PHP 7.0.6 Released

    DateTime::format

    DateTimeImmutable::format

    DateTimeInterface::format

    date_format

    (PHP 5 >= 5.2.0, PHP 7)

    DateTime::format -- DateTimeImmutable::format -- DateTimeInterface::format -- date_format — Returns date formatted according to given format

    Description

    Object oriented style

    public string DateTime::format ( string $format )
    public string DateTimeImmutable::format ( string $format )
    public string DateTimeInterface::format ( string $format )

    Procedural style

    string date_format ( DateTimeInterface $object , string $format )

    Returns date formatted according to given format.

    Parameters

    object

    Procedural style only: A DateTime object returned by date_create()

    format

    Format accepted by date().

    Return Values

    Returns the formatted date string on success or FALSE on failure.

    Examples

    Example #1 DateTime::format() example

    Object oriented style

    <?php
    $date     = new DateTime('2000-01-01');
    echo     $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
    ?>

    Procedural style

    <?php
    $date     = date_create('2000-01-01');
    echo     date_format($date, 'Y-m-d H:i:s');
    ?>

    The above example will output:

    2000-01-01 00:00:00

    Notes

    This method does not use locales. All output is in English.

    See Also

    • date() - Format a local time/date

    User Contributed Notes

    craig dot constable at gmail dot com
    4 years ago
    Using a datetime field from a mysql database e.g. "2012-03-24 17:45:12"

    <?php

    $result     = mysql_query("SELECT `datetime` FROM `table`");
    $row = mysql_fetch_row($result);
    $date = date_create($row[0]);

    echo     date_format($date, 'Y-m-d H:i:s');
    #output: 2012-03-24 17:45:12

    echo date_format($date, 'd/m/Y H:i:s');
    #output: 24/03/2012 17:45:12

    echo date_format($date, 'd/m/y');
    #output: 24/03/12

    echo date_format($date, 'g:i A');
    #output: 5:45 PM

    echo date_format($date, 'G:ia');
    #output: 05:45pm

    echo date_format($date, 'g:ia \o\n l jS F Y');
    #output: 5:45pm on Saturday 24th March 2012

    ?>
    daysnine at gmail dot com
    2 years ago
    Seems like datetime::format does not really support microseconds as the documentation under date suggest it will.

    Here is some code to generate a datetime with microseconds and timezone:

    private function udate($format = 'u', $utimestamp = null) {
            if (is_null($utimestamp))
                $utimestamp = microtime(true);

            $timestamp = floor($utimestamp);
            $milliseconds = round(($utimestamp - $timestamp) * 1000000);

            return date(preg_replace('`(?<!\\\\)u`', $milliseconds, $format), $timestamp);
        }

    echo udate('Y-m-d H:i:s.u T');
    // Will output something like: 2014-01-01 12:20:24.42342 CET
    soul dot enforcer at gmail dot com
    2 years ago
    For full reference of the supported format character and results,
    see the documentation of date() :
    http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php
    ca at agercon dot dk
    4 years ago
    The date_format can be use to get the last day of February:

    <?php

    function last_day_of_feb ($year) {
    # The 0th day of a month is the same as the last day of the month before
                $ultimo_feb_str = $year . "-03-00";
                $ultimo_feb_date = date_create($ultimo_feb_str);
                $return = date_format($ultimo_feb_date, "Y-m-d");
            return     $return;
    }

    echo     last_day_of_feb(2011) . "\n"; # 2011-02-28
    echo last_day_of_feb(2012) . "\n"; # 2011-02-29

    ?>
    chris at codewiz dot biz
    2 years ago
    I believe this is a bug but its note-worthy if it is intended (I am using PHP 5.5.3).

    $ php --version

    PHP Warning:  Module 'xdebug' already loaded in Unknown on line 0
    PHP 5.5.3-1ubuntu2.1 (cli) (built: Dec 12 2013 04:24:35)
    Copyright (c) 1997-2013 The PHP Group
    Zend Engine v2.5.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2013 Zend Technologies
        with Xdebug v2.2.3, Copyright (c) 2002-2013, by Derick Rethans
        with Zend OPcache v7.0.3-dev, Copyright (c) 1999-2013, by Zend Technologies

    What is happening:

    DateTime()->format() will modify the timezone. So do not expect the public date property to be returned (format mask applied) based on the current public timezone property. format will decide that when calling ->format() it will use the server timezone which eliminates all usefulness of ->setTimezone().

