- var_dump: documentation ( source)
- json_last_error_msg: documentation ( source)
- json_decode: documentation ( source)
<?php
$theDate = '21 June, 2016';
$dt = new DateTime( $theDate );
$myDate = $dt->format('Y-m-d');
var_dump( json_decode($myDate, true) );
echo json_last_error_msg();