The string will always be 4 characters long.

A remark about the answer chosen: apparently at the time of the question no one was shrewd enough to find the unique function that does what is asked. The answer chosen works, but Frankey's answer is the correct answer. — Carlos B. Feitoza Filho, May 12 '22 at 14:24

score 27 · Accepted Answer · edited May 14 '17 at 20:15

27

$time = "1300";    
$time = substr($time,0,2).':'.substr($time,2,2);

Edit:

Here is a general solution to this problem:

function insertAtPosition($string, $insert, $position) {
    return implode($insert, str_split($string, $position));
}

edited May 14 '17 at 20:15

Ophiucus

95
4
17

answered Oct 18 '13 at 14:41

Ethan

2,754
1
21
34

And second returns "50:0" if $time = "500"; – Max Oct 18 '13 at 14:52
must be considered from the end of – Max Oct 18 '13 at 14:53
@Ethan Good tone is a universal solution. but you coped with task :) – Max Oct 18 '13 at 14:57
there is a native php function for the custom function one you wrote in your edit, see my answer below. – Frankey Nov 11 '15 at 16:49
What happens to your general solution when position is zero? Or when the length of string is multiple times larger than position? ... :) – GregorMohorko Feb 01 '17 at 19:09
=> "1111111111111" >>> $time = substr($time,0,5).'-'.substr($time,5,7).'-'.substr($time,7,1); => "11111-1111111-1" – Muhammad Usama Jan 06 '21 at 17:00

score 22 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 17 '15 at 16:30

22

I favor this solution as it is just one function

substr_replace('1300', ':', 2, 0);

http://php.net/substr_replace

answered Oct 17 '15 at 16:30

Frankey

3,679
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I'm here wondering why this answer wasn't the accepted answer, if it's the most correct. I, being the author, would come back and select the correct answer to this one here – Carlos B. Feitoza Filho May 12 '22 at 14:21

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 18 '13 at 14:49

6

implode(":",str_split($time,2));

answered Oct 18 '13 at 14:49

SheetJS

22,470
12
65
75

score 5 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 29 '17 at 00:44

5

substr_replace( $yourVar, ':', -2, 0 );

Will make 945 result in 9:45 and 1245 in 12:45.

edited Jan 29 '17 at 00:44

nyedidikeke

6,899
7
44
59

answered Jan 28 '17 at 21:39

arjentuin

81
1
2

Adding a character in the middle of a string

4 Answers4

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