PHP Date and Time

How to get the date in PHP?

First, we will see the familiar characters we use for dates:

• The day of the month, which is from 1 to 31, is represented by ‘d’ character 
• A month which 1 to 12 is defined by ‘m’ character
• A year that appears in four digits is represented by the ‘y’ character.
• We represent the day of the week with ‘l’ ( lowercase 'L')

For adding additional formating to the date, we use characters like "/", ".", or "-" in-between characters.

Now we will see how to get a date.

date(format,timestamp)

Here the parameter format is required, which specifies the format of the timestamp. 

The parameter timestamp is optional, which specifies timestamp. By default it specifies the current date and time.

First of all, we will pass the required parameter of the date function with is the format.

<?php
echo "<h2>Coding ninja</h2></br>";
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");
?>

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Output-

How to get the time in PHP?

First, we will see what the familiar characters we use for times are -

• The ‘H’ character represents the 24-hour format of an hour (00 to 23).
• The 12-hour format (01 to 12) with leading zeros is characterized by the ‘h’ character.
• Minutes with leading zeros (00 to 59) is characterized by ‘i’ character.
• Seconds with leading zeros (00 to 59) are represented by ‘s’ character.
• We get lowercase Ante meridiem and Post meridiem (am or pm) by the character ‘a’.
• We get uppercase Ante meridiem and Post meridiem (AM or PM) by the character ‘A’.

Now we'll see an example for getting current time in a particular format -

<?php
echo "<h2>Coding ninja</h2></br>";
echo "The time is " . date("H:i:sa");
?>

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Output-

What is automatic copyright year in PHP?

This is one of the applications of the date() function in which we can automatically update the copyright year of our website.

<?php 
echo "<h2>Coding ninja</h2></br> &copy; 2010-"; echo date("Y");
?>

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Output-

How can we get our own timezone in PHP?

When our server is in another country or set up for a different timezone, the code shows us the wrong time. But if we want the time of our location or any specific location, we can set the timezone we wish to.

For example -

<?php
echo "<h2>Coding ninja</h2></br>";
date_default_timezone_set("America/New_York");
echo "The time is " . date("h:i:s a");
?>

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Output-

Here we have given America/New_York value to the function date_default_timezone_set() to set the timezone to America/New_York, and the location's current time in a specific format is displayed as output.

How can we create a Date with mktime()?

For creating a timestamp for a specific date and time, we use the time() function. If we don't offer a particular date and time parameter, the current date and time will be provided. Unix timestamp for a date is returned by mktime() function. It calculates the number of seconds between the time specified and Unix Epoch (January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT) and gives output.

Here is the syntax of the function -

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

 example -

<?php
echo "<h2>Coding ninja</h2></br>";
echo mktime(22, 21, 53, 11, 25, 2017);
?>

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Output-

Timestamp for November 25, 2017,22 hrs, 21 mins, 53secs is created by this code.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is another way of getting time without using PHP's date() function?

We can use the time() function for getting the time in UNIX timestamp.

<?php
$timestamp = time();
echo "<h2>Coding ninja</h2></br>";
echo($timestamp);
echo "</br>";
echo(date("F d, y h:i:s A", $timestamp));
?>

Output-

How can we create a date from a string with strtotime()?

PHP's strtotime() function converts the human-readable date and time string format to UNIX timestamp format. The syntax of the function is strtotime(time, now).

<?php
echo "<h2>Coding ninja</h2></br>";
$d=strtotime("10:30pm April 15 2014");
echo "Created date is " . date("Y-m-d h:i:sa", $d);
?>

Output-

How to generate date and time in PHP?

To generate date and time in PHP, use the date() function. It retrieves the current date and time based on the server's timezone. For example:

echo date("Y-m-d H:i:s"); // Outputs the current date and time.

Conclusion

Handling date and time effectively is a fundamental aspect of web development, and PHP provides robust tools like the date() function to make it easy. From formatting timestamps to managing time zones and scheduling tasks, PHP simplifies date-related operations. By mastering these functions, developers can create dynamic, user-friendly, and time-sensitive applications.