    <?php
                $nowUtc     = new \DateTime( 'now',  new \DateTimeZone( 'UTC' ) );
                echo     '$nowUtc'.PHP_EOL;
                    var_dump($nowUtc);
                    $nowUtc = new \DateTime( 'now',  new \DateTimeZone( 'UTC' ) );
                echo     '$nowUtc->format(\'Y-m-d h:i:s\')'.PHP_EOL;
                    var_dump($nowUtc->format('Y-m-d h:i:s'));
                    $nowUtc->setTimezone( new \DateTimeZone( 'Australia/Sydney' ) );
                echo     '$nowUtc->setTimezone( new \DateTimeZone( \'Australia/Sydney\' ) )'.PHP_EOL;
                    var_dump($nowUtc);
                echo     '$nowUtc->format(\'Y-m-d h:i:s\')'.PHP_EOL;
                    var_dump($nowUtc->format('Y-m-d h:i:s'));exit;
    ?>

    outputs;

    $nowUtc

    object(DateTime)[2607]
      public 'date' => string '2014-02-13 02:42:48' (length=19)
      public 'timezone_type' => int 3
      public 'timezone' => string 'UTC' (length=3)

    $nowUtc->format('Y-m-d h:i:s')

    string '2014-02-13 02:42:48' (length=19)

    $nowUtc->setTimezone( new \DateTimeZone( 'Australia/Sydney' ) )

    object(DateTime)[2608]
      public 'date' => string '2014-02-13 13:42:48' (length=19)
      public 'timezone_type' => int 3
      public 'timezone' => string 'Australia/Sydney' (length=16)

    $nowUtc->format('Y-m-d h:i:s')

    string '2014-02-13 01:42:48' (length=19) // expected 2014-02-13 13:42:48 based on Australia/Sydney - what is 2014-02-13 01:42:48 from anyway!
    prussell at cloudworksconsulting dot com
    1 year ago
    The udate function is a great start, but the formatting of the milliseconds is a little off. If it is within the first 100000 microseconds then the string will be less than 6 characters, so 0.012435 will appear as 0.12345. The revision below fixes this.

    function udate($strFormat = 'u', $uTimeStamp = null)
    {

        // If the time wasn't provided then fill it in
        if (is_null($uTimeStamp))
        {
            $uTimeStamp = microtime(true);
        }

        // Round the time down to the second
        $dtTimeStamp = floor($uTimeStamp);

        // Determine the millisecond value
        $intMilliseconds = round(($uTimeStamp - $dtTimeStamp) * 1000000);
        // Format the milliseconds as a 6 character string
        $strMilliseconds = str_pad($intMilliseconds, 6, '0', STR_PAD_LEFT);

        // Replace the milliseconds in the date format string
        // Then use the date function to process the rest of the string
        return date(preg_replace('`(?<!\\\\)u`', $strMilliseconds, $strFormat), $dtTimeStamp);
    }
    James Meyer
    5 years ago
    A note about version differences - the results of this function differ significantly from php 5.2.x to 5.3.x . 

    The 5.2 implementations will often parse to non-sensical values, such as:

    1964/11-12: 1964/-99999/-99999
    12/11-1964: -99999/12/11
    12-31-1964: -99999/-99999/-99999
    11121875: 1112/01/187
    01321901: 0132/01/190

    (this one makes sense, but was a poor guess)
    31/12/1964: 1964/01/12

    In 5.3+, these all come back as false, as I would expect.  5.2 was just a little optimistic about it's ability to parse dates, I guess.
    Nads
    2 years ago
    Date and Time with split seconds

    $micro_date = microtime();
    $date_array = explode(" ",$micro_date);
    $date = date("Y-m-d H:i:s",$date_array[1]);
    echo "Date: $date:" . $date_array[0]."<br>";
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