The date_default_timezone_get() function returns the default timezone used by all the functions in a script.
If you set the time zone using the date_default_timezone_set() function. The date_default_timezone_get() returns the time zone value set previously, In you haven't set any default time zone value explicitly, this function will return the default timezone value of UTC.
date_default_timezone_get()
The date_default_timezone_get() function doesn't accept any parameters.
This function returns a string value representing the default timezone.
This function was first introduced in PHP Version 5.1.0 and, works with all the later versions.
Following example retrieves and prints the current default time zone −
Live Demo<?php $timeZone = date_default_timezone_get(); print("Default timezone: ".$timeZone); ?>
This will produce following result −
Default timezone: UTC
In the following example we are setting the default time zone using the date_default_timezone_set() function −
Live Demo<?php //setting the timezone $tz = 'Indian/Mahe'; date_default_timezone_set($tz); $timeZone = date_default_timezone_get(); print("Default timezone: ".$timeZone); ?>
If you retrieve the default time zone using date_default_timezone_get it will return the value you have set previously −
Default timezone: Indian/Mahe
Following example print the default time zone and its abbreviation −
<?php //setting the timezone $tz = 'Asia/Kolkata'; date_default_timezone_set($tz); //Retrieving the default timezone $timeZone = date_default_timezone_get(); print("Default timezone: ".$timeZone); print("\n"); //Getting abbreviation //$abbvr = $timeZone.date('e').date(T); print("Abbreviation: " .date('T')); ?>
This will produce following result −
Default timezone: Asia/Kolkata Abbreviation: IST
<?php echo "Old time zone is ". date_default_timezone_get(); $timeZone = 'America/Costa_Rica'; if( date_default_timezone_set( $timeZone) ){ # Now get this time zone. echo "New time zone is ". date_default_timezone_get(); } ?>
This will produce the following result −
Old time zone is America/Denver New time zone is America/Costa_Rica