PHP Date/Time Functions

PHP Date/Time Introduction

The date/time functions allow you to get the date and time from the server
where your PHP script runs. You can then use the date/time functions to
format the date and time in several ways.
Note: These functions depend on the locale settings of your server.
Remember to take daylight saving time and leap years into consideration
when working with these functions.

Installation
The PHP date/time functions are part of the PHP core. No installation is
required to use these functions.

Runtime Configuration
The behavior of these functions is affected by settings in php.ini:
Name Description Default PHP
Version

date.timezone The default timezone (used by all date/time "" PHP 5.1
functions)

date.default_latitude The default latitude (used by date_sunrise() "31.7667" PHP 5.0

and date_sunset())

date.default_longitude The default longitude (used by "35.2333" PHP 5.0

date_sunrise() and date_sunset())

date.sunrise_zenith The default sunrise zenith (used by "90.83" PHP 5.0

date_sunrise() and date_sunset())

date.sunset_zenith The default sunset zenith (used by "90.83" PHP 5.0

date_sunrise() and date_sunset())

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PHP Date/Time Functions

Function Description

checkdate() Validates a Gregorian date

date_add() Adds days, months, years, hours, minutes, and

seconds to a date

date_create_from_format() Returns a new DateTime object formatted

according to a specified format
date_create() Returns a new DateTime object

date_date_set() Sets a new date

date_default_timezone_get() Returns the default timezone used by all date/time

functions

date_default_timezone_set() Sets the default timezone used by all date/time

functions

date_diff() Returns the difference between two dates

date_format() Returns a date formatted according to a specified

format

date_get_last_errors() Returns the warnings/errors found in a date string

date_interval_create_from_date_string() Sets up a DateInterval from the relative parts of the

string

date_interval_format() Formats the interval

date_isodate_set() Sets the ISO date

date_modify() Modifies the timestamp

date_offset_get() Returns the timezone offset

date_parse_from_format() Returns an associative array with detailed info

about a specified date, according to a specified
format

date_parse() Returns an associative array with detailed info

about a specified date

date_sub() Subtracts days, months, years, hours, minutes, and

seconds from a date

date_sun_info() Returns an array containing info about

sunset/sunrise and twilight begin/end, for a
specified day and location

date_sunrise() Returns the sunrise time for a specified day and

location

date_sunset() Returns the sunset time for a specified day and

location
date_time_set() Sets the time

date_timestamp_get() Returns the Unix timestamp

date_timestamp_set() Sets the date and time based on a Unix timestamp

date_timezone_get() Returns the time zone of the given DateTime object

date_timezone_set() Sets the time zone for the DateTime object

date() Formats a local date and time

getdate() Returns date/time information of a timestamp or the

current local date/time

gettimeofday() Returns the current time

gmdate() Formats a GMT/UTC date and time

gmmktime() Returns the Unix timestamp for a GMT date

gmstrftime() Formats a GMT/UTC date and time according to

locale settings

idate() Formats a local time/date as integer

localtime() Returns the local time

microtime() Returns the current Unix timestamp with

microseconds

mktime() Returns the Unix timestamp for a date

strftime() Formats a local time and/or date according to locale

settings

strptime() Parses a time/date generated with strftime()

strtotime() Parses an English textual datetime into a Unix

timestamp

time() Returns the current time as a Unix timestamp

timezone_abbreviations_list() Returns an associative array containing dst, offset,

and the timezone name

timezone_identifiers_list() Returns an indexed array with all timezone

identifiers
 timezone_location_get() Returns location information for a specified
timezone

timezone_name_from_ abbr() Returns the timezone name from abbreviation

timezone_name_get() Returns the name of the timezone

timezone_offset_get() Returns the timezone offset from GMT

timezone_open() Creates new DateTimeZone object

timezone_transitions_get() Returns all transitions for the timezone

timezone_version_get() Returns the version of the timezonedb

PHP Predefined Date/Time Constants
Constant Description

DATE_ATOM Atom (example: 2019-01-18T14:13:03+00:00)

DATE_COOKIE HTTP Cookies (example: Fri, 18 Jan 2019

14:13:03 UTC)

DATE_ISO8601 ISO-8601 (example: 2019-01-

18T14:13:03+0000)

DATE_RFC822 RFC 822 (example: Fri, 18 Jan 2019 14:13:03

+0000)

DATE_RFC850 RFC 850 (example: Friday, 18-Jan-19 14:13:03

UTC)

DATE_RFC1036 RFC 1036 (example: Friday, 18-Jan-19

14:13:03 +0000)

DATE_RFC1123 RFC 1123 (example: Fri, 18 Jan 2019 14:13:03

+0000)

DATE_RFC2822 RFC 2822 (example: Fri, 18 Jan 2019 14:13:03

+0000)

DATE_RFC3339 Same as DATE_ATOM (since PHP 5.1.3)

DATE_RFC3339_EXTENDED RFC3339 Extended format (since PHP 7.0.0)

(example: 2019-01-18T16:34:01.000+00:00)

DATE_RSS RSS (Fri, 18 Jan 2019 14:13:03 +0000)

 DATE_W3C World Wide Web Consortium (example: 2019-
01-18T14:13:03+00:00)

SUNFUNCS_RET_TIMESTAMP Timestamp (since PHP 5.1.2)

SUNFUNCS_RET_STRING Hours:minutes (example: 09:41) (since PHP

5.1.2)

SUNFUNCS_RET_DOUBLE Hours as a floating point number (example:

9.75) (since PHP 5.1.2)

PHP mktime() Function

❮ PHP Date/Time Reference

ExampleGet your own PHP Server

Return the Unix timestamp for a date. Then use it to find the day of that
date:

<?php
// Prints: October 3, 1975 was on a Friday
echo "Oct 3, 1975 was on a ".date("l", mktime(0,0,0,10,3,1975));
?>

Try it Yourself »

Definition and Usage

The mktime() function returns the Unix timestamp for a date.

Tip: This function is identical to gmmktime() except the passed parameters

represents a date (not a GMT date).

Syntax
mktime(hour, minute, second, month, day, year, is_dst)
examples :
<?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");
?>

<?php
$d=mktime(11, 14, 54, 8, 12, 2014);
echo "Created date is " . date("Y-m-d h:i:sa", $d);
?>

<?php
$d=strtotime("10:30pm April 15 2014");
echo "Created date is " . date("Y-m-d h:i:sa", $d);
?>

<?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>";
?>

<?php
$startdate = strtotime("Saturday");
$enddate = strtotime("+6 weeks", $startdate);

while ($startdate < $enddate) {

echo date("M d", $startdate) . "<br>";
$startdate = strtotime("+1 week", $startdate);
}
?>