{"id":356570,"date":"2021-11-18T07:38:51","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T15:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/?p=356570"},"modified":"2022-01-05T12:58:16","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T20:58:16","slug":"php-date-and-time-recipes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/php-date-and-time-recipes\/","title":{"rendered":"PHP Date and Time Recipes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-1 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<p>Dealing with dates and times is one of those things that can frustrate programmers a lot. At the same time, they are fundamental to software development, used from everything from meta and how things are ordered to time-based triggers and lots in between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dates and times are prone to errors too. Handle them incorrectly, and they can confuse end-users and fellow programmers alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a quick guide to dealing with dates and times specifically in the PHP programming language. It\u2019s meant to be a reference to the most common needs you\u2019ll have, like formatting and adjusting dates. It\u2019s simple, but it\u2019s likely going to cover 80% of your needs.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"simpletoc-title \">Table of Contents<\/h2><ul class=\"simpletoc-list\"   >\n<li>\n<a  href=\"#h-get-the-current-date-and-time\">Get the current date and time<\/a><\/li><li>\n<a  href=\"#h-construct-a-datetime-object-of-a-specific-time\">Construct a DateTime object of a specific time<\/a><\/li><li>\n<a  href=\"#h-timezones\">Timezones<\/a><\/li><li>\n<a  href=\"#h-localization\">Localization<\/a><\/li><li>\n<a  href=\"#h-time-travel\">Time travel<\/a><\/li><li>\n<a  href=\"#h-recurring-dates-and-times\">Recurring dates and times<\/a><\/li><li>\n<a  href=\"#h-how-many-days-ago\">How many days ago?<\/a><\/li><li>\n<a  href=\"#h-where-do-you-go-from-here\">Where do you go from here?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group ticss-c1c05c01\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group ticss-b8351529\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"ticss-b4fe216d\">This research is brought to you by support from <a href=\"https:\/\/srv.buysellads.com\/ads\/long\/x\/T6SFYSZ3TTTTTTH6PJMN4TTTTTT3R3SPK6TTTTTTVDQCBYVTTTTTTBJU2WS6KBQUV2KFLOLKP77CA27JF3ZHLMBNCMVT\" rel=\"sponsored nofollow noopener\">Frontend Masters<\/a>, CSS-Tricks&#8217; official learning partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image ticss-83e3c493\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/srv.buysellads.com\/ads\/long\/x\/T6SFYSZ3TTTTTTH6PJMN4TTTTTT3R3SPK6TTTTTTVDQCBYVTTTTTTBJU2WS6KBQUV2KFLOLKP77CA27JF3ZHLMBNCMVT\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/fem-topstack.svg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-352828\" width=\"202\" height=\"106\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group ticss-6e55209a\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Need front-end development training?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ticss-d4f4c486\"><a href=\"https:\/\/srv.buysellads.com\/ads\/long\/x\/https:\/\/srv.buysellads.com\/ads\/long\/x\/T6SFYSZ3TTTTTTH6PJMN4TTTTTT3R3SPK6TTTTTTVDQCBYVTTTTTTBJU2WS6KBQUV2KFLOLKP77CA27JF3ZHLMBNCMVT\" rel=\"sponsored nofollow noopener\">Frontend Masters<\/a>&nbsp;is the best place to get it. They have courses on all the most important front-end technologies. Interested in going full-stack? Here&#8217;s your best bet:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button ticss-00e88711\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"https:\/\/srv.buysellads.com\/ads\/long\/x\/TCIZZHD3TTTTTT3VLOQC4TTTTTTKCO6IK6TTTTTTBT27VYVTTTTTTKBY2RVCBWDB233HKRB75J7WEM4B53R6BLDVVQZE\" rel=\"noopener\">Take the Courses<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-get-the-current-date-and-time\">Get the current date and time<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>One thing to know is that the dates and times can be represented in three forms: a timestamp (i.e. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Epoch_(computing)\" rel=\"noopener\">epoch time<\/a>), a <code>DateTime<\/code> object, and a string.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First up, a recipe to get the current date and time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$now = new DateTime();\nvar_dump($now);\n\n\/\/ object(DateTime)#1 (3) {\n\/\/   [\"date\"]=>\n\/\/   string(26) \"2021-10-13 22:25:11.790490\"\n\/\/   [\"timezone_type\"]=>\n\/\/   int(3)\n\/\/   [\"timezone\"]=>\n\/\/   string(12) \"Asia\/Jakarta\"\n\/\/ }<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>This provides a <code>DateTime<\/code> object that can be used to create a date and time string:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$now = new DateTime();\necho $now->format(\"Y-m-d\"); \/\/ 2021-10-13\necho $now->format(\"Y-m-d h:i:s A\"); \/\/ 2021-10-13 10:10:31 PM<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Intuitively, you know that <code>Y<\/code> refers to the year, <code>m<\/code> refers to the month, <code>d<\/code> refers to the day of the month, and so on. The full list of the parameters can be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.php.net\/manual\/en\/datetime.format.php\" rel=\"noopener\">found in the PHP manual<\/a>, but I\u2019ll drop some of the most common ones here for reference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table ticss-1f6d042d\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Day of the month<\/strong><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><code>d<\/code><\/td><td>Day of the month.&nbsp;two&nbsp;digits with leading zeros<\/td><td><code>01<\/code>&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;<code>31<\/code><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><code>j<\/code><\/td><td>Day of the month without leading zeros<\/td><td><code>1<\/code>&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;<code>31<\/code><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><code>S<\/code><\/td><td>Includes the English suffix.<\/td><td><code>st<\/code>,&nbsp;<code>nd<\/code>,&nbsp;<code>rd<\/code>,&nbsp;<code>th<\/code>&nbsp;(e.g.&nbsp;<code>1st<\/code>,&nbsp;<code>2nd<\/code>,&nbsp;<code>3rd<\/code>,&nbsp;<code>4th<\/code>)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Weekday<\/strong><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><code>D<\/code><\/td><td>Abbreviated&nbsp;textual representation of a day,&nbsp;in&nbsp;three letters<\/td><td><code>Sun<\/code>&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;<code>Sat<\/code><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><code>l<\/code><\/td><td>A full textual representation of a weekday.<\/td><td><code>Sunday<\/code>&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;<code>Saturday<\/code><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Month<\/strong><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><code>F<\/code><\/td><td>A full textual representation of a month, such as January or March<\/td><td><code>January<\/code>&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;<code>December<\/code><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><code>M<\/code><\/td><td>Abbreviated&nbsp;textual representation of a month,&nbsp;in&nbsp;three letters<\/td><td><code>Jan<\/code>&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;<code>Dec<\/code><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><code>m<\/code><\/td><td>Numeric representation of a month, with leading zeros<\/td><td><code>01<\/code>&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;<code>12<\/code><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><code>n<\/code><\/td><td>Numeric representation of a month, without leading zeros<\/td><td><code>1<\/code>&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;<code>12<\/code><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Year<\/strong><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><code>Y<\/code><\/td><td>A full numeric representation of a year, 4 digits<\/td><td>E.g.&nbsp;<code>1999<\/code>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<code>2003<\/code><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><code>y<\/code><\/td><td>A two digit representation of a year<\/td><td>E.g.&nbsp;<code>99<\/code>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<code>03<\/code><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Time<\/strong><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><code>A<\/code><\/td><td>Uppercase Ante&nbsp;Meridiem and Post&nbsp;Meridiem<\/td><td><code>AM<\/code>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<code>PM<\/code><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><code>g<\/code><\/td><td>12-hour format of an hour without leading zeros<\/td><td><code>1<\/code>&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;<code>12<\/code><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><code>h<\/code><\/td><td>12-hour format of an hour with leading zeros<\/td><td><code>01<\/code>&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;<code>12<\/code><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><code>i<\/code><\/td><td>Minutes with leading zeros<\/td><td><code>00<\/code>&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;<code>59<\/code><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><code>s<\/code><\/td><td>Seconds with leading zeros<\/td><td><code>00<\/code>&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;<code>59<\/code><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The <code>DateTime<\/code> object can be converted to a timestamp:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$now = new DateTime();\necho $now->getTimestamp(); \/\/ 1634139081<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>But we can also get the current time in timestamp without constructing a <code>DateTime<\/code> object:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\necho time(); \/\/ 1634139081<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-construct-a-datetime-object-of-a-specific-time\">Construct a <code>DateTime<\/code> object of a specific time<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>What if we want to construct a <code>DateTime<\/code> for a particular time, like July 14th, 2011? We can pass a formatted string date to the constructor:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$date = new DateTime(\"2011-07-14\");\nvar_dump($date);\n\n\/\/ object(DateTime)#1 (3) {\n\/\/   [\"date\"]=>\n\/\/   string(26) \"2011-07-14 00:00:00.000000\"\n\/\/   [\"timezone_type\"]=>\n\/\/   int(3)\n\/\/   [\"timezone\"]=>\n\/\/   string(12) \"Asia\/Jakarta\"\n\/\/ }<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>The constructor accepts other formats as well:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$date = new DateTime(\"14-07-2011\");\nvar_dump($date);\n\n\/\/ object(DateTime)#1 (3) {\n\/\/   [\"date\"]=>\n\/\/   string(26) \"2011-07-14 00:00:00.000000\"\n\/\/   [\"timezone_type\"]=>\n\/\/   int(3)\n\/\/   [\"timezone\"]=>\n\/\/   string(12) \"Asia\/Jakarta\"\n\/\/ }<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>But be careful with an ambiguous format, like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"3\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$date = new DateTime(\"07\/14\/2011\");\nvar_dump($date);\n\n\/\/ object(DateTime)#1 (3) {\n\/\/   [\"date\"]=>\n\/\/   string(26) \"2011-07-14 00:00:00.000000\"\n\/\/   [\"timezone_type\"]=>\n\/\/   int(3)\n\/\/   [\"timezone\"]=>\n\/\/   string(12) \"Asia\/Jakarta\"\n\/\/ }<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>You might think that everyone should be familiar with an American date format. But not everyone is and it might be interpreted differently. Not PostgreSQL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"SQL\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"6\"><code markup=\"tt\">CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS public.datetime_demo\n(\n  created_at date\n);\n\ninsert into datetime_demo (created_at) values ('07\/12\/2011');\n\nselect created_at from datetime_demo; \/* 2011-12-07 *\/<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>You may have thought that would return July 12th, 2011, but it was December 7th, 2011, instead. A better way is to use an explicit format:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"3\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$date = DateTime::createFromFormat('m\/d\/y', \"10\/08\/21\");\nvar_dump($date);\n\n\/\/object(DateTime)#2 (3) {\n\/\/  [\"date\"]=>\n\/\/  string(26) \"2021-10-08 16:00:47.000000\"\n\/\/  [\"timezone_type\"]=>\n\/\/  int(3)\n\/\/  [\"timezone\"]=>\n\/\/  string(12) \"Asia\/Jakarta\"\n\/\/}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>What if we want to construct a <code>DateTime<\/code> object from a timestamp?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$date = new DateTime();\n$date->setTimestamp(1634142890);\nvar_dump($date);\n\n\/\/object(DateTime)#1 (3) {\n\/\/  [\"date\"]=>\n\/\/  string(26) \"2021-10-13 23:34:50.000000\"\n\/\/  [\"timezone_type\"]=>\n\/\/  int(3)\n\/\/  [\"timezone\"]=>\n\/\/  string(12) \"Asia\/Jakarta\"\n\/\/ }<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>We don\u2019t have to create a <code>DateTime<\/code> object if we want to convert a timestamp object to a formatted date string:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\necho date(\"Y-m-d h:i A\", time()); \/\/ 2021-10-14 04:10 PM<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-timezones\">Timezones<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>We can create a <code>DateTime<\/code> object that includes timezone information, like if we\u2019re dealing with Pacific Standard Time, Eastern Daylight Time, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$timezone = new DateTimeZone(\"America\/New_York\");\n$date = new DateTime(\"2021-10-13 05:00\", $timezone);\nvar_dump($date);\n\n\/\/ object(DateTime)#1 (3) {\n\/\/   [\"date\"]=>\n\/\/   string(26) \"2021-10-13 05:00:00.000000\"\n\/\/   [\"timezone_type\"]=>\n\/\/   int(3)\n\/\/   [\"timezone\"]=>\n\/\/   string(16) \"America\/New_York\"\n\/\/ }\n\n\/\/ Eastern Daylight Time, for example: New York\n$date = new DateTime(\"2021-10-13 05:00 EDT\");\nvar_dump($date);\n\n\/\/ object(DateTime)#2 (3) {\n\/\/   [\"date\"]=>\n\/\/   string(26) \"2021-10-13 05:00:00.000000\"\n\/\/   [\"timezone_type\"]=>\n\/\/   int(2)\n\/\/   [\"timezone\"]=>\n\/\/   string(3) \"EDT\"\n\/\/ }\n\n$date = new DateTime(\"2021-10-13 05:00 -04:00\");\nvar_dump($date);\n\n\/\/ object(DateTime)#1 (3) {\n\/\/   [\"date\"]=>\n\/\/   string(26) \"2021-10-13 05:00:00.000000\"\n\/\/   [\"timezone_type\"]=>\n\/\/   int(1)\n\/\/   [\"timezone\"]=>\n\/\/   string(6) \"-04:00\"\n\/\/ }<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>There are three ways to create a <code>DateTime<\/code> object with timezone information. The <code>timezone_type<\/code> accepts different values for each one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But say we want to convert a date and time that\u2019s displayed in New York\u2019s timezone to display Jakarta\u2019s timezone instead?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$newYorkTimeZone = new DateTimeZone(\"America\/New_York\");\n$date = new DateTime(\"2021-11-11 05:00\", $newYorkTimeZone);\necho $date->format(\"Y-m-d h:i A\"); \/\/ 2021-11-11 05:00 AM\n$jakartaTimeZone = new DateTimeZone(\"Asia\/Jakarta\");\n$date->setTimeZone($jakartaTimeZone);\necho $date->format(\"Y-m-d h:i A\"); \/\/ 2021-11-11 05:00 PM<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>When it\u2019s 05:00 AM in New York, it\u2019s 05:00 PM in Jakarta on the same day. Jakarta is 12 hours ahead of New York on November 11th 2021. But one month earlier, Jakarta is only 11 hours ahead of New York as shown below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"HTML\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-markup language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$newYorkTimeZone = new DateTimeZone(\"America\/New_York\");\n$date = new DateTime(\"2021-10-11 05:00\", $newYorkTimeZone);\necho $date->format(\"Y-m-d h:i A\"); \/\/ 2021-10-11 05:00 AM\n$jakartaTimeZone = new DateTimeZone(\"Asia\/Jakarta\");\n$date->setTimeZone($jakartaTimeZone);\necho $date->format(\"Y-m-d h:i A\"); \/\/ 2021-10-11 04:00 PM<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>PHP handles Daylight Saving Time for you automatically.<\/p>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-localization\">Localization<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>This is a common way to display date and time in the United States:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$now = new DateTime();\necho $now->format(\"m\/d\/Y h:i A\"); \/\/ 10\/14\/2021 03:00 PM<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>But someone in France might prefer something more common to their locale. <em>C\u2019est horrible<\/em>, they\u2019d complain. For one, nobody puts the month before month day, except the U.S. Second, France doesn\u2019t use AM or PM \u2014 they use the 24-hour format (e.g. 14:00 instead of 2:00 PM) like the military. This is how you make a French local happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$now = new DateTime();\necho $now->format(\"d\/m\/Y H:i\"); \/\/ 14\/10\/2021 15:00<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>But this requires an intimate knowledge about a specific country or area. Instead, we can localize the date.&nbsp;To localize a date, we need to install the internationalization support for PHP. In Ubuntu, we can do this step:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"Terminal\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-none\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">$ sudo apt-get install php-intl<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>To display a date and time in French, we can use <code>IntlDateFormatter<\/code>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">$locale = \"fr_FR.UTF-8\";\n$formatter = new IntlDateFormatter($locale, IntlDateFormatter::FULL, IntlDateFormatter::SHORT, \"Asia\/Singapore\");\n$date = new DateTime(\"2020-10-10 00:00 UTC\");\necho $formatter->format($date); \/\/ samedi 10 octobre 2020 \u00e0 08:00<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>You pass the French locale as the first parameter of <code>IntlDateFormatter<\/code>.<br>The second parameter is the format for the date. The third parameter is the format for the time. The timezone for displaying the date and time is in the fourth parameter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Besides <code>IntlDateFormatter::FULL<\/code> and <code>IntlDateFormatter::SHORT<\/code>, other popular formats are <code>IntlDateFormatter::NONE<\/code>, <code>IntlDateFormatter::LONG<\/code>,<br>and <code>IntlDateFormatter::MEDIUM<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you use <code>IntlDateFormatter::NONE<\/code> for the time or in the third parameter, it means you don&#8217;t include the time in the format:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">$locale = \"fr_FR.UTF-8\";\n$formatter = new IntlDateFormatter($locale, IntlDateFormatter::LONG, IntlDateFormatter::NONE, \"Asia\/Singapore\");\n$date = new DateTime(\"2020-10-10 00:00 UTC\");\necho $formatter->format($date); \/\/ 10 octobre 2020<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-time-travel\">Time travel<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s do time travel to the past and the future. First, let\u2019s get acquainted with <code>DateInterval<\/code>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$interval = new DateInterval(\"P4M1W2DT2H5M\");\n\n\/\/ P 4M 1W 2D T 2H 5M\n\/\/\n\/\/ P = Period interval (years, months, weeks, days)\n\/\/ 4M = 4 months\n\/\/ 1W = 1 week\n\/\/ 2D = 2 days\n\/\/\n\/\/ T = Time interval (hours, minutes, seconds)\n\/\/ 2H = 2 hours\n\/\/ 5M = 5 minutes<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>The <code>P<\/code> and <code>T<\/code> are to separate period interval and time interval. Here\u2019s how we can travel to the future:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$date = new DateTime(\"2021-10-14\");\n$interval = new DateInterval(\"P2D\"); \/\/ 2 days\n$futureDate = $date->add($interval);\necho $futureDate->format(\"Y-m-d\"); \/\/ 2021-10-16<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>And here\u2019s how we go back in time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$date = new DateTime(\"2021-10-14 10:00\");\n$interval = new DateInterval(\"PT6H\"); \/\/ 6 hours\n$pastDate = $date->sub($interval);\necho $pastDate->format(\"Y-m-d H:i\"); \/\/ 2021-10-14 04:00<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>If we want to time travel with the name of the weekday, we can combine the <code>strtotime()<\/code> function and the <code>setTimestamp()<\/code> method of a <code>DateTime<\/code> object:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$nextTuesday = strtotime(\"next tuesday\");\n$date = new DateTime(\"2021-10-14\");\n$date->setTimestamp($nextTuesday);\necho $date->format(\"Y-m-d\"); \/\/ 2021-10-19<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>See the full list of <code>strtotime()<\/code> parameters <a href=\"https:\/\/www.php.net\/manual\/en\/function.strtotime\" rel=\"noopener\">in the PHP docs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-recurring-dates-and-times\">Recurring dates and times<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a common feature in calendar apps to set a reminder that repeats every so often, like every two days or every week. We can use <code>DatePeriod<\/code> to represent a period of time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$start = new DateTime(\"2021-10-01\");\n$end = new DateTime(\"2021-11-01\");\n$interval = new DateInterval(\"P1W\"); \/\/ 1 week\n$range = new DatePeriod($start, $interval, $end);\n\n\/\/ Starting from October 1st 2021 (inclusive), jump every 1 week\n\/\/ until November 1st 2021 (exclusive)\nforeach ($range as $date) {\n  echo $date->format(\"Y-m-d\") . \"n\";\n}\n\n\/\/ 2022-10-01\n\/\/ 2022-10-08\n\/\/ 2022-10-15\n\/\/ 2022-10-22\n\/\/ 2022-10-29<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-many-days-ago\">How many days ago?