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PHP | strtotime() Function

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The strtotime() function is a built-in function in PHP which is used to convert an English textual date-time description to a UNIX timestamp. The function accepts a string parameter in English which represents the description of date-time. For e.g., “now” refers to the current date in English date-time description. The function returns the time in seconds since the Unix Epoch. We can return the English textual date-time in date format using the date() function.

Syntax:

strtotime ($EnglishDateTime, $time_now)

Parameters: The function accepts two parameters as shown above and described below:

  1. $EnglishDateTime – This parameter specifies the English textual date-time description, which represents the date or time to be returned. The function parses the string and returns us the time in seconds. The parameter is mandatory
  2. $time_now This parameter specifies the timestamp used to calculate the returned value. It is an optional parameter.

Note: Since the time/date is not static, therefore the output will vary.

Below programs illustrate the strtotime() function.

Program 1: The below program demonstrates the strtotime()
function when the english text is “now”.




<?php
// PHP program to demonstrate the strtotime() 
// function when the english text is "now"
  
// prints current time in second 
// since now means current 
echo strtotime("now"), "\n"
  
// prints the current time in date format 
echo date("Y-m-d", strtotime("now"))."\n";
?>


Output:

1525378260
2018-05-03

Program 2: The below program demonstrates the strtotime()
function when the english text is a date.




<?php
// PHP program to demonstrate the strtotime() 
// function when the english text is a date
  
// prints the converted english text in second 
echo strtotime("12th february 2017"), "\n"
  
// prints the above time in date format 
echo date("Y-m-d", strtotime("12th february 2017"))."\n";
?>


Output:

1486857600
2017-02-12

Program 3: The below program demonstrates the strtotime()
function when the english text corresponds to any day.




<?php
// PHP program to demonstrate the strtotime() 
// function when the english text corresponds to any 
// day 
  
// prints the converted english text in second 
echo strtotime("next sunday"), "\n"
  
// prints the above time in date format 
echo date("Y-m-d", strtotime("next sunday"))."\n";
?>


Output:

1525564800
2018-05-06

PHP is a server-side scripting language designed specifically for web development. You can learn PHP from the ground up by following this PHP Tutorial and PHP Examples.



Last Updated : 31 Jul, 2021
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