PHP date function: format and display date and time

With the PHP date() function, display date and time dynamically in almost any format of your choice. This can be especially useful if you're looking to indicate release dates, countdowns, or other time-related information.

PHP date function: what is it?¶

PHP date is a built-in function to format date and time. It returns a string (or String) representing the date and time formatted according to the defined parameters. For example, you can use the date() function if you want to display the current or future date and time on your website. If you use PHP to retrieve information from a MySQL database, the date() function can convert this information into a readable format; this can be very practical for your blog articles or related to current events.

What does the syntax of the PHP date() function look like?¶

The structure of the PHP date() function is as follows:

date(format, timestamp);

What parameters are accepted by the PHP date function?¶

The date() function is composed of a required parameter and an optional parameter.

• format : PHP date format corresponds to a character string parameter (or String) indicating how the date and time should be formatted;
  • Y : this is the year, written with 4 digits (for example, “2023”);
  • m : this is the month, always written with 2 digits (from “01” to “12”);
  • d : this is the day of the month, always written with two numbers (from “01” to “31”);
  • H : this is the time, in “24 hour” format (from “00” to “23”);
  • i : this is the minute (from “00” to “59”);
  • s : this is the second (from “00” to “59”);
• timestamp : This is an optional parameter supporting a timestamp as an integer. If you decide to leave this setting aside, the current system time is used.

L'UNIX time (also called « POSIX time ») is a simple integer that counts the number of seconds that have passed since January 1, 1970 at 00:00:00 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). This timestamp corresponds to a common standard in the field of IT, because it overcomes all time zones and allows simple calculations involving temporal data to be carried out.

To learn more about programming with PHP, we invite you to consult our PHP tutorial. We have also compared the advantages and disadvantages of PHP and Python and PHP and JavaScript for you.

$today = date('Y-m-d'); // année, mois et jour actuels
$message="La date actuelle" . $today;
echo $message;

$dateString = '2023-08-19';
$timestamp = strtotime($dateString);
$formattedDate = date('l, F j, Y', $timestamp);
echo $formattedDate;

Samedi, 19 août 2023

$now = new DateTime();
$formattedDate = $now->format('l, F j, Y H:i:s');
echo $formattedDate;