PHP strtotime() Function | What is strtotime and How to use them?
PHP strtotime()Function:- PHP has a date function to handle date & time to implement in web applications.
The PHP strtotime() is an inbuilt function, that used to convert an English textual date-time description to a UNIX timestamp. when we look at dates in PHP, there is a system called UNIX timestamp.
therefore, the strtotime() the function accepts a string parameter in English that represents the description of date-time. We can return the English textual date-time in date format using the date() function. the function returns the time in seconds since the UNIX Epoch.
Parameter Values
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| $EnglishDateTime | This parameter is required or mandatory, parameter Specifies the English textual date-time description which represents the date/time to return us the time in seconds and the function parses the string. |
| $time_now | A parameter is optional, specifies the timestamp used as a base for the calculation of relative dates. |
Technical Details
| PHP Version: | 4+ |
| Return Value: | It returns a timestamp on success, FALSE otherwise. this function would return -1 on failure. |
| PHP Changelog: | PHP 5.3.0: Relative time formats such as a previous week, last week, this week and next week now interprets a week period of Monday through Sunday, rather than a 7-day period relative to the current date/time. PHP 5.3.0: currently 24:00 is a valid format. PHP 5.2.7: In earlier versions, if requesting a given incidence of a given weekday in an exceedingly month wherever that weekday was the first day of the month it might incorrectly add one week to the returned timestamp. PHP 5.1.0: Returns FALSE on failure and issues E_STRICT and E_NOTICE time zone errors PHP 5.0.2: Now properly computes “now” and other relative times from current time, not from today’s midnight PHP 5.0.0: permits microseconds (but they’re ignored) |
What is UNIX timestamp?
Therefore, these are utilized in PHP to convert an English textual date-time to a UNIX timestamp. once we examine dates in PHP, there’s a system referred to as UNIX timestamp.
furthermore, If we want to echo out function time, we will be left with a weird number that has absolutely nothing to do with the date.
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<?php echo time() ?> |
Output: 1588248631
furthermore, It is UNIX timestamp in the above output and that is nothing more than a linear number that has counted the number of seconds since January 1st of 1970 but it is a useful number because we can format this being nothing more than seconds. We can use PHP to manipulate that string into what we want it to be. If I use the date function, date function requires two parameters, first are the format of date and second is time source.
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<?php echo date('m-d-y',time()); ?> |
Output: 04-30-20
The strtotime() Function Program:
therefore, the given below program demonstrates the strtotime() function.
Condition: When the English text is “now”. then see the output of the program.
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<?php // Program to demonstrate the strtotime() function // function when the english text is "now" // prints current time in second // here, since now means current echo strtotime("now"), "\n"; // prints the current time in date format echo date("Y-m-d", strtotime("now"))."\n"; ?> |
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1588244036 2020-04-30 |
Therefore, Be aware of dates in the d-m-y or m/d/y formats, If the separator is a dash (-) or a dot (.), then the European d-m-y format is assumed. if the separator may be a slash (/), then the American m/d/y is assumed. To avoid potential errors, you should to YYYY-MM-DD dates or date_create_from_format() once potential.
Program Condition:When the English text corresponds to any day.
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<?php // PHP program to demonstrate the strtotime() // function when the english text corresponds to any day // prints the converted english text in second echo strtotime("next sunday"), "\n"; // prints the above time in date format echo date("Y-m-d", strtotime("next sunday"))."\n"; ?> |
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1588550400 2020-05-04 |
Condition:When the English text is a date.
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<?php // PHP program to demonstrate the strtotime() // function when the english text is a date // prints the converted english text in second echo strtotime("9th march 2018"), "\n"; // prints the above time in date format echo date("Y-m-d", strtotime("9th march 2018"))."\n"; ?> |
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1520553600 2018-03-09 |
Another strtotime() program:
The Parse English textual datetimes into Unix timestamps
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<?php echo(strtotime("now") . " "); echo(strtotime("13 November 2017") . " "); echo(strtotime("+6 hours") . " "); echo(strtotime("+2 week") . " "); echo(strtotime("+1 week 4 days 6 hours 6 seconds") . " "); echo(strtotime("next Tuesday") . " "); echo(strtotime("last Saturday")); ?> |
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1588245165 1510531200 1588266765 1589454765 1589217171 1588636800 1587772800 |
Since the time/date is not static, therefore the output may vary.
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