PHP Date and Time

PHP provides functions to work with dates and times, allowing developers to display the current date/time, manipulate and format dates, and perform operations like date comparisons, time zone adjustments, and more.

In this article, we’ll discuss PHP date and time.

Why are Date and Time Important in PHP?

In web development, date and time are important for:

• Displaying the current date and time on a website (e.g., last updated time, current date for a blog post).
• Compare and manipulate dates (e.g., calculating age from a birthdate).
• Store date and time information in databases.
• Handle time zone adjustments for users in different regions.

Getting the Current Date and Time

The simplest way to get the current date and time in PHP is by using the date() function. This function formats the current local date and time based on the format string you provide.

Syntax:

date(format, timestamp);

In this syntax:

• The format parameter in the date() function specifies the format of the returned date and time.
• The timestamp is an optional parameter, if it is not included, then the current date and time will be used.

Example 1: Display Current Date

<?php
    echo date("Y-m-d"); // Output: 2025-04-04
?>

2025-04-04

In this example:

• Y stands for the four-digit year.
• m represents the two-digit month.
• d represents the two-digit day.

Example 2: Display Current Date and Time

<?php
   echo date("Y-m-d H:i:s"); 
?>

2025-04-04 12:34:11

In this example:

• H represents hours in 24-hour format.
• i represents minutes.
• s represents seconds.

Date Formatting in date() function

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

• d: Represents the day of the month, two digits with leading zeros (01 or 31).
• D: Represents the day of the week in the text as an abbreviation (Mon to Sun).
• m: Represents month in numbers with leading zeros (01 or 12).
• M: Represents month in text, abbreviated (Jan to Dec).
• y: Represents the year in two digits (08 or 14).
• Y: Represents the year in four digits (2008 or 2014).

The parts of the date can be separated by inserting other characters, like hyphens (-), dots (.), slashes (/), or spaces to add additional visual formatting.

Example: The below example explains the usage of the date() function in PHP.

<?php
  echo "Today's date in various formats:" . "\n";
  echo date("d/m/Y") . "\n";
  echo date("d-m-Y") . "\n";
  echo date("d.m.Y") . "\n";
  echo date("d.M.Y/D");
?>

Today's date in various formats:
04/04/2025
04-04-2025
04.04.2025
04.Apr.2025/Fri

PHP time() Function

The time() function is used to get the current time as a Unix timestamp (the number of seconds since the beginning of the Unix epoch: January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT).

The following characters can be used to format the time string:

• h: Represents the hour in 12-hour format with leading zeros (01 to 12).
• H: Represents the hour in 24-hour format with leading zeros (00 to 23).
• i: Represents minutes with leading zeros (00 to 59).
• s: Represents seconds with leading zeros (00 to 59).
• a: Represents lowercase antemeridian and post meridian (am or pm).
• A: Represents uppercase antemeridian and post meridian (AM or PM).

Example: The below example explains the usage of the time() function in PHP.

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

1743772332
April 04, 2025 01:12:12 PM

Get Your Time Zone

In PHP, you can easily get the current time zone using the date_default_timezone_get() function. This function returns the default time zone set in your PHP configuration or the time zone that has been explicitly set within your script using date_default_timezone_set().

Syntax:

date_default_timezone_get();

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

The time is 01:26:09pm

Create a Date With mktime()

PHP mktime() Function is used to create the timestamp for a specific date and time. If no date and time are provided, the timestamp for the current date and time is returned.

Syntax:

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

Example: The below example explains the usage of the mktime() function in PHP.

<?php
  $d=mktime(18, 21, 50, 4, 5, 2025);
echo "Created date is " . date("Y-m-d h:i:sa", $d);
?>

Created date is 2025-04-05 06:21:50pm

Create a Date From a String With strtotime()

In PHP, the strtotime() function is another way to convert a textual date/time description into a Unix timestamp. This allows you to easily create dates from human-readable strings and perform calculations or formatting with them.

Syntax:

strtotime(time, now)

Example: The below example explains the usage of the strtotime() function in PHP.

<?php
$d=strtotime("6:30pm April 4 2025");
echo "Created date is " . date("Y-m-d h:i:sa", $d);
?>

Created date is 2025-04-04 06:30:00pm