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 : Oct
date('F') full name of month : October
date('m') number of month (01..12) : 10
date('n') numeric month (1..12) : 10
date('t') number of days in current month: 31
week
date('W') week in year : 42
days
date('D') short name of day : Mon
date('l') full name of day : Monday
date('w') numeric day in week (0..6) : 1
date('d') day in month : 13
date('S') 2 char ordinal suffix for day : th
date('z') numeric day in year (0..364): 285
time
date('H:i') 24-hour time : 15:51
date('U') UNIX timestamp : 1760370691
getdate()
[seconds] 31
[minutes] 51
[hours] 15
[mday] 13
[wday] 1
[mon] 10
[year] 2025
[yday] 285
[weekday] Monday
[month] October
[0] 1760370691 (UNIX timestamp)
date('Y-m-d') 2025-10-13
date('m-d-y') 10-13-25
date('M. d, Y') Oct. 13, 2025
date('l, \t\h\e jS \o\f F') Monday, the 13th of October
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) Friday, Oct-31-2025
getdate( $plus18d ) array for 10-31-2025
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) Sunday, Oct-13-2024
week boundaries
Create timestamp for current Sunday
(day in month (13) - numeric weekday (1)) :
$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)