Need Help With Formatting Date

[eluser]jamesf[/eluser]
I create a small helper function that takes a MySQL date and outputs a date in the format i want...

Code:

function print_date($date) {
    // parse the date and time
    $year = substr($date, 0, 4);
    $year1 = substr($date, 2, 2);
    $month = substr($date, 5, 2);
    $day = substr($date, 8, 2);
    $hour = substr($date, 11,2);
    $min = substr($date, 14, 2);
return "{$hour}:{$min} - {$day}/{$month}/{$year}";
}

If your date was empty you could code up a small check e.g.

Code:

if(!empty($date)) {
return formatted_date;
} else {
return '';
}