DATE(3) 1 DATE(3)
date - Format a local time/date
SYNOPSIS
string date (string $format, [int $timestamp = time()])
DESCRIPTION
Returns a string formatted according to the given format string using the given integer $timestamp or the current time if no timestamp is
given. In other words, $timestamp is optional and defaults to the value of time(3).
PARAMETERS
o $format
- The format of the outputted date string. See the formatting options below. There are also several predefined date constants that
may be used instead, so for example DATE_RSS contains the format string 'D, d M Y H:i:s'.
The following characters are recognized in the $format parameter string
+------------------+--------------------------------------+---+
|$format character | | |
| | | |
| | Description | |
| | | |
| | Example returned values | |
| | | |
+------------------+--------------------------------------+---+
| | | |
| Day | | |
| | | |
| | --- | |
| | | |
| | --- | |
| | | |
| | | |
| d | | |
| | | |
| | Day of the month, 2 digits with | |
| | leading zeros | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 01 to 31 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| D | | |
| | | |
| | A textual representation of a day, | |
| | three letters | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | Mon through Sun | |
| | | |
| | | |
| j | | |
| | | |
| | Day of the month without leading | |
| | zeros | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 1 to 31 | |
| | | |
| | | |
|l (lowercase 'L') | | |
| | | |
| | A full textual representation of the | |
| | day of the week | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | Sunday through Saturday | |
| | | |
| | | |
| N | | |
| | | |
| | ISO-8601 numeric representation of | |
| | the day of the week (added in PHP | |
| | 5.1.0) | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 1 (for Monday) through 7 (for Sun- | |
| | day) | |
| | | |
| | | |
| S | | |
| | | |
| | English ordinal suffix for the day | |
| | of the month, 2 characters | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | st, nd, rd or th. Works well with j | |
| | | |
| | | |
| w | | |
| | | |
| | Numeric representation of the day of | |
| | the week | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 0 (for Sunday) through 6 (for Satur- | |
| | day) | |
| | | |
| | | |
| z | | |
| | | |
| | The day of the year (starting from | |
| | 0) | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 0 through 365 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| Week | | |
| | | |
| | --- | |
| | | |
| | --- | |
| | | |
| | | |
| W | | |
| | | |
| | ISO-8601 week number of year, weeks | |
| | starting on Monday (added in PHP | |
| | 4.1.0) | |
| | | |
| | Example: 42 (the 42nd week in the | |
| | year) | |
| | | |
| | | |
| Month | | |
| | | |
| | --- | |
| | | |
| | --- | |
| | | |
| | | |
| F | | |
| | | |
| | A full textual representation of a | |
| | month, such as January or March | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | January through December | |
| | | |
| | | |
| m | | |
| | | |
| | Numeric representation of a month, | |
| | with leading zeros | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 01 through 12 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| M | | |
| | | |
| | A short textual representation of a | |
| | month, three letters | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | Jan through Dec | |
| | | |
| | | |
| n | | |
| | | |
| | Numeric representation of a month, | |
| | without leading zeros | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 1 through 12 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| t | | |
| | | |
| | Number of days in the given month | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 28 through 31 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| Year | | |
| | | |
| | --- | |
| | | |
| | --- | |
| | | |
| | | |
| L | | |
| | | |
| | Whether it's a leap year | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 1 if it is a leap year, 0 otherwise. | |
| | | |
| | | |
| o | | |
| | | |
| | ISO-8601 year number. This has the | |
| | same value as Y, except that if the | |
| | ISO week number ( W) belongs to the | |
| | previous or next year, that year is | |
| | used instead. (added in PHP 5.1.0) | |
| | | |
| | Examples: 1999 or 2003 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| Y | | |
| | | |
| | A full numeric representation of a | |
| | year, 4 digits | |
| | | |
| | Examples: 1999 or 2003 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| y | | |
| | | |
