Date and time handling is a crucial aspect of PHP development. Whether you're displaying timestamps, logging events, or managing time-sensitive operations, understanding PHP’s date functions is essential. In this tutorial, we'll explore everything about PHP date formats, including procedural and object-oriented methods, with detailed examples and expected outputs.
PHP dates play a vital role in various aspects of web development, such as:
PHP provides the date() function, which allows formatting of timestamps into readable date formats. The syntax is:
date(format, timestamp);Below are some of the most commonly used PHP date formats along with sample output:
<?php
echo date("Y-m-d"); // Output: 2025-02-01
echo "<br>";
echo date("d/m/Y"); // Output: 01/02/2025
?><?php
echo date("l, F j, Y h:i A"); // Output: Saturday, February 1, 2025 12:45 PM
?>| Format | Description | Example Output |
|---|---|---|
d | Day (01-31) | 01 |
D | Day (Short) | Sat |
j | Day (No leading zero) | 1 |
l (lowercase 'L') | Full day name | Saturday |
S | Day suffix (st, nd, rd, th) | st |
m | Month (01-12, Leading Zero) | 02 |
n | Month (1-12, No Leading Zero) | 2 |
M | Short Month Name | Feb |
F | Full Month Name | February |
Y | Full Year (4-digits) | 2025 |
y | Short Year (2-digits) | 25 |
h | Hour (12-hour format, Leading Zero) | 02 |
H | Hour (24-hour format, Leading Zero) | 14 |
g | Hour (12-hour format, No Leading Zero) | 2 |
G | Hour (24-hour format, No Leading Zero) | 14 |
i | Minutes (00-59, Leading Zero) | 05 |
s | Seconds (00-59, Leading Zero) | 30 |
a / A | am/PM (lower/upper) | am |
u | Microseconds (000000-999999) | 654321 |
v | Milliseconds (000-999) | 654 |
e | Timezone identifier | UTC |
T | Timezone abbreviation | EST |
P | Timezone difference from UTC (HH:MM) | -05:00 |
O | Timezone difference from UTC (HHMM) | -0500 |
c | ISO 8601 Date | 2025-02-01T14:05:30+00:00 |
r | RFC 2822 Date | Sat, 01 Feb 2025 14:05:30 +0000 |
U | Unix Timestamp | 1738434330 |
<?php
echo date("H:i:s"); // Output: 14:45:30
?><?php
echo date("D, M j Y - h:i A"); // Output: Sat, Feb 1 2025 - 02:45 PM
?>PHP also provides an object-oriented way to handle dates using the DateTime class. This approach is more flexible, especially when dealing with date modifications and comparisons.
<?php
$date = new DateTime();
echo $date->format("Y-m-d H:i:s"); // Output: 2025-02-01 14:45:30
?><?php
$date = new DateTime("2024-12-25");
echo $date->format("l, F j, Y"); // Output: Wednesday, December 25, 2024
?><?php
$date = new DateTime();
$date->modify("+1 week");
echo $date->format("Y-m-d"); // Output: 2025-02-08
?><?php
$date = new DateTime();
echo $date->getTimestamp(); // Output: 1743801805 (Unix timestamp)
?><?php
$date = new DateTime("now", new DateTimeZone("America/New_York"));
echo $date->format("Y-m-d H:i:s T"); // Output: 2025-02-01 09:45:30 EST
?>PHP also provides procedural functions that work similarly to the DateTime class.
<?php
$date = date_create("2025-01-01");
echo date_format($date, "Y-m-d"); // Output: 2025-01-01
?><?php
$date = date_create("2025-02-01");
date_modify($date, "+1 month");
echo date_format($date, "Y-m-d"); // Output: 2025-03-01
?><?php
$date = date_create("2025-02-01", timezone_open("Europe/London"));
echo date_format($date, "Y-m-d H:i:s T"); // Output: 2025-02-01 15:45:30 GMT
?><?php
$date = DateTime::createFromFormat("d/m/Y", "01/02/2025");
echo $date->format("Y-m-d"); // Output: 2025-02-01
?><?php
$date = new DateTime("2025-02-01 12:00:00", new DateTimeZone("UTC"));
$date->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone("Asia/Tokyo"));
echo $date->format("Y-m-d H:i:s T"); // Output: 2025-02-01 21:00:00 JST
?>PHP provides powerful date formatting options using both procedural and object-oriented approaches. Whether you're handling simple timestamps or complex time zone conversions, understanding PHP date functions is essential for effective web development.
By mastering date(), DateTime, and date_create(), you can efficiently format, modify, and manipulate dates for your PHP applications. Start experimenting with different formats to find what best suits your project’s requirements!
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