PHP DateTime - format() Method

The PHP DateTime::format() method returns date formatted according to given format. The date_format() function is an alias of this method.

Note: This method is defined under DateTimeInterface interface. DateTime and DateTimeImmutable classes inherit this method from DateTimeInterface interface.

Syntax

//Object-oriented style
public DateTime::format(format)
public DateTimeImmutable::format(format)
public DateTimeInterface::format(format)

//Procedural style
date_format(object, format)

Parameters

`object`	`Required.` For procedural style only: A DateTime object returned by date_create().
`format`	`Required.` Specify the format string to format the outputted date string. Refer to the table below for formatting options. There are also several predefined date constants that can also be used, so for example DATE_RSS contains the format string 'D, d M Y H:i:s'.

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	1 (for Monday) through 7 (for Sunday)
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 Saturday)
z	The day of the year (starting from 0)	0 through 365
Week
W	ISO-8601 week number of year, weeks starting on Monday	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 week-numbering year. 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.	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 leading zeros	01 through 12
H	24-hour format of an hour with leading zeros	00 through 23
i	Minutes with leading zeros	00 to 59
s	Seconds with leading zeros	00 through 59
u	Microseconds.	Example: 654321
v	Milliseconds. Same note applies as for u.	Example: 654
Timezone
e	Timezone identifier	Examples: UTC, GMT, Atlantic/Azores
I (capital i)	Whether or not the date is in daylight saving time	1 if Daylight Saving Time, 0 otherwise.
O	Difference to Greenwich time (GMT) without colon between hours and minutes	Example: +0200
P	Difference to Greenwich time (GMT) with colon between hours and minutes	Example: +02:00
p	The same as P, but returns Z instead of +00:00	Example: +02:00
T	Timezone abbreviation, if known; otherwise the GMT offset.	Examples: EST, MDT, +05
Z	Timezone offset in seconds. The offset 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	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 (January 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT)	See time() method.

Return Value

Returns the formatted date string on success.

Example: using both styles

The example below shows the usage of DateTime::format() method.

<?php
  //datetime string
  $datetime_string = "14-Dec-2015 10:15";

  //creating a DateTime object
  $date = new DateTime($datetime_string);

  //formatting the datetime using Object-oriented 
  //style to print it
  echo $date->format("d-M-Y H:i:s")."\n";

  //formatting the datetime using Procedural 
  //style to print it
  echo date_format($date, "d-M-Y H:i:s")."\n";
?>

The output of the above code will be:

14-Dec-2015 10:15:00
14-Dec-2015 10:15:00

Example: Format a DateTime object

Consider the example below where a DateTime object is formatted in few different ways.

<?php
  //datetime string
  $datetime_string = "14-May-2015 10:15:28 GMT+2";

  //creating a DateTime object
  $date = new DateTime($datetime_string);

  //formatting the datetime to print it
  echo "Date in y-m-d format: ".$date->format("y-m-d")."\n";
  echo "Date in d-M-Y format: ".$date->format("d-M-Y")."\n";
  echo "Date in d-M-Y H:i:s format: ".$date->format("d-M-Y H:i:s")."\n";
  echo "Date in d-M-Y H:i:s P format: ".$date->format("d-M-Y H:i:s P")."\n";
  echo "Date in G:i:A format: ".$date->format("G:i:A")."\n";
  echo "Date in D, d M Y H:i:s format: "
       .$date->format("D, d M Y H:i:s")."\n";
?>

The output of the above code will be:

Date in y-m-d format: 15-05-14
Date in d-M-Y format: 14-May-2015
Date in d-M-Y H:i:s format: 14-May-2015 10:15:28
Date in d-M-Y H:i:s P format: 14-May-2015 10:15:28 +02:00
Date in G:i:A format: 10:15:AM
Date in D, d M Y H:i:s format: Thu, 14 May 2015 10:15:28

Example: Format a DateTimeImmutable object

This method can be used with DateTimeImmutable object also. Consider the example below:

<?php
  //datetime string
  $datetime_string = "14-May-2015 10:15:28 GMT+2";

  //creating a DateTimeImmutable object
  $date = new DateTimeImmutable($datetime_string);

  //formatting the datetime to print it
  echo "Date in d-M-Y format: ".$date->format("d-M-Y")."\n";
  echo "Date in G:i:A format: ".$date->format("G:i:A")."\n";
  echo "Date in U format: ".$date->format("U")."\n";
  echo "Date in D, d M Y H:i:s format: "
       .$date->format("D, d M Y H:i:s")."\n";
?>

The output of the above code will be:

Date in d-M-Y format: 14-May-2015
Date in G:i:A format: 10:15:AM
Date in U format: 1431591328
Date in D, d M Y H:i:s format: Thu, 14 May 2015 10:15:28

❮ PHP Date and Time Reference