| | A two digit representation of a year | |
| | | |
| | Examples: 99 or 03 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| Time | | |
| | | |
| | --- | |
| | | |
| | --- | |
| | | |
| | | |
| a | | |
| | | |
| | Lowercase Ante meridiem and Post | |
| | meridiem | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | am or pm | |
| | | |
| | | |
| A | | |
| | | |
| | Uppercase Ante meridiem and Post | |
| | meridiem | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | AM or PM | |
| | | |
| | | |
| B | | |
| | | |
| | Swatch Internet time | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 000 through 999 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| g | | |
| | | |
| | 12-hour format of an hour without | |
| | leading zeros | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 1 through 12 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| G | | |
| | | |
| | 24-hour format of an hour without | |
| | leading zeros | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 0 through 23 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| h | | |
| | | |
| | 12-hour format of an hour with lead- | |
| | ing zeros | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 01 through 12 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| H | | |
| | | |
| | 24-hour format of an hour with lead- | |
| | ing zeros | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 00 through 23 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| i | | |
| | | |
| | Minutes with leading zeros | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 00 to 59 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| s | | |
| | | |
| | Seconds, with leading zeros | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 00 through 59 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| u | | |
| | | |
| | Microseconds (added in PHP 5.2.2). | |
| | Note that date(3) will always gener- | |
| | ate 000000 since it takes an integer | |
| | parameter, whereas DateTime::format | |
| | does support microseconds if Date- | |
| | Time was created with microseconds. | |
| | | |
| | Example: 654321 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| Timezone | | |
| | | |
| | --- | |
| | | |
| | --- | |
| | | |
| | | |
| e | | |
| | | |
| | Timezone identifier (added in PHP | |
| | 5.1.0) | |
| | | |
| | Examples: UTC, GMT, Atlantic/Azores | |
| | | |
| | | |
| I (capital i) | | |
| | | |
| | Whether or not the date is in day- | |
| | light saving time | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 1 if Daylight Saving Time, 0 other- | |
| | wise. | |
| | | |
| | | |
| O | | |
| | | |
| | Difference to Greenwich time (GMT) | |
| | in hours | |
| | | |
| | Example: +0200 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| P | | |
| | | |
| | Difference to Greenwich time (GMT) | |
| | with colon between hours and minutes | |
| | (added in PHP 5.1.3) | |
| | | |
| | Example: +02:00 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| T | | |
| | | |
| | Timezone abbreviation | |
| | | |
| | Examples: EST, MDT ... | |
| | | |
| | | |
| Z | | |
| | | |
| | Timezone offset in seconds. The off- | |
| | set for timezones west of UTC is | |
| | always negative, and for those east | |
| | of UTC is always positive. | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | -43200 through 50400 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| Full Date/Time | | |
| | | |
| | --- | |
| | | |
| | --- | |
| | | |
| | | |
| c | | |
| | | |
| | ISO 8601 date (added in PHP 5) | |
| | | |
| | 2004-02-12T15:19:21+00:00 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| r | | |
| | | |
| | RFC 2822 formatted date | |
| | | |
| | Example: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 16:01:07 | |
| | +0200 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| U | | |
| | | |
| | Seconds since the Unix Epoch (Janu- | |
| | ary 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT) | |
| | | |
| | See also time(3) | |
| | | |
+------------------+--------------------------------------+---+
Unrecognized characters in the format string will be printed as-is. The Z format will always return 0 when using gmdate(3).
Note
Since this function only accepts integer timestamps the u format character is only useful when using the date_format(3)
function with user based timestamps created with date_create(3).
o $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(3).
RETURN VALUES
Returns a formatted date string. If a non-numeric value is used for $timestamp, FALSE is returned and an E_WARNING level error is emitted.
