how to format hours in php?

Question

I made this function and it works:

$myHour = "09:09";
$myHour = time_format($myHour);
      function time_format($h){   
            $initial_string = $h;
            $new = substr($h,1,strlen($h));
            $h = substr($h,0,-4);
            if ($h == "0"){
                return $new;
            }else{
                return $initial_string;
            }
        }

This function verify it the string looks like: "01:02" and get rid of the first "0", so it will become "1:02" else if it looks like "13:13" it will return "13:13". My question is how to improve my function? or if there exists other better method ? thx

Answer 1

this will be your shortened function, still readable

function time_format($h){
    if (substr($h, 0, 1) == "0"){
        return substr($h, 1);
    }else{
        return $h;
    }
}

this would be even shorter

function time_format($h){
    return substr($h, 0, 1) == "0" ? substr($h, 1) : $h;
}

this one is even without the if operators

to read more about it, here is a link.