PHP idate() Function

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Definition and Usage

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

Syntax

idate($format, [$timestamp])

Parameters

Return Values

PHP idate() function returns an integer value which represents the formatted date/time.

PHP Version

This function was first introduced in PHP Version 5.0 and, works with all the later versions.

Example

Following example demonstrates the usage of the idate() function −

Live Demo

<?php
   $format = "U";
   $res = idate($format);
   print("Timestamp: ".$res);
?>

This will produce following result −

Timestamp: 1589280496

Example

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

Live Demo

<?php
   $date = date_create();
   $timestamp = date_timestamp_get($date);
   $format = "U";
   $res = idate($format, $timestamp);
   print("Timestamp: ".$res);
?>

This will produce following result −

Timestamp: 1589282148

Example

Let us see various format characters for the idate() function and their results −

Live Demo

<?php
   print("B :".idate("B"));
   print("\n");
   print("d :".idate("d"));
   print("\n");
   print("h :".idate("h"));
   print("\n");
   print("H: ".idate("H"));
   print("\n");
   print("i :".idate("i"));
   print("\n"); 
   print("I :".idate("I"));
   print("\n");
   print("L :".idate("L"));
   print("\n");
   print("m :".idate("m"));
   print("\n");
   print( "s :".idate("s"));
   print("\n");
   print("t :".idate("t"));
   print("\n");
   print("U :".idate("U"));
   print("\n");
   print("w :".idate("w"));
   print("\n");
   print("w:".idate("W"));
   print("\n");
   print("y :".idate("y"));
   print("\n");
   print("Y :".idate("Y"));
   print("\n");
   print("z :".idate("z"));
   print("\n");
   print("Z :".idate("Z"));
   print("\n");
?>

This will produce the following output −

B :758
d :18
h :5
H: 17
i :11
I :0
L :1
m :5
s :54
t :31
U :1589821914
w :1
w:21
y :20
Y :2020
z :138
Z :0

Example

Live Demo

<?php
   $timestamp = strtotime('1st January 2014');   
   echo idate('y', $timestamp);
   echo"\n";
   echo idate('t', $timestamp);
?>

This will produce the following output −

14
31