How to Get the Current Date and Time in PHP

1. Use date() and time() Function to Get the Current Date and Time in PHP
2. Use DateTime Object to Get the Current Date and Time in PHP

In this article, we will introduce methods to get the current date and time in PHP.

• Using date() and time() function
• Using the DateTime object

Use date() and time() Function to Get the Current Date and Time in PHP

We could use built-in functions date() and time() to get the current date and time in PHP. These functions display the current date and time irrespective of the time zone. The correct syntax to use these two functions is as follows.

date($format, $timestamp);

The built-in function date() has two parameters. The details of its parameters are as follows

It returns the date that is set according to the specified format.

time();

The time() function accepts no parameters. It returns the current PHP timestamp. The timestamp is the number of seconds calculated since the Unix Epoch.

The program below shows how to get the current date and time irrespective of the time zone.

<?php
$DateAndTime = date('m-d-Y h:i:s a', time());  
echo "The current date and time are $DateAndTime.";
?>

The format "m-d-Y h:i:s a" specifies the returned date with month, day and 4-digit year value, and the time in hours, minutes, and seconds.

Output:

The current date and time are 05-20-2020 05:44:03 pm.

One thing to note here is that the time is not set according to some time zone. It is the time displayed using Unix timestamp. If you want to check the current PHP time based on your time zone, you need to set the time zone manually.

For example, if you want to check the current time in Amsterdam, you have to set the time zone for Amsterdam manually. For this purpose, the PHP function date_default_timezone_set() is used. The correct syntax to use this function is as follows

date_default_timezone_set($timezone);

It accepts only one parameter.

This function returns a bool value. If the time zone is set successfully, it returns true; otherwise, it returns false.

The program below will display the time after setting the time zone.

<?php
date_default_timezone_set('Europe/Amsterdam');    
$DateAndTime = date('m-d-Y h:i:s a', time());  
echo "The current date and time in Amsterdam are $DateAndTime.\n";
date_default_timezone_set('America/Toronto');    
$DateAndTime2 = date('m-d-Y h:i:s a', time());  
echo "The current date and time in Toronto are $DateAndTime2.";
?>

Output:

The current date and time in Amsterdam are 05-20-2020 08:08:42 pm.
The current date and time in Toronto are 05-20-2020 02:08:42 pm.

Use DateTime Object to Get the Current Date and Time in PHP

In PHP, DateTime class is used to deal with the problems related to the date and time. The format() function of this class displays the date and time in a specified format.

We will first create a DateTime object and then call format() function to display the date and time.

$ObjectName = new DateTime();
$ObjectName->format($format); 

The function format() accepts one parameter.

The example program that displays the current date and time is as follows.

<?php
$Object = new DateTime();  
$DateAndTime = $Object->format("d-m-Y h:i:s a");  
echo "The current date and time are $DateAndTime.";
?>

The output is the date and time with the specified format. The time displayed is the time calculated since the Unix Epoch.

Output:

The current date and time are 20-05-2020 06:21:06 pm.

If you want to check the time according to a specific time zone, you will have to set the time zone manually. For this purpose, the PHP built-in function of DateTime class setTimezone() is used. The correct syntax to use this function is as follows.

$ObjectName = new DateTime();
$ObjectName->setTimezone(DateTimezone $timezone); 

The function setTimezone() accepts only one parameter. It returns a DateTime object on success and False on failure.

The example program that displays the time according to a specific time zone is as follows.

<?php
$Object = new DateTime();  
$Object->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone('Europe/Amsterdam'));
$DateAndTime = $Object->format("d-m-Y h:i:s a");  
echo "The current date and time in Amsterdam are $DateAndTime.\n";
$Object->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone('America/Toronto'));
$DateAndTime = $Object->format("d-m-Y h:i:s a");  
echo "The current date and time in Toronto are $DateAndTime.";
?>

Output:

The current date and time in Amsterdam are 20-05-2020 08:43:02 pm.
The current date and time in Toronto are 20-05-2020 02:43:02 pm.