date

Format a Unix timestamp

&reftitle.description; `string` `date` `string` `format` ``int``null```timestamp`&null;

Returns a string formatted according to the given format string using the given integer `timestamp` (Unix timestamp) or the current time if no timestamp is given. In other words, `timestamp` is optional and defaults to the value of `time`.

Unix timestamps do not handle timezones. Use the `DateTimeImmutable` class, and its `DateTimeInterface::format` formatting method to format date/time information with a timezone attached.

&reftitle.parameters;

`format`

- Format accepted by `DateTimeInterface::format`.

  `date` will always generate `000000` as microseconds since it takes an `int` parameter, whereas `DateTimeInterface::format` does support microseconds if an object of type DateTimeInterface was created with microseconds.

&date.timestamp.description;
&reftitle.returnvalues;

Returns a formatted date string.

&reftitle.errors; &date.timezone.errors.description;
&reftitle.changelog;

&Version; | &Description;
8.0.0 | `timestamp` is nullable now.

&reftitle.examples;

### `date` examples

    <?php
    // set the default timezone to use.
    date_default_timezone_set('UTC');

    // Prints something like: Monday
    echo date("l");

    // Prints something like: Monday 8th of August 2005 03:12:46 PM
    echo date('l jS \of F Y h:i:s A');

    // Prints: July 1, 2000 is on a Saturday
    echo "July 1, 2000 is on a " . date("l", mktime(0, 0, 0, 7, 1, 2000));

    /* use the constants in the format parameter */
    // prints something like: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 15:28:57 -0700
    echo date(DATE_RFC2822);

    // prints something like: 2000-07-01T00:00:00+00:00
    echo date(DATE_ATOM, mktime(0, 0, 0, 7, 1, 2000));
    ?>

You can prevent a recognized character in the format string from being expanded by escaping it with a preceding backslash. If the character with a backslash is already a special sequence, you may need to also escape the backslash.

### Escaping characters in `date`

    <?php
    // prints something like: Wednesday the 15th
    echo date('l \t\h\e jS');
    ?>

It is possible to use `date` and `mktime` together to find dates in the future or the past.

### `date` and `mktime` example

    <?php
    $tomorrow  = mktime(0, 0, 0, date("m")  , date("d")+1, date("Y"));
    $lastmonth = mktime(0, 0, 0, date("m")-1, date("d"),   date("Y"));
    $nextyear  = mktime(0, 0, 0, date("m"),   date("d"),   date("Y")+1);
    ?>

This can be more reliable than simply adding or subtracting the number of seconds in a day or month to a timestamp because of daylight saving time.

Some examples of `date` formatting. Note that you should escape any other characters, as any which currently have a special meaning will produce undesirable results, and other characters may be assigned meaning in future PHP versions. When escaping, be sure to use single quotes to prevent characters like \n from becoming newlines.

### `date` Formatting

    <?php
    // Assuming today is March 10th, 2001, 5:16:18 pm, and that we are in the
    // Mountain Standard Time (MST) Time Zone

    $today = date("F j, Y, g:i a");                 // March 10, 2001, 5:16 pm
    $today = date("m.d.y");                         // 03.10.01
    $today = date("j, n, Y");                       // 10, 3, 2001
    $today = date("Ymd");                           // 20010310
    $today = date('h-i-s, j-m-y, it is w Day');     // 05-16-18, 10-03-01, 1631 1618 6 Satpm01
    $today = date('\i\t \i\s \t\h\e jS \d\a\y.');   // it is the 10th day.
    $today = date("D M j G:i:s T Y");               // Sat Mar 10 17:16:18 MST 2001
    $today = date('H:m:s \m \i\s\ \m\o\n\t\h');     // 17:03:18 m is month
    $today = date("H:i:s");                         // 17:16:18
    $today = date("Y-m-d H:i:s");                   // 2001-03-10 17:16:18 (the MySQL DATETIME format)
    ?>

To format dates in other languages, `IntlDateFormatter::format` can be used instead of `date`.

&reftitle.notes;

To generate a timestamp from a string representation of the date, you may be able to use `strtotime`. Additionally, some databases have functions to convert their date formats into timestamps (such as MySQL's UNIX_TIMESTAMP function).

Timestamp of the start of the request is available in `$_SERVER['REQUEST_TIME']`.

&reftitle.seealso;

- `DateTimeImmutable::__construct`
- `DateTimeInterface::format`
- `gmdate`
- `idate`
- `getdate`
- `getlastmod`
- `mktime`
- `IntlDateFormatter::format`
- `time`
- Predefined DateTime Constants