date(…) : This is the function that returns the current time on the server.
format : Is the general format which we want our output to be i.e.;
Y-m-d : The PHP date format YYYY-MM-DD
Y : Current year
m : Represents a month (01 to 12)
d : Represents the day of the month (01 to 31)
l (lowercase 'L') : Represents the day of the week
[timestamp] : This is optional. If no timestamp has been provided, PHP will get the use the php current date time on the server.
Other characters, like"/", ".", or "-" can also be inserted between the characters to add additional formatting.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>PHP Date Basic Syntax</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
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") . "<br />";
echo "Today is : " . date("D") . "<br />";
echo "Today date is : " . date("d") . "<br />";
echo "This Month is : " . date("M") . "<br />";
echo "This year is : " . date("Y");
?>
</body>
</html><!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>PHP Automatic Copyright Year</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>All © rights reserved 2016 - <?php echo date("Y");?></p>
</body>
</html><!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Basic Time Syntax</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
date_default_timezone_set("Asia/Kolkata");
echo "The time is " . date("h:i:sa");
?>
</body>
</html>If the time you got back from the code is not the right time, it's probably because your server is in another country or set up for a different timezone.
h : 12-hour format of an hour with leading zeros (01 to 12)
i : Minutes with leading zeros (00 to 59)
s : Seconds with leading zeros (00 to 59)
a : Lowercase Ante meridiem and Post meridiem (am or pm)
strtotime() function accepts an English datetime description and turns it into a timestamp. It is a simple way to determine "tomorrow" or "next week" or "+3 Months" etc., without using the time() function and a bunch of math.<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>PHP strtotime() Function</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
date_default_timezone_set("Asia/Kolkata");
$d=strtotime("tomorrow");
echo date("Y-m-d h:i:sa", $d) . "<br />";
$d=strtotime("next Saturday");
echo date("Y-m-d h:i:sa", $d) . "<br />";
$d=strtotime("+3 Months");
echo date("Y-m-d h:i:sa", $d) . "<br />";
$d=strtotime("10:44 AM September 18 2017");
echo "Created date is :" . date("Y-m-d h:i:sa", $d);
?>
</body>
</html>The PHP date and time functions are following table formate.
| Function | Description |
|---|---|
| checkdate() | Validates a Gregorian date |
| date_add() | Adds an amount of days, months, years, hours, minutes and seconds to a date |
| date_create_from_format() | Returns a new DateTime object formatted according to the specified format |
| date_create() | Returns new DateTime object |
| date_date_set() | Sets a new date |
| date_default_timezone_get() | Returns the default timezone used by all date/time functions in a script |
| date_default_timezone_set() | Sets the default timezone used by all date/time functions in a script |
| date_diff() | Returns the difference between two dates |
| date_format() | Returns a date formatted according to a specified format |
| date_get_last_errors() | Returns the warnings and errors found while parsing a date/time string |
| date_interval_create_from_date_string() | Sets up a DateInterval from the relative parts of the string |
| date_interval_format() | Formats the interval |
| date_isodate_set() | Set a date according to the ISO 8601 standard |
| date_modify() | Modifies the timestamp |
| date_offset_get() | Returns the timezone offset |
| date_parse_from_format() | Returns an associative array with detailed info about given date formatted according to the specified format |
| date_parse() | Returns associative array with detailed info about a specified date |
| date_sub() | Subtracts an amount of days, months, years, hours, minutes and seconds from a date |
| date_sun_info() | Returns an array with information about sunset/sunrise and twilight begin/end for a specified day and location |
| date_sunrise() | Returns time of sunrise for a given day and location |
| date_sunset() | Returns time of sunset for a given day and location |
| date_time_set() | Sets the time |
| date_timestamp_get() | Returns the Unix timestamp representing the date |
| date_timestamp_set() | Sets the date and time based on an Unix timestamp |
| date_timezone_get() | Return time zone relative to given DateTime |
| date_timezone_set() | Sets the time zone for the DateTime object |
| date() | Formats a local date and time |
| getdate() | Returns date/time information of the timestamp or the current local date/time |
| gettimeofday() | Returns the current time |
| gmdate() | Formats a GMT/UTC date and time |
| gmmktime() | Get Unix timestamp for a GMT date |
| gmstrftime() | Formats a GMT/UTC date and time according to locale settings |
| idate() | Formats a local time/date as integer |
| localtime() | Returns the local time |
| microtime() | Return the current Unix timestamp with microseconds |
| mktime() | Returns the Unix timestamp for a date |
| strftime() | Formats a local time/date according to locale settings |
| strptime() | Parses a time/date generated with strftime() |
| strtotime() | Parses an English textual datetime into a Unix timestamp |
| time() | Returns the current time as a Unix timestamp |
| timezone_abbreviations_list() | Returns associative array containing dst, offset and the timezone name |
| timezone_identifiers_list() | Returns an indexed array containing all defined timezone identifiers |
| timezone_location_get() | Returns the location information for a specified timezone |
| timezone_name_from_abbr() | Returns the timezone name from abbreviation |
| timezone_name_get() | Returns the name of the timezone |
| timezone_offset_get() | Returns the timezone offset from GMT |
| timezone_open() | Creates new DateTimeZone object |
| timezone_transitions_get() | Returns all transitions for the timezone |
| timezone_version_get() | Returns the current version of the timezonedb |