What is the Date() method in PHP?

PHP's Date() function manages date, time, or both. This function modifies the timestamp to a more understandable date and time.

Syntax

date(format,timestamp)

Parameters

format: This parameter defines the structure of the timestamp.

timestamp: This defines a timestamp. By default, it is the current date and time. This is an optional parameter.

Get date

Some commonly used patterns for the format parameter are the following:

  • d: Day (01-31)
  • m: Month (1-12)
  • y: Year (4 digits)
  • l: Day of the week
<?php

echo "Day rightnow is " . date("l") ."\n";

echo "Today's Date: " . date("Y.m.d") ."\n";

echo "Today's Date: " . date("Y/m/d") ."\n";

echo "Today's Date: " . date("Y-m-d") ;

?>

Explanation

  • Line 2: We print the current day by passing l in the date() function.
  • Line 3-5: We print the current data in the Year-Month-Day format with different separators. These separators are . , /, and - .

Get time

Some commonly used patterns for the format parameter are the following:

  • H for 24-hour time format
  • h for 12-hour time format
  • i for minutes
  • s for seconds
  • a for lowercase ante meridiem and post meridiem (am or pm) 
<?php
echo "Current time in 24hr format is " . date("H:i:sa")."\n";
echo "Current time in 12hr format is " . date("h:i:sa");
?>

Explanation

  • Line 2: We print the current time in 24-hour format through the date() function. H specifies the 24-hour format.
  • Line 4: We print the current time in the 12-hour format through the date() function. h specifies the 12-hour format.

How to set the time zone

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

Explanation

  • Line 2: The date_default_timezone_set() function sets the time zone according to the country and the state/city defined in the parameters.
  • Line 3: The date() function prints the current time according to the time zone set above.

Create a date

The mktime() function returns the Unix timestamp, i.e., the difference in seconds between the time defined and the Unix Epoch (January 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT).

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

Example

<?php
$new_date=mktime(10, 49, 35, 4, 14, 2022);
echo "Created date is " . date("Y/m/d h:i:sa", $new_date);
?>

Explanation

  • Line 2: The mktime() function sets the custom time.
  • Line 3: We print the date by defining a specific format through the date() function and by passing the new_date object to it.

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