PHP Date and Time

April 1, 2020 In PHP Tutorials By Web Admin in Marbella

PHP Date and Time

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

Syntax:

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

Ex:

<?php 
  
echo "Today's date is :"; 
$today = date("d-m-Y"); 
echo $today; 
 ?>

Output: Today’s date is: 26-03-2020

Formatting options available in date() function:

The format parameter of the date() function is a string that can contain multiple characters allowing to generate dates in various formats.
Date-related formatting characters that are commonly used in the format string:

Character What It Means
d Day of the Month (Numeric 01 or 31)
D Day of the Week (String Mon to Sun)
l Day of the Week (String Mon to Sun)
F Month (String Jan to Dec)
M Month (String Jan to Dec)
m Month (Numeric 01 to 12)
Y Year in four-digit (Numeric 2008 or 2020 )
y Year in two-digit (Numeric 08 or 20 )
h Hour (in 12-hour format)
H Hour (in 24-hour format)
a AM or PM
i Minute
s Second

Example of Date Format

<?php 
echo date("d/m/Y") . "n"; 
echo date("d-m-Y") . "n"; 
echo date("d.m.Y") . "n"; 
echo date("d.M.Y"); 
?>

Output:

26/12/2020
26-12-2020 
26.12.2020 
26.Dec.2020

Example of Time Format

<?php 
echo date("h:i:s") . "n"; 
echo date("M,d,Y h:i:s A") . "n"; 
echo date("h:i a");

Output: 

08:48:12 
Dec,26,2020  08:48:12 PM 
08:48 pm

PHP time() Function

The time() function is used to get the current time as a Unix timestamp. A UNIX timestamp for a particular time point represents the number of seconds that have elapsed between midnight on January 1970, and that time point. So, for example, the time point January 5 2008 10:15:00 AM in UNIX timestamp format would be 1199508300.

PHP can automatically turn a date value into a UNIX timestamp with mktime() function, which accepts day, month, year, hour, minute, and second arguments and returns a UNIX timestamp corresponding to that instant in time.

Below program explains usage of time() function in PHP: 

<?php 
  
$timestamp = time(); 
echo($timestamp); 
echo "n"; 
echo(date("F d, Y h:i:s A", $timestamp)); 
?>

Output:

1585236776

March 26, 2020 04:32:56 PM

Other Important Tutorials on PHP Date and Time

  • Date And Time Formatting With PHP
  • How to get yesterday and tomorrow date in PHP
  • How to change date format in PHP
  • How to get Current Indian time in PHP
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