PHP Date and Time functions allow you to get the date and time from the server where your PHP script runs. You can then use the date and time in your code to format dates, calculate differences, or perform other operations.
The PHP Date() Function
The PHP date() function is used to format a date and/or a time.
It allows developers to format a date and time into a string that can be used in various ways, such as displaying it on a web page or storing it in a database.
It can also be used to compare dates and times, calculate time intervals, and convert a date and time into a different time zone.
Syntax
date(format,timestamp)
format - Required. Specifies the format of the timestamp
timestamp - Optional. Specifies a timestamp. Default is the current date and time
Get a Date
The PHP Get a Date function is a built-in function used to retrieve the current date and time from the server.
The function returns a formatted string that represents the current date and time.
The formatting of the returned string is based on the specified parameters and can be customized to suit the user's requirements.
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
Sample Code
<?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");
?>
Output
Today is 2022/12/03
Today is 2022.12.03
Today is 2022-12-03
Today is Saturday
PHP Tip - Automatic Copyright Year
Use the date() function to automatically update the copyright year on your website:
The PHP get time function is used to get the current time in the Unix timestamp format, which is a numeric representation of the current time as the number of seconds elapsed since January 1, 1970 at 00:00:00 GMT.
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)
Sample Code
<?php
echo "The time is " . date("h:i:sa");
?>
Output
08:10:13am
Get Your Time Zone
The PHP get timezone function is used to retrieve the default time zone for the current web server. This function returns a string containing the name of the default time zone on success, or FALSE on failure.
Sample Code
<?php
date_default_timezone_set("Asia/calcutta");
echo "The time is " . date("h:i:sa");
?>
Output
The time is 12:59:37pm
Create a Date With mktime()
The PHP mktime() function is used to create a date.
It returns the Unix timestamp for a date.
The mktime() function takes in a series of parameters in a specific order to create a date.
The Unix timestamp returned by mktime() can be used to format the date and time.
Syntax
mktime(hour, minute, second, month, day, year)
Sample Code
<?php
$d=mktime(12, 14, 54, 6, 3, 2022);
echo "Created date is " . date("Y-m-d h:i:sa", $d);
?>
Output
Created date is 2022-06-03 12:14:54pm
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
strtotime(time, now)
Sample Code
<?php
$d=strtotime("06:30pm june 3 2012");
echo "Created date is " . date("Y-m-d h:i:sa", $d);
?>
Related Searches to PHP Date and Time - PHP date() Function - How to Get the Current Date and Time in PHP
php date todayphp date formatcurrent date and time in phpphp timestamp to datestring to date phpphp current timestampchange date format in phpphp date format ddmmyyyyphp time formatphp date() functionphp date and timephp date and time functionphp date and time formatphp date and time nowphp date and time to timestampphp date and time differencephp date and time pickerphp date and time to datetimephp date and time examplesphp date and timezonephp get date time