PHP date() Function

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Definition and Usage

The date() function accepts a format string as a parameter, formats the local date/time in the specified format and returns the result.

Syntax

date($format, $timestamp)

Parameters

Sr.No	Parameter & Description
1	format (Mandatory) This is a format string specifying the format in which you want the output date string to be.
2	timestamp (Optional) This is an integer value representing the timestamp of the required date

Return Values

PHP date() function returns the current local time/date in the specified format.

PHP Version

This function was first introduced in PHP Version 4 and, works with all the later versions.

Example

Try out following demonstrates the usage of the date() function −

<?php
   $date = date("D M d Y");
   print("Date: ".$date);
?>

This will produce following result −

Date: Fri May 08 2020

Example

You can escape characters in a date format as shown below −

<?php
   $date = date("jS F l \t");
   print("Date: ".$date);
?>

This will produce following result −

Date: 18th May Monday

Example

Following example invokes the date() function by passing the timestamp parameter −

<?php
   $ts = 1022555568;
   $date = date("D M d Y", $ts);
   print($date);
?>

This will produce following result −

Tue May 28 2002

Example

<?php
   date_default_timezone_set('UTC');
   
   echo date("l");
   echo "
";
   
   echo date('l dS \of F Y h:i:s A');
   echo "
";
?>

This produces the following result −

Monday
Monday 05th of December 2016 10:27:13 AM