PHP has the ability to dynamically generate the
time and date. Using a simple line of code we are able to include this
on our site, however it is important to know how the formatting works.
Time and Date
PHP has the ability to dynamically generate the time and date. Using a
simple line of code we are able to include this on our site, however it
is important to know how the formatting works.
<?php print time(); ?>
The above code outputs a long string of numbers. What these numbers
represent is the time based in the amount of seconds that have passed
since January 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT. This number can also be assigned to
a variable:
<?php
$b = time ();
print $b;
?>
Although this is a handy feature, sometimes you want a more formatted
and human friendly representation of the date. You can use the date
function in conjunction with the time function to display this in the
format of date ( format , time ) In our case we want the start
time to be now, so we will call the time first. We will demonstrate
many different types of formatting
<?php
$b = time ();
print date("m/d/y",$b) . "<br>";
print date("D, F jS",$b) . "<br>";
print date("l, F jS Y",$b) . "<br>";
print date("g:i A",$b) . "<br>";
print date("r",$b) . "<br>";
print date("g:i:s A D, F jS Y",$b) . "<br>";
?>
When you run this code you will see that the information is formatted
in many different ways. What each of the letters means for formatting
is explained on the next page.
Date Function Formatting
As you can see in our last example there are tons of different formats
that can be used in the date feature. Below is a summary of the
variable used in date, and what each does. Remember they ARE CaSe sEnsItIVe:
DAYS
d - day of the month 2 digits (01-31)
j - day of the month (1-31)
D - 3 letter day (Mon - Sun)
l - full name of day (Monday - Sunday)
N - 1=Monday, 2=Tuesday, etc (1-7)
S - suffix for date (st, nd, rd)
w - 0=Sunday, 1=Monday (0-6)
z - day of the year (1=365)
WEEK
W - week of the year (1-52)
MONTH
F - Full name of month (January - December)
m - 2 digit month number (01-12)
n - month number (1-12)
M - 3 letter month (Jan - Dec)
t - Days in the month (28-31)
YEAR
L - leap year (0 no, 1 yes)
o - ISO-8601 year number (Ex. 1979, 2006)
Y - four digit year (Ex. 1979, 2006)
y - two digit year (Ex. 79, 06)
TIME
a - am or pm
A - AM or PM
B - Swatch Internet time (000 - 999)
g - 12 hour (1-12)
G - 24 hour c (0-23)
h - 2 digit 12 hour (01-12)
H - 2 digit 24 hour (00-23)
i - 2 digit minutes (00-59)
s 0 2 digit seconds (00-59)
OTHER e - timezone (Ex: GMT, CST)
I - daylight savings (1=yes, 0=no)
O - offset GMT (Ex: 0200)
Z - offset in seconds (-43200 - 43200)
r - full RFC 2822 formatted date
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