The dates are different because on one table I needed the time as well as date, and on another table I needed just the date.
The problem I think, and it is helping me work this out just by explaining it to someone, is that I am getting the insert SQL form a string read in from a file. So I have a string, that somewhere in it has a date, that might be of date format or date-time format. I would have to search through the string to pick out the dates, do whatever php conversion to the date I need, then insert it back into the string. The carry on searching for the next date format in that string etc etc.
However other tables might have date formats in them that should not be converted.
It seems like it is going to be a nightmare any way I approach this.
Paul.