ERRORS
/EXCEPTIONS
Every call to a date/time function will generate a E_NOTICE if the time zone is not valid, and/or a E_STRICT or E_WARNING message if using
the system settings or the $TZ environment variable. See also date_default_timezone_set(3)
CHANGELOG
+--------+---------------------------------------------------+
|Version | |
| | |
| | Description |
| | |
+--------+---------------------------------------------------+
| 5.1.0 | |
| | |
| | The valid range of a timestamp is typically from |
| | Fri, 13 Dec 1901 20:45:54 GMT to Tue, 19 Jan 2038 |
| | 03:14:07 GMT. (These are the dates that corre- |
| | spond to the minimum and maximum values for a |
| | 32-bit signed integer). However, before PHP 5.1.0 |
| | this range was limited from 01-01-1970 to |
| | 19-01-2038 on some systems (e.g. Windows). |
| | |
| 5.1.0 | |
| | |
| | Now issues the E_STRICT and E_NOTICE time zone |
| | errors. |
| | |
| 5.1.1 | |
| | |
| | There are useful constants of standard date/time |
| | formats that can be used to specify the $format |
| | parameter. |
| | |
+--------+---------------------------------------------------+
EXAMPLES
Example #1
date(3) examples
<?php
// set the default timezone to use. Available since PHP 5.1
date_default_timezone_set('UTC');
// Prints something like: Monday
echo date("l");
// Prints something like: Monday 8th of August 2005 03:12:46 PM
echo date('l jS of F Y h:i:s A');
// Prints: July 1, 2000 is on a Saturday
echo "July 1, 2000 is on a " . date("l", mktime(0, 0, 0, 7, 1, 2000));
/* use the constants in the format parameter */
// prints something like: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 15:28:57 -0700
echo date(DATE_RFC2822);
// prints something like: 2000-07-01T00:00:00+00:00
echo date(DATE_ATOM, mktime(0, 0, 0, 7, 1, 2000));
?>
You can prevent a recognized character in the format string from being expanded by escaping it with a preceding backslash. If the charac-
ter with a backslash is already a special sequence, you may need to also escape the backslash.
Example #2
Escaping characters in date(3)
<?php
// prints something like: Wednesday the 15th
echo date('l he jS');
?>
It is possible to use date(3) and mktime(3) together to find dates in the future or the past.
Example #3
date(3) and mktime(3) example
<?php
$tomorrow = mktime(0, 0, 0, date("m") , date("d")+1, date("Y"));
$lastmonth = mktime(0, 0, 0, date("m")-1, date("d"), date("Y"));
$nextyear = mktime(0, 0, 0, date("m"), date("d"), date("Y")+1);
?>
Note
This can be more reliable than simply adding or subtracting the number of seconds in a day or month to a timestamp because of day-
light saving time.
Some examples of date(3) formatting. Note that you should escape any other characters, as any which currently have a special meaning will
produce undesirable results, and other characters may be assigned meaning in future PHP versions. When escaping, be sure to use single
quotes to prevent characters like
from becoming newlines.
Example #4
date(3) Formatting
<?php
// Assuming today is March 10th, 2001, 5:16:18 pm, and that we are in the
// Mountain Standard Time (MST) Time Zone
$today = date("F j, Y, g:i a"); // March 10, 2001, 5:16 pm
$today = date("m.d.y"); // 03.10.01
$today = date("j, n, Y"); // 10, 3, 2001
$today = date("Ymd"); // 20010310
$today = date('h-i-s, j-m-y, it is w Day'); // 05-16-18, 10-03-01, 1631 1618 6 Satpm01
$today = date('i is he jS day.'); // it is the 10th day.
$today = date("D M j G:i:s T Y"); // Sat Mar 10 17:16:18 MST 2001
$today = date('H:m:s m is mo
h'); // 17:03:18 m is month
$today = date("H:i:s"); // 17:16:18
$today = date("Y-m-d H:i:s"); // 2001-03-10 17:16:18 (the MySQL DATETIME format)
?>
To format dates in other languages, you should use the setlocale(3) and strftime(3) functions instead of date(3).
NOTES
Note
To generate a timestamp from a string representation of the date, you may be able to use strtotime(3). Additionally, some databases
have functions to convert their date formats into timestamps (such as MySQL's UNIX_TIMESTAMP function).
Tip
Timestamp of the start of the request is available in $_SERVER['REQUEST_TIME'] since PHP 5.1.
SEE ALSO
gmdate(3), idate(3), getdate(3), getlastmod(3), mktime(3), strftime(3), time(3), strtotime(3), Predefined DateTime Constants.
PHP Documentation Group DATE(3)