The PHP date() function formats a timestamp to a more readable date and time.
The PHP date() function formats a timestamp to a more readable date and time.
date(format,timestamp)
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| format | Required. Specifies the format of the timestamp |
| timestamp | Optional. Specifies a timestamp. Default is the current date and time |
A timestamp is a sequence of characters, denoting the date and/or time at which a certain event occurred.
The required format parameter of the date() function specifies how to format the date (or time).
Here are some characters that are commonly used for dates:
Other characters, like"/", ".", or "-" can also be inserted between the characters to add additional formatting.
The example below formats today's date in three different ways:
<?php
echo "Today is " . date("Y/m/d") . "<br>";
echo "Today is " . date("Y.m.d") . "<br>";
echo "Today is " . date("Y-m-d") . "<br>";
echo "Today is " . date("l");
?>
Use the date() function to automatically update the copyright year on your website:
© 2010-<?php echo date("Y");?>
Here are some characters that are commonly used for times:
The example below outputs the current time in the specified format:
<?php
echo "The time is " . date("h:i:sa");
?>
Note that the PHP date() function will return the current date/time of the server!
If the time you got back from the code is not correct, it's probably because your server is in another country or set up for a different timezone.
So, if you need the time to be correct according to a specific location, you can set the timezone you want to use.
The example below sets the timezone to "America/New_York", then outputs the current time in the specified format:
<?php
date_default_timezone_set("America/New_York");
echo "The time is " . date("h:i:sa");
?>
The optional timestamp parameter in the date() function specifies a timestamp. If omitted, the current date and time will be used (as in the examples above).
The PHP mktime() function returns the Unix timestamp for a date. The Unix timestamp contains the number of seconds between the Unix Epoch (January 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT) and the time specified.
The example below creates a date and time with the date() function from a number of parameters in the mktime() function:
<?php
$d=mktime(11, 14, 54, 8, 12, 2014);
echo "Created date is " . date("Y-m-d h:i:sa", $d);
?>
The PHP strtotime() function is used to convert a human readable date string into a Unix timestamp (the number of seconds since January 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT).
The example below creates a date and time from the strtotime() function:
<?php
$d=strtotime("10:30pm April 15 2014");
echo "Created date is " . date("Y-m-d h:i:sa", $d);
?>
PHP is quite clever about converting a string to a date, so you can put in various values:
<?php
$d=strtotime("tomorrow");
echo date("Y-m-d h:i:sa", $d) . "<br>";
$d=strtotime("next Saturday");
echo date("Y-m-d h:i:sa", $d) . "<br>";
$d=strtotime("+3 Months");
echo date("Y-m-d h:i:sa", $d) . "<br>";
?>