PHP - Date and Time

The PHP date() function is used to format a date and/or a time.

PHP date() function

The PHP date() function returns a string formatted according to the specified format string using the given integer timestamp or the current time if no timestamp is given.

Syntax

date(format, timestamp)

Parameters

format parameter string

Get a Date

The example below shows how to use the date() function to get a date.

<?php
//display info about current date
echo "Today is ". date("Y/m/d") ."\n";
echo "Today is ". date("d-M-Y") ."\n";
echo "Today is ". date("l") ."\n\n";

//display info about given timestamp
echo "Timestamp is ". date("Y/m/d", 1500292845) ."\n";
echo "Timestamp is ". date("d-M-Y", 1500292845) ."\n";
?>

The output of the above code will be similar to:

Today is 2021/11/29
Today is 29-Nov-2021
Today is Monday

Timestamp is 2017/07/17
Timestamp is 17-Jul-2017

Get a Time

Consider the example below where the date() function is used to get a time.

<?php
//display info about current date
echo "Current time is ". date("h:i:s A") ."\n";

//display info about given timestamp
echo "Time in Timestamp is ". date("h:i:s A", 1500292845) ."\n";
?>

The output of the above code will be similar to:

Current time is 04:25:48 AM
Time in Timestamp is 12:00:45 PM

Get Date and Time

Consider the example below where the date() function is used to get date and time.

<?php
//display info about current date
echo "Today: ". date("l, d-M-Y h:i:s A") ."\n";

//display info about given timestamp
echo "Timestamp: ". date("l, d-M-Y h:i:s A", 1500292845) ."\n";
?>

The output of the above code will be similar to:

Today: Monday, 29-Nov-2021 04:27:54 AM
Timestamp: Monday, 17-Jul-2017 12:00:45 PM

PHP time() function

The PHP time() function returns the current time measured in the number of seconds since the Unix Epoch (January 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT).

Syntax

time()

The example below shows the usage of time() function.

<?php
//getting current time measured in the number
//of seconds since the Unix Epoch
$currtime = time();
echo "Time elapsed since Unix Epoch: ".
    $currtime." seconds\n";

//using date() function to format the
//current time; the date() function uses
//time() as second parameter by default
echo  "Current time: ".date('Y-m-d') ."\n";
?>

The output of the above code will be similar to:

Time elapsed since Unix Epoch: 1638160528 seconds
Current time: 2021-11-29

Create a Date With mktime()

The PHP mktime() function returns the Unix timestamp corresponding to the arguments given. This timestamp is a long integer containing the number of seconds between the Unix Epoch (January 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT) and the time specified.

Arguments may be left out in order from right to left. Any arguments thus omitted will be set to the current value according to the local date and time.

Syntax

mktime(hour, minute, second, month, day, year)

Parameters

The example below shows the usage of mktime() function.

<?php
//creating timestamp using mktime() function
$d = mktime(10, 20, 30, 8, 17, 2017);

//display info about given timestamp
echo "Created Date is: ". date("l, d-M-Y h:i:s A", $d) ."\n";  
?>

The output of the above code will be:

Created Date is: Thursday, 17-Aug-2017 10:20:30 AM

Create a Date from a string with strtotime()

The PHP strtotime() function converts any English textual datetime description into a Unix timestamp (the number of seconds since January 1 1970 00:00:00 UTC).

The function attempts to parse the datetime string into a Unix timestamp, relative to the timestamp given in baseTimestamp, or the current time if baseTimestamp is not provided.

Syntax

strtotime(datetime, baseTimestamp)

Parameters

The example below shows the usage of strtotime() function.

<?php
//current time as Unix timestamp and
//formatting it using date() function
echo strtotime("now")."\n"; 
echo date("d-M-Y", strtotime("now"))."\n";

//1 week ahead of current time 
echo "\n".strtotime("+1 week")."\n"; 
echo date("d-M-Y", strtotime("+1 week"))."\n";

//1 week 2 days 5 hours ahead of current time 
echo "\n".strtotime("+1 week 2 days 5 hours")."\n"; 
echo date("d-M-Y", strtotime("+1 week 2 days 5 hours"))."\n";
?>

The output of the above code will be similar to:

1638161505
29-Nov-2021

1638766305
06-Dec-2021

1638957105
08-Dec-2021

Complete PHP Date and Time Reference

For a complete reference of all PHP Date and Time functions, see the complete PHP Data and Time Reference.