Insert timing examples, esp. for testing code.
year
date('Y') 4 digit year : 2025
date('y') 2 digit year : 25
month
date('M') short name of month : May
date('F') full name of month : May
date('m') number of month (01..12) : 05
date('n') numeric month (1..12) : 5
date('t') number of days in current month: 31
week
date('W') week in year : 19
days
date('D') short name of day : Sun
date('l') full name of day : Sunday
date('w') numeric day in week (0..6) : 0
date('d') day in month : 11
date('S') 2 char ordinal suffix for day : th
date('z') numeric day in year (0..364): 130
time
date('H:i') 24-hour time : 07:07
date('U') UNIX timestamp : 1746947264
getdate()
[seconds] 44
[minutes] 7
[hours] 7
[mday] 11
[wday] 0
[mon] 5
[year] 2025
[yday] 130
[weekday] Sunday
[month] May
[0] 1746947264 (UNIX timestamp)
date('Y-m-d') 2025-05-11
date('m-d-y') 05-11-25
date('M. d, Y') May. 11, 2025
date('l, \t\h\e jS \o\f F') Sunday, the 11th of May
NOTE — single quotes prevent PHP from turning \t and \f into TAB and FF
date & getdate can format other dates
IF they're converted to timestamps
mktime( h, min, sec, mon, d, yr )
creates a timestamp — a date in seconds since the epoch, 1-1-1970
find the date, 18 days from now
Create timestamp for 18 days from now.
$plus18d = mktime( 0, 0, 0, date('m'), date('d') +18, date('Y') );
date('l, M-d-Y',$plus18d) Thursday, May-29-2025
getdate( $plus18d ) array for 05-29-2025
find day of week 1 year ago
$minus1yr = mktime( 0, 0, 0, date('m'), date('d'), date('Y')-1 )
date('l, M-d-Y',$minus1yr) Saturday, May-11-2024
week boundaries
Create timestamp for current Sunday
(day in month (11) - numeric weekday (0)) :
$curr_sunday= mktime( 0, 0, 0, date('m'), date('d')-date('w'), date('Y') );
Create timestamp based on current Sunday plus 7 days :
$next_sunday = mktime( 0, 0, 0, date('m',$curr_sunday), date('d',$curr_sunday)+7, date('Y',$curr_sunday) )
DAY-LIGHT SAVINGS / STANDARD TIME!
Don't calculate a week as 604800 seconds — twice a year it will be wrong.
BAD: $next_sunday = $curr_sunday + 604800; (use mktime() above)