PHP date() Function

The PHP date() function returns a string formatted according to the specified format string using the given integer timestamp or the current time if no timestamp is given.

Syntax

date(format, timestamp)

Parameters

`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'.
`timestamp`	`Optional.` Specify a Unix timestamp representing the date. If it is omitted or null, it defaults to the current local time.

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 a formatted date string.

Example: date() example

The example below shows the usage of date() function.

<?php
  //prints date like: Monday 17th of July 2017 12:00:45 PM
  //current local time
  echo date('l jS \of F Y h:i:s A')."\n";
  //specified timestamp
  echo date('l jS \of F Y h:i:s A', 1500292845)."\n";

  //prints date like: July 1, 2000 is on a Saturday
  echo "July 1, 2000 is on a "
       .date("l", mktime(0, 0, 0, 7, 1, 2000))."\n";

  //using the constants in the format parameter
  //prints date like: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 15:28:57 -0700
  echo date(DATE_RFC2822)."\n";

  //prints date like: 2000-07-01T00:00:00+00:00
  echo date(DATE_ATOM, mktime(0, 0, 0, 7, 1, 2000))."\n";
?>

The output of the above code will be:

Tuesday 14th of September 2021 09:55:39 AM
Monday 17th of July 2017 12:00:45 PM
July 1, 2000 is on a Saturday
Tue, 14 Sep 2021 09:55:39 +0000
2000-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

Example: Escaping characters in date()

A recognized character in the format string can be prevented from being expanded by escaping it with a preceding backslash. If the character with a backslash is already a special sequence, it also need to be escaped with the backslash.

<?php
  //prints date like: Wednesday the 15th
  echo date('l \t\h\e jS')."\n";

  //prints date like: Wednesday the 15th of July 2017
  echo date('l \t\h\e jS \of F Y');  
?>

The output of the above code will be:

Tuesday the 14th
Tuesday the 14th of September 2021

Example: date() and mktime() example

It is possible to add or subtract the number of seconds in a day or month to a timestamp because of daylight saving time. Consider the example below:

<?php
  $tomorrow  = mktime(0, 0, 0, date("m")  , date("d")+1, date("Y"));
  $lastmonth = mktime(0, 0, 0, date("m")-1, date("d"),   date("Y"));
  $nextyear  = mktime(0, 0, 0, date("m"),   date("d"),   date("Y")+1);

  //printing the result
  echo date('l jS \of F Y', $tomorrow)."\n";
  echo date('l jS \of F Y', $lastmonth)."\n";
  echo date('l jS \of F Y', $nextyear)."\n";
?>

The output of the above code will be:

Wednesday 15th of September 2021
Saturday 14th of August 2021
Wednesday 14th of September 2022

Example: date() formatting

In the example below, different format strings is used with this function.

<?php
  echo "1. ".date("F j, Y, g:i a")."\n";
  echo "2. ".date("m.d.y")."\n";
  echo "3. ".date("j, n, Y")."\n";
  echo "4. ".date("Ymd")."\n";
  echo "5. ".date('h-i-s, j-m-y, it is w Day')."\n";
  echo "6. ".date('\i\t \i\s \t\h\e jS \d\a\y.')."\n";
  echo "7. ".date("D M j G:i:s T Y")."\n";
  echo "8. ".date('H:m:s \m \i\s\ \m\o\n\t\h')."\n";
  echo "9. ".date("H:i:s")."\n";
  echo "10. ".date("Y-m-d H:i:s")."\n"; 
?>

The output of the above code will be:

1. September 14, 2021, 11:05 am
2. 09.14.21
3. 14, 9, 2021
4. 20210914
5. 11-05-32, 14-09-21, 0530 0532 2 Tueam21
6. it is the 14th day.
7. Tue Sep 14 11:05:32 GMT 2021
8. 11:09:32 m is month
9. 11:05:32
10. 2021-09-14 11:05:32

❮ PHP Date and Time Reference