PHP

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 : Jun

date('F') full name of month : June

date('m') number of month (01..12) : 06

date('n') numeric month (1..12) : 6

date('t') number of days in current month: 30

week

date('W') week in year : 26

days

date('D') short name of day : Fri

date('l') full name of day : Friday

date('w') numeric day in week (0..6) : 5

date('d') day in month : 27

date('S') 2 char ordinal suffix for day : th

date('z') numeric day in year (0..364): 177

time

date('H:i') 24-hour time : 06:13

date('U') UNIX timestamp : 1751004809

getdate()

[seconds] 29

[minutes] 13

[hours] 6

[mday] 27

[wday] 5

[mon] 6

[year] 2025

[yday] 177

[weekday] Friday

[month] June

[0] 1751004809 (UNIX timestamp)

date('Y-m-d') 2025-06-27

date('m-d-y') 06-27-25

date('M. d, Y') Jun. 27, 2025

date('l, \t\h\e jS \o\f F') Friday, the 27th of June
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) Tuesday, Jul-15-2025

getdate( $plus18d ) array for 07-15-2025

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) Thursday, Jun-27-2024

week boundaries

Create timestamp for current Sunday (day in month (27) - numeric weekday (5)) :

$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)