PHP Function Reference

PHP strftime() Function



The PHP strftime() function formats the time and/or date according to locale settings. Month and weekday names and other language-dependent strings respect the current locale set with setlocale() function.

Syntax

strftime(format, timestamp)

Parameters

format Required. Specify the format string to use. Refer to the table below for formatting options.
timestamp Optional. Specify the Unix timestamp. If omitted or null, it defaults to the current local time.

format parameter string

Format characterDescriptionExample returned values
Day
%aAn abbreviated textual representation of the daySun through Sat
%AA full textual representation of the daySunday through Saturday
%dTwo-digit day of the month (with leading zeros)01 to 31
%eDay of the month, with a space preceding single digits.1 to 31
%jDay of the year, 3 digits with leading zeros001 to 366
%uISO-8601 numeric representation of the day of the week1 (for Monday) through 7 (for Sunday)
%wNumeric representation of the day of the week0 (for Sunday) through 6 (for Saturday)
Week
%UWeek number of the given year, starting with the first Sunday as the first week13 (for the 13th full week of the year)
%VISO-8601:1988 week number of the given year, starting with the first week of the year with at least 4 weekdays, with Monday being the start of the week01 through 53 (where 53 accounts for an overlapping week)
%WA numeric representation of the week of the year, starting with the first Monday as the first week46 (for the 46th week of the year beginning with a Monday)
Month
%bAbbreviated month name, based on the localeJan through Dec
%BFull month name, based on the localeJanuary through December
%hAbbreviated month name, based on the locale (an alias of %b)Jan through Dec
%mTwo digit representation of the month01 (for January) through 12 (for December)
Year
%CTwo digit representation of the century (year divided by 100, truncated to an integer)19 for the 20th Century
%gTwo digit representation of the year going by ISO-8601:1988 standards (see %V)09 for the week of January 6, 2009
%GThe full four-digit version of %g2008 for the week of January 3, 2009
%yTwo digit representation of the year09 for 2009, 79 for 1979
%YFour digit representation for the year2038
Time
%HTwo digit representation of the hour in 24-hour format00 through 23
%kHour in 24-hour format, with a space preceding single digits0 through 23
%ITwo digit representation of the hour in 12-hour format01 through 12
%l(lower-case 'L') Hour in 12-hour format, with a space preceding single digits1 through 12
%MTwo digit representation of the minute00 through 59
%pUPPER-CASE 'AM' or 'PM' based on the given timeAM for 00:31, PM for 22:23
%Plower-case 'am' or 'pm' based on the given timeam for 00:31, pm for 22:23
%rSame as "%I:%M:%S %p"09:34:17 PM for 21:34:17
%RSame as "%H:%M"00:35 for 12:35 AM, 16:44 for 4:44 PM
%STwo digit representation of the second00 through 59
%TSame as "%H:%M:%S"21:34:17 for 09:34:17 PM
%XPreferred time representation based on locale, without the date03:59:16 or 15:59:16
%zThe time zone offset.-0500 for US Eastern Time
%ZThe time zone abbreviation.EST for Eastern Time
Time and Date Stamps
%cPreferred date and time stamp based on localeTue Feb 5 00:45:10 2009 for February 5, 2009 at 12:45:10 AM
%DSame as "%m/%d/%y"02/05/09 for February 5, 2009
%FSame as "%Y-%m-%d" (commonly used in database datestamps)2009-02-05 for February 5, 2009
%sUnix Epoch Time timestamp305815200 for September 10, 1979 08:40:00 AM
%xPreferred date representation based on locale, without the time02/05/09 for February 5, 2009
Miscellaneous
%nA newline character ("\n")
%tA Tab character ("\t")
%%A literal percentage character ("%")

Return Value

Returns a string formatted according to specified format the given timestamp or the current local time if no timestamp is given. Month and weekday names and other language-dependent strings respect the current locale set with setlocale() function. The function returns false if format is empty, contains unsupported conversion specifiers, or if the length of the returned string would be greater than 4095.

Exceptions

If the time zone is not valid, the function generates a E_WARNING.

Example: strftime() example

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

<?php
//displaying the date
echo strftime("%d %B, %Y", strtotime("10/15/2015 10:15:28"))."\n";
 
//displaying the time
echo strftime("%I:%M:%S %p", strtotime("10/15/2015 10:15:28"))."\n";

//displaying date and time
echo strftime("%d %B, %Y  %I:%M:%S %p", 
              strtotime("10/15/2015 10:15:28"))."\n";

//displaying date and time (current local time)
echo strftime("%d %B, %Y  %I:%M:%S %p", time());             
?>

The output of the above code will be:

15 October, 2015
10:15:28 AM
15 October, 2015  10:15:28 AM
01 October, 2021  09:41:03 AM

Example: strftime() locale examples

Consider one more example where this function is used with different locales.

<?php
//setting locale to German
setlocale(LC_ALL, 'de_DE');
echo strftime("The current German time is %r\n");

//setting locale to UK
setlocale(LC_ALL, 'UK');
echo strftime("The current UK time is %r\n");
?>

The output of the above code will be:

The current German time is 09:43:29 AM
The current UK time is 09:43:29 AM

❮ PHP Date and Time Reference