Remove leading zeros from abbreviated date with PHP

Hello,

I was wondering if there is a way, using PHP, to change this date format: 01.08.86 (January 8, 1986) to this format: 1.8.86.

From stackoverflow

• <?php
  
  $date = "01.08.86";
  $unix = strtotime($date);
  echo date('n.j.y', $unix);
  

  j-man86 : All I really needed was n.j.y Thanks alot Sean!

• How about a regex based solution:

  $str = '01.08.86';
  $a = array('/^0(\d+)/','/\.0(\d+)/');
  $b = array('\1','.\1');
  $str = preg_replace($a,$b,$str);
  
  // $str is now '1.8.86'