PHP Date and Time
PHP Date and Time Tutorial
PHP provides built-in functions to work with dates and times. You can display, format, manipulate, and calculate date and time values easily using PHP.
1️⃣ The date() Function
The date() function formats a local date and time according to a specified format.
Common Format Characters
| Character | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
Y |
4-digit year | 2025 |
y |
2-digit year | 25 |
m |
Month (01-12) | 11 |
d |
Day (01-31) | 28 |
H |
Hour (00-23) | 10 |
h |
Hour (01-12) | 10 |
i |
Minutes (00-59) | 15 |
s |
Seconds (00-59) | 30 |
a |
am/pm | am |
l |
Full weekday name | Thursday |
D |
Short weekday name | Thu |
F |
Full month name | November |
M |
Short month name | Nov |
2️⃣ Displaying the Current Date and Time
Output Example:
3️⃣ Timestamps
A timestamp is the number of seconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC.
Convert timestamp to readable date:
4️⃣ Date Manipulation with strtotime()
strtotime() converts a string into a timestamp, which you can format using date().
5️⃣ Using mktime()
mktime() creates a timestamp for a specific date and time.
6️⃣ Date Difference
7️⃣ PHP DateTime Class (Object-Oriented)
🏁 Summary
-
Use
date()to format current date and time. -
time()gives the current timestamp. -
strtotime()andmktime()allow date calculations. -
DateTimeclass is modern and flexible for date/time manipulation. -
Always set timezone with
date_default_timezone_set().
