PHP: strip zeros from `date()`.

php-strip_zeros_from_date.php

function strip_zeros_from_date($marked_string = "")
{
    // remove the marked zeros
    $no_zeros = str_replace("*0", "", $marked_string);
    // remove any remaining zeros
    $cleaned_string = str_replace("*", "", $no_zeros);
    return $cleaned_string;
}