PHP
PHP Projects: Create an Opinion Poll Application
In this PHP project , we are going to create an opinion poll application. The opinion poll will...
PHP date function is an in-built function that simplify working with date data types. The PHP date function is used to format a date or time into a human readable format. It can be used to display the date of article was published. record the last updated a data in a database.
In this tutorial, you will learn date and time function in PHP-
PHP Date the following basic syntax
<?php date(format,[timestamp]); ?>
HERE,
Let’s look at a basic example that displays the current year.
<?php echo date("Y"); ?>
Output:
2018
A timestamp in PHP is a numeric value in seconds between the current time and value as at 1st January, 1970 00:00:00 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
The value returned by the time function depends on the default time zone.
The default time zone is set in the php.ini file.
It can also be set programmatically using date_default_timezone_set function.
The code below displays the current time stamp
<?php echo time(); ?>
Assuming you saved the file timestamp.php in phptuts folder, browse to the URL http://localhost/phptuts/timestamp.php
Note: the value of the timestamp PHP is not a constant. It changes every second.
Before we look at how to set the default time zone programmatically, let’s look at how to get a list of supported time zones.
<?php $timezone_identifiers = DateTimeZone::listIdentifiers(); foreach($timezone_identifiers as $key => $list){ echo $list . "<br/>"; } ?>
HERE,
“$timezone_identifiers = DateTimeZone::listIdentifiers();” calls the listIdentifiers static method of the DateandTime Zone built in class.
The listIdentifiers method returns a list of constants that are assigned to the variable $timezone_identifiers.
Assuming you saved the file list_time_zones.php in phptuts folder, browse to the URL http://localhost/phptuts/list_time_zones.php
The date_default_timezone_set function allows you to set the default time zone from a PHP script.
The set time zone will then be used by all date in PHP function scripts. It has the following syntax.
<?php date_default_timezone_set ( string $timezone_identifier ); ?>
HERE,
The script below displays the time according to the default time zone set in php.ini.
It then changes the default time zone to Asia/Calcutta and displays the time again.
<?php echo "The time in " . date_default_timezone_get() . " is " . date("H:i:s"); date_default_timezone_set("Asia/Calcutta"); echo "The time in " . date_default_timezone_get() . " is " . date("H:i:s"); ?>
Assuming you have saved the file set_time_zone.php in the phptuts folder, browse to the URL http://localhost/phptuts/set_time_zone.php
The mktime function returns the timestamp in a Unix format.
It has the following syntax.
<?php mktime(hour, minute, second, month, day, year, is_dst); ?>
HERE,
Let’s now look at an example that creates a timestamp for the date 13/10/2025 using the mktime function.
<?php echo mktime(0,0,0,10,13,2025); ?>
HERE,
Output:
1760328000
The table below shows the common parameters used when working with the PHP date functions.
Parameter | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
“r” | Returns the full date and time | <?php echo date("r"); ?> |
“a”,”A” | Returns whether the current time is am or pm, AM or PM respectively | <?php echo date("a"); echo date("A"); ?> |
“g”,”G” | Returns the hour without leading zeroes [1 to 12], [0 to 23] respectively | <?php echo date("g"); echo date("G"); ?> |
“h”,”H” | Returns the hour with leading zeros [01 to 12],[00 to 23] respectively | <?php echo date("h"); echo date("H"); ?> |
“i”,”s” | Returns the minutes/seconds with leading zeroes [00 to 59] | <?php echo date("i"); echo date("s"); ?> |
Parameter | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
“d” | Returns the day of the month with leading zeroes [01 to 31] | <?php echo date("d"); ?> |
“j” | Returns the day of the month without leading zeroes [1 to 31] | <?php echo date("j"); ?> |
“D” | Returns the first 3 letters of the day name [Sub to Sat] | <?php echo date("D"); ?> |
“l” | Returns day name of the week [Sunday to Saturday] | <?php echo date("l"); ?> |
“w” | Returns day of the week without leading zeroes [0 to 6] Sunday is represent by zero (0) through to Saturday represented by six (6) | <?php echo date("w"); ?> |
“z” | Returns the day of the year without leading spaces [0 through to 365] | <?php echo date("z"); ?> |
Parameter | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
“m” | Returns the month number with leading zeroes [01 to 12] | <?php echo date("m"); ?> |
“n” | Returns the month number without leading zeroes [01 to 12] | <?php echo date("n"); ?> |
“M” | Returns the first 3 letters of the month name [Jan to Dec] | <?php echo date("M"); ?> |
“F” | Returns the month name [January to December] | <?php echo date("F"); ?> |
“t” | Returns the number of days in a month [28 to 31] | <?php echo date("t"); ?> |
Parameter | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
“L” | Returns 1 if it’s a leap year and 0 if it is not a leap year | <?php echo date("L"); ?> |
“Y” | Returns four digit year format | <?php echo date("Y"); ?> |
“y” | Returns two (2) digits year format (00 to 99) | <?php echo date("y"); ?> |
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