PHP | strftime() Function

The strftime() function is an inbuilt function in PHP that formats local time or date according to locale settings i.e. it formats local time or date for location set for it of a place.

Syntax: 

strftime( $format, $timestamp ) 

Parameters: This function accept two parameters as mentioned above and described below:  

• $format: This parameter defines the format for the date and time it is a must required parameter.
• $timestamp: The optional timestamp parameter is an integer Unix timestamp that defaults to the current local time if a timestamp is not given. In other words, it defaults to the value of time().

Return Values: It returns a string formatted to $format using the given $timestamp(if mentioned explicitly, otherwise takes default time). Month and weekday names and other language-dependent strings respect the current locale set with setlocale().

Example:  

<?php

// This program prints the current day 
setlocale(LC_TIME, "C");
echo strftime("%A");
?>

Output: 

Thursday

Format: Following are the values that can be added to $format for a desired output. 
 

• Hour formatting: 

• Time and Date stamps formatting: 

• Day formatting: 

• Week formatting: 

• Month formatting: 

• Year formatting: 

• Miscellaneous formatting: 
   

Below examples illustrate the application of strftime() in php: 

Example 1: A simple program to display the date and time provided to it.  

<?php

// Displays the date 
echo strftime("%d, %B, %Y", strtotime("01/03/2004"));

// Displays the time
echo strftime("   %I:%M  %p", strtotime("21:34"));
?>

Output: 

03, January, 2004 09:34 PM

Example 2: This example display the time at a specific region (an additional function, setlocale() is employed for this. For setlocale() to work, locales should be supported by your server.) 

<?php

// Setting locale to german
setlocale(LC_ALL, "de");
echo strftime("The current german time is %r");

// Setting locale to english 
setlocale(LC_ALL, "en");
echo strftime(" and the current english time is %r");
?>

Output: 

The current german time is 22:14:20 and the current english time is 10:14:20 PM

Reference: https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.strftime.php