Creating strings with the date_create_from_format() function:
<?php
$date 
"06/08/04";
echo 
DateTime::createFromFormat'!d/m/y'$date )->formatDateTime::ISO8601 ), "\n";
?>
Output
2004-08-06T00:00:00+0000

Parsing strings with the date_parse_from_format() function:
<?php
$date 
"06/08/04";
print_rdate_parse_from_format'!y*d*m'$date ) );
?>
Output
Array ( [year] => 2006 [month] => 4 [day] => 8 [hour] => 0 [minute] => 0 [second] => 0 [fraction] => 0 [warning_count] => 0 [warnings] => Array ( ) [error_count] => 0 [errors] => Array ( ) [is_localtime] => )