Web | This Site

Learning PHP
Advanced PHP
PHP Function Reference
PHP Useful Resources
Selected Reading
© 2011 TutorialsPoint.COM

| Home |  | References |  | Discussion Forums |  | About TP

# PHP Date and Time Functions

These functions allow you to get the date and time from the server where your PHP scripts are running. You can use these functions to format the date and time in many different ways.

## Installation:

There is no installation needed to use these functions; they are part of the PHP core.

## Runtime Configuration

The behavior of the these functions is affected by settings in php.ini. All these parameters are available in PHP version 5 and onwards.

Date/Time configuration options:

Name | Default | Description | Changeable
--- | --- | --- | ---
date.default_latitude | "31.7667" | Specifies the default latitude. | PHP_INI_ALL
date.default_longitude | "35.2333" | Specifies the default longitude | PHP_INI_ALL
date.sunrise_zenith | "90.83" | Specifies the default sunrise zenith | PHP_INI_ALL
date.sunset_zenith | "90.83" | Specifies the default sunset zenith | PHP_INI_ALL
date.timezone | "" | Specifies the default timezone | PHP_INI_ALL

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the function.

Function | Description | PHP
--- | --- | ---
checkdate() | Validates a Gregorian date | 3
date_create() | Returns new DateTime object | 5
date_date_set() | Sets the date | 5
date_default_timezone_get() | Returns the default time zone | 5
date_default_timezone_set() | Sets the default time zone | 5
date_format() | Returns date formatted according to given format | 5
date_isodate_set() | Sets the ISO date | 5
date_modify() | Alters the timestamp | 5
date_offset_get() | Returns the daylight saving time offset | 5
date_parse() | Returns associative array with detailed info about given date | 5
date_sun_info() | Returns an array with information about sunset/sunrise and twilight begin/end. | 5
date_sunrise() | Returns the time of sunrise for a given day / location | 5
date_sunset() | Returns the time of sunset for a given day / location | 5
date_time_set() | Sets the time | 5
date_timezone_get() | Return time zone relative to given DateTime | 5
date_timezone_set() | Sets the time zone for the DateTime object | 5
date() | Formats a local time/date | 3
getdate() | Returns an array that contains date and time information for a Unix timestamp | 3
gettimeofday() | Returns an array that contains current time information | 3
gmdate() | Formats a GMT/UTC date/time | 3
gmmktime() | Returns the Unix timestamp for a GMT date | 3
gmstrftime() | Formats a GMT/UTC time/date according to locale settings | 3
idate() | Formats a local time/date as integer | 5
localtime() | Returns an array that contains the time components of a Unix timestamp | 4
microtime() | Returns the microseconds for the current time | 3
mktime() | Returns the Unix timestamp for a date | 3
strftime() | Formats a local time/date according to locale settings | 3
strptime() | Parses a time/date generated with strftime() | 5
strtotime() | Parses an English textual date or time into a Unix timestamp | 3
time() | Returns the current time as a Unix timestamp | 3
timezone_abbreviations_list() | Returns associative array containing dst, offset and the timezone name | 5
timezone_identifiers_list() | Returns numerically index array with all timezone identifiers | 5
timezone_name_from_abbr() | Returns the timezone name from abbrevation | 5
timezone_name_get() | Returns the name of the timezone | 5
timezone_offset_get() | Returns the timezone offset from GMT | 5
timezone_open() | Returns new DateTimeZone object | 5
timezone_transitions_get() | Returns all transitions for the timezone | 5

## PHP Date / Time Constants:

Constant | Description
--- | ---
DATE_ATOM | Atom (example: 2005-08-15T16:13:03+0000)
DATE_COOKIE | HTTP Cookies (example: Sun, 14 Aug 2005 16:13:03 UTC)
DATE_ISO8601 | ISO-8601 (example: 2005-08-14T16:13:03+0000)
DATE_RFC822 | RFC 822 (example: Sun, 14 Aug 2005 16:13:03 UTC)
DATE_RFC850 | RFC 850 (example: Sunday, 14-Aug-05 16:13:03 UTC)
DATE_RFC1036 | RFC 1036 (example: Sunday, 14-Aug-05 16:13:03 UTC)
DATE_RFC1123 | RFC 1123 (example: Sun, 14 Aug 2005 16:13:03 UTC)
DATE_RFC2822 | RFC 2822 (Sun, 14 Aug 2005 16:13:03 +0000)
DATE_RSS | RSS (Sun, 14 Aug 2005 16:13:03 UTC)
DATE_W3C | World Wide Web Consortium (example: 2005-08-14T16:13:03+0000)
SUNFUNCS_RET_TIMESTAMP | Timestamp ( Available in 5.1.2 )
SUNFUNCS_RET_STRING | Hours:minutes (example: 08:02) ( Available in 5.1.2 )
SUNFUNCS_RET_DOUBLE | Hours as floating point number (example 8.75)( Available in 5.1.2 )

Advertisement

Online Image Processing

Indian Baby Names