What does date () do in php?

❮ PHP Date/Time Reference

Example

Format a local date and time and return the formatted date strings:

<?php
// Prints the day
echo date("l") . "<br>";

// Prints the day, date, month, year, time, AM or PM
echo date("l jS \of F Y h:i:s A");
?>

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Definition and Usage

The date() function formats a local date and time, and returns the formatted date string.

Syntax

Parameter Values

Technical Details

❮ PHP Date/Time Reference

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

The PHP Date() Function

The PHP date() function formats a timestamp to a more readable date and time.

Syntax

A timestamp is a sequence of characters, denoting the date and/or time at which a certain event occurred.

Get a Date

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:

• d - Represents the day of the month (01 to 31)
• m - Represents a month (01 to 12)
• Y - Represents a year (in four digits)
• l (lowercase 'L') - Represents the day of the week

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:

Example

<?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");
?>

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PHP Tip - Automatic Copyright Year

Use the date() function to automatically update the copyright year on your website:

Get a Time

Here are some characters that are commonly used for times:

• H - 24-hour format of an hour (00 to 23)
• h - 12-hour format of an hour with leading zeros (01 to 12)
• i - Minutes with leading zeros (00 to 59)
• s - Seconds with leading zeros (00 to 59)
• a - Lowercase Ante meridiem and Post meridiem (am or pm)

The example below outputs the current time in the specified format:

Note that the PHP date() function will return the current date/time of the server!

Get Your Time Zone

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:

Example

<?php
date_default_timezone_set("America/New_York");
echo "The time is " . date("h:i:sa");
?>

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Create a Date With mktime()

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.

Syntax

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

The example below creates a date and time with the date() function from a number of parameters in the mktime() function:

Example

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

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Create a Date From a String With strtotime()

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).

Syntax

The example below creates a date and time from the strtotime() function:

Example

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

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PHP is quite clever about converting a string to a date, so you can put in various values:

Example

<?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>";
?>

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However, strtotime() is not perfect, so remember to check the strings you put in there.

More Date Examples

The example below outputs the dates for the next six Saturdays:

Example

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

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

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The example below outputs the number of days until 4th of July:

Example

<?php
$d1=strtotime("July 04");
$d2=ceil(($d1-time())/60/60/24);
echo "There are " . $d2 ." days until 4th of July.";
?>

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Complete PHP Date Reference

For a complete reference of all date functions, go to our complete PHP Date Reference.

The reference contains a brief description, and examples of use, for each function!

PHP Exercises

What is the use of date () in PHP?

What is the date format in PHP?

Which function is set date in PHP?

What does time () do in PHP?