Converting a Timestamp to Date and Time

1. The getdate() function
2. Converting timestamp to date and time
3. Converting date and time to timestamp

getdate()

The getdate() function takes one optional parameter: $timestamp. If a timestamp is provided the function returns an associative array containing date and time values for that timestamp, otherwise it returns date and time values for the local time.

<?php
 //Syntax
 getdate(?int $timestamp = null): array

The following table lists the elements contained in the array returned by getdate().

Key	Possible Value
seconds	0 to 59
minutes	0 to 59
hours	0 to 23
mday	1 to 31 (Day of the month)
wday	0 to 6 (Day of the week) 0 for Sunday, 1 for Monday, and so on.
mon	1 to 12 (Month of the year)
year	Year, 4 digits. For example 2022
yday	0 to 365 (Day of the year)
weekday	Sunday to Saturday
month	January to December
0	Timestamp

Example: Get the current local date and time

<?php
  $array = getdate();
  print_r($array);
 /* Prints: 
 Array(
  [seconds] => 54
  [minutes] => 52
  [hours] => 10
  [mday] => 6
  [wday] => 6
  [mon] => 8
  [year] => 2022
  [yday] => 217
  [weekday] => Saturday
  [month] => August
  [0] => 1659775974 ) */

Converting a Timestamp to Date or Time

If you have a timestamp and you want to convert it to a readable date/time form, use the getdate() function, see the following example:

<?php
 $a = getdate(2009077887);
 echo $a['weekday'] .' '.
      $a['mday']    .' '.
      $a['month']   .' '.
      $a['year']    .', '.
      $a['hours']   .':'.
      $a['minutes'] .':'.
      $a['seconds'];
 # Prints: Wednesday 31 August 2033, 7:11:27

The getdate() function returns an associative array, use date() function if you want a string. The date() function not only parses a timestamp it also returns a formatted date and time string as per your requirements. The following example demonstrates how the date() function format and returns the string:

<?php
 echo date('l d F Y, g:i:s', 2009077887);
 # Prints: Wednesday 31 August 2033, 7:11:27

Visit Formatting Date and Time with date() tutorial to read more about the date() function.

Converting date or time into a timestamp

There are various ways to generate a Unix timestamp by using the time(), mktime(), or strtotime() functions, see the following example:

<?php
 echo mktime(7,11,27,8,31,2033) . '<br>';
 # Prints: 2009077887
 
 echo strtotime('31 August 2033, 7:11:27');
 # Prints: 2009077887

For more information, visit How to convert or generate timestamps tutorial.

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The Date and Time Tutorials: