PHP Date and Time

Dates and times are used in almost every website: show the current date, calculate an age, set an offer end date, or save when a post was created. PHP has simple functions for this, and a powerful DateTime class.

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Time zone

PHP uses a time zone to show the right local time. Set it at the start of your script, or in php.ini.

<?php
date_default_timezone_set("Asia/Kolkata");

echo date_default_timezone_get();
?>

Output:

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time() and date()

time() returns the current time as a timestamp, the number of seconds since 1 January 1970. The date() function turns a timestamp into readable text, using format characters.

Character	Meaning	Example
d	Day of month, 2 digits	05
j	Day of month, no zero	5
D / l	Day name, short / full	Fri / Friday
m	Month number	12
M / F	Month name, short / full	Dec / December
Y / y	Year, 4 digits / 2 digits	2026 / 26
H / h	Hour, 24 hours / 12 hours	14 / 02
i	Minutes	07
s	Seconds	09
A	AM or PM	PM

<?php
echo date("d M Y", strtotime("2026-12-25")) . "<br>";
echo date("l", strtotime("2026-12-25")) . "<br>";
echo date("Y-m-d H:i:s", 86400);
?>

Output:

To show the current date use date("Y-m-d"), because date() without a timestamp uses the current time.

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strtotime(), mktime() and checkdate()

<?php
echo date("Y-m-d", strtotime("2026-01-31 +1 day")) . "<br>";
echo date("Y-m-d", mktime(0, 0, 0, 12, 25, 2026)) . "<br>";
var_dump(checkdate(2, 30, 2026));
?>

Output:

• strtotime() understands English text like “tomorrow”, “next Monday” or “+1 week”.
• mktime(hour, minute, second, month, day, year) builds a timestamp.
• checkdate(month, day, year) checks if a date is valid. 30 February is not.

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The DateTime class

For modern code use the DateTime class. It is easier for calculations, and it handles time zones better.

<?php
$start = new DateTime("2026-01-01");
$end = new DateTime("2026-03-01");

echo $start->diff($end)->days . " days<br>";

$start->modify("+10 days");
echo $start->format("d F Y");
?>

Output:

• diff() gives the difference between two dates.
• modify() adds or subtracts time.
• format() uses the same characters as date().

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