title: Convert combined date variable into seperate items
body: <p>I have a dynamically generated variable in php called $date which looks like....</p>
  
  <pre><code>12-02-1972
  23-03-1985
  18-12-1992
  6-04-2001
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I would like to take this $date string and split it into its separate components so that I end up with for example....</p>
  
  <pre><code>$day
  $month
  $year
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What would be the best way of doing this, some sort of regex to separate out the digits from the dashes?  Or is there a better way?</p>