$var = '20/04/2012';
$date = str_replace('/', '-', $var);
echo date('Y-m-d', strtotime($date));
$old_date = date('l, F d y h:i:s'); // returns Saturday, January 30 10 02:06:34
$old_date_timestamp = strtotime($old_date);
$new_date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $old_date_timestamp);