PHP date() Function

## PHP Basic

PHP HOME PHP Intro PHP Install PHP Syntax PHP Variables PHP Echo / Print PHP Data Types PHP String Functions PHP Constants PHP Operators PHP If...Else...Elseif PHP Switch PHP While Loops PHP For Loops PHP Functions PHP Arrays PHP Sorting Arrays PHP Superglobals

## PHP Forms

PHP Form Handling PHP Form Validation PHP Form Required PHP Form URL/E-mail PHP Form Complete

## PHP Advanced

PHP Arrays Multi PHP Date PHP Include PHP File PHP File Upload PHP Cookies PHP Sessions PHP E-mail PHP Secure E-mail PHP Error PHP Exception PHP Filter

## PHP Database

PHP MySQL Intro PHP MySQL Connect PHP CREATE DB/Table PHP INSERT INTO PHP SELECT PHP WHERE PHP ORDER BY PHP UPDATE PHP DELETE PHP ODBC

## PHP XML

XML Expat Parser XML DOM XML SimpleXML

## PHP and AJAX

AJAX Intro AJAX PHP AJAX Database AJAX XML AJAX Live Search AJAX RSS Reader AJAX Poll

## PHP Reference

PHP Array PHP Calendar PHP Date PHP Directory PHP Error PHP Filesystem PHP Filter PHP FTP PHP HTTP PHP Libxml PHP Mail PHP Math PHP Misc PHP MySQLi PHP SimpleXML PHP String PHP XML PHP Zip PHP Timezones

## PHP Quiz

PHP Quiz PHP Certificate

# PHP date() Function

PHP Date/Time Reference

## Example

Format a local date and time and return the formatted date strings:

<?php
// Prints the day
echo date("l") . "<br>";
// Prints the day, date, month, year, time, AM or PM
echo date("l jS \of F Y h:i:s A");
?>
Run example »

## Definition and Usage

The date() function formats a local date and time, and returns the formatted date string.

## Syntax

date(format,timestamp);

Parameter | Description
--- | ---

format

Required. Specifies the format of the outputted date string. The following characters can be used:

- d - The day of the month (from 01 to 31)
- D - A textual representation of a day (three letters)
- j - The day of the month without leading zeros (1 to 31)
- l (lowercase 'L') - A full textual representation of a day
- N - The ISO-8601 numeric representation of a day (1 for Monday, 7 for Sunday)
- S - The English ordinal suffix for the day of the month (2 characters st, nd, rd or th. Works well with j)
- w - A numeric representation of the day (0 for Sunday, 6 for Saturday)
- z - The day of the year (from 0 through 365)
- W - The ISO-8601 week number of year (weeks starting on Monday)
- F - A full textual representation of a month (January through December)
- m - A numeric representation of a month (from 01 to 12)
- M - A short textual representation of a month (three letters)
- n - A numeric representation of a month, without leading zeros (1 to 12)
- t - The number of days in the given month
- L - Whether it's a leap year (1 if it is a leap year, 0 otherwise)
- o - The ISO-8601 year number
- Y - A four digit representation of a year
- y - A two digit representation of a year
- a - Lowercase am or pm
- A - Uppercase AM or PM
- B - Swatch Internet time (000 to 999)
- g - 12-hour format of an hour (1 to 12)
- G - 24-hour format of an hour (0 to 23)
- h - 12-hour format of an hour (01 to 12)
- H - 24-hour format of an hour (00 to 23)
- i - Minutes with leading zeros (00 to 59)
- s - Seconds, with leading zeros (00 to 59)
- u - Microseconds (added in PHP 5.2.2)
- e - The timezone identifier (Examples: UTC, GMT, Atlantic/Azores)
- I (capital i) - Whether the date is in daylights savings time (1 if Daylight Savings Time, 0 otherwise)
- O - Difference to Greenwich time (GMT) in hours (Example: +0100)
- P - Difference to Greenwich time (GMT) in hours:minutes (added in PHP 5.1.3)
- T - Timezone abbreviations (Examples: EST, MDT)
- Z - Timezone offset in seconds. The offset for timezones west of UTC is negative (-43200 to 50400)
- c - The ISO-8601 date (e.g. 2013-05-05T16:34:42+00:00)
- r - The RFC 2822 formatted date (e.g. Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:01:05 +0200)
- U - The seconds since the Unix Epoch (January 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT)

and the following predefined constants can also be used (available since PHP 5.1.0):

- DATE_ATOM - Atom (example: 2013-04-12T15:52:01+00:00)
- DATE_COOKIE - HTTP Cookies (example: Friday, 12-Apr-13 15:52:01 UTC)
- DATE_ISO8601 - ISO-8601 (example: 2013-04-12T15:52:01+0000)
- DATE_RFC822 - RFC 822 (example: Fri, 12 Apr 13 15:52:01 +0000)
- DATE_RFC850 - RFC 850 (example: Friday, 12-Apr-13 15:52:01 UTC)
- DATE_RFC1036 - RFC 1036 (example: Fri, 12 Apr 13 15:52:01 +0000)
- DATE_RFC1123 - RFC 1123 (example: Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:52:01 +0000)
- DATE_RFC2822 - RFC 2822 (Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:52:01 +0000)
- DATE_RFC3339 - Same as DATE_ATOM (since PHP 5.1.3)
- DATE_RSS - RSS (Fri, 12 Aug 2013 15:52:01 +0000)
- DATE_W3C - World Wide Web Consortium (example: 2013-04-12T15:52:01+00:00)

timestamp | Optional. Specifies an integer Unix timestamp. Default is the current local time (time())

## Technical Details

Return Value: | Returns a formatted date string on success. FALSE on failure + an E_WARNING
PHP Version: | 4+

Changelog:

PHP 5.1.0: Added E_STRICT and E_NOTICE time zone errors. Valid range of timestamp is now from Fri, 13 Dec 1901 20:45:54 GMT to Tue, 19 Jan 2038 03:14:07 GMT. Before version 5.1.0 timestamp was limited from 01-01-1970 to 19-01-2038 on some systems (e.g. Windows).
PHP 5.1.1: Added constants of standard date/time formats that can be used to specify the format parameter

PHP Date/Time Reference

## Your suggestion:

Your E-mail (optional):

Page address:

Description:

Close [X]

## Thank You For Helping Us!

Your message has been sent to W3Schools.

Close [X]
Search w3schools.com:

## WEB HOSTING

Best Web Hosting UK Reseller Hosting Wow! $5 SSD Hosting

## WEB BUILDING

Download XML Editor
FREE Website BUILDER FREE Website Creator

## WEB RESOURCES

Web Statistics Web Validation

## SHARE THIS PAGE