<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>You know how services like Twitter will show that someone posted X number of minutes\/hours\/days\/etc. ago? We can do the same thing by calculating how much time has elapsed between the the current time and when that action occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre rel=\"PHP\" class=\"wp-block-csstricks-code-block language-javascript\" data-line=\"\"><code markup=\"tt\">&lt;?php\n\n$date = new DateTime(\"2022-10-30\");\n\n$date2 = new DateTime(\"2022-10-25\");\n$date3 = new DateTime(\"2022-10-10\");\n$date4 = new DateTime(\"2022-03-30\");\n$date5 = new DateTime(\"2020-03-30\");\n\nfunction get_period_ago($endDate, $startDate) {\n  $dateInterval = $endDate->diff($startDate);\n\n  if ($dateInterval->invert==1) {\n    if ($dateInterval->y > 0) {\n      return $dateInterval->y . \" years agon\";\n    } if ($dateInterval->m > 0) {\n      return $dateInterval->m . \" months agon\";\n    } if ($dateInterval->d > 7) {\n      return (int)($dateInterval->d \/ 7) . \" weeks agon\";\n    } if ($dateInterval->d > 0) {\n      return $dateInterval->d . \" days agon\";\n    }\n  }\n}\n\necho get_period_ago($date, $date2); \/\/ 5 days ago\necho get_period_ago($date, $date3); \/\/ 2 weeks ago\necho get_period_ago($date, $date4); \/\/ 7 months ago\necho get_period_ago($date, $date5); \/\/ 2 years ago<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>After getting the <code>DateInterval<\/code> object from the <code>diff()<\/code> method, make sure that the <code>$startDate<\/code> variable is in the past by checking the <code>invert<\/code> property. Then check the <code>y<\/code>, <code>m<\/code>, and <code>d<\/code> properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The full list of <code>DateInterval<\/code> object properties can be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.php.net\/manual\/en\/class.dateinterval.php\" rel=\"noopener\">found here in the PHP docs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-where-do-you-go-from-here\">Where do you go from here?<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>Now you have a little cheatsheet of common PHP recipes for when you find yourself working with dates and times. Need to get the current date and time? Maybe you need to format a date a certain way, or include the local timezone, or compare dates. All of that is right here!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are still more methods and functions about date and time that we haven\u2019t discussed, of course \u2014 things like calendar-related functions and whatnot. Be sure to keep the PHP Manual\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.php.net\/manual\/en\/book.datetime.php\" rel=\"noopener\">Date and Time<\/a> section close by for even more use cases and examples.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dealing with dates and times is one of those things that can frustrate programmers a lot. At the same time, they are fundamental to software development, used from everything from meta and how things are ordered to time-based triggers and lots in between. Dates and times are prone to errors too. Handle them incorrectly, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":287035,"featured_media":356580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"art-direction\/fancy-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"sig_custom_text":"","sig_image_type":"featured-image","sig_custom_image":0,"sig_is_disabled":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"c2c_always_allow_admin_comments":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A bunch of PHP recipes for handling dates and times from @arjunaskykok","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[4],"tags":[12476,15310,772],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/php-datetime.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/php-datetime.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356570"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/287035"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356570"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":360661,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356570\/revisions\/360661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}