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_formatReturns 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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