How can PHP developers handle the issue of missing date information when comparing file names for specific purposes like displaying musician names?

When comparing file names for specific purposes like displaying musician names, PHP developers can handle the issue of missing date information by checking if the date information is present in the file name before extracting the musician name. This can be done using regular expressions to match the date pattern in the file name and then extracting the musician name accordingly.

$fileName = "2022-01-01_John_Doe.mp3";

// Check if the file name contains date information
if(preg_match('/^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}_/', $fileName)) {
    // Extract musician name from the file name
    $musicianName = substr($fileName, 11, -4);
} else {
    // Handle missing date information
    $musicianName = substr($fileName, 0, -4);
}

echo $musicianName; // Output: John_Doe