str2time

 str2time(str [, zone])

Converts the time specified as a string in the first parameter into the number of seconds since epoch. This function recognizes a wide variety of formats, including RFC 1123 (standard HTTP), RFC 850, ANSI C asctime, common log file format, Unix ls -l, and Windows dir, among others. When a time zone is not implicit in the first parameter, this function will use an optional time zone specified as the second parameter, such as "-0800" or "+0500" or "GMT". If the second parameter is omitted and the time zone is ambiguous, the local time zone is used.