[php] How to convert date to timestamp in PHP?

How do I get timestamp from e.g. 22-09-2008?

There is also strptime() which expects exactly one format:

$a = strptime('22-09-2008', '%d-%m-%Y');
$timestamp = mktime(0, 0, 0, $a['tm_mon']+1, $a['tm_mday'], $a['tm_year']+1900);

Given that the function strptime() does not work for Windows and strtotime() can return unexpected results, I recommend using date_parse_from_format():

$date = date_parse_from_format('d-m-Y', '22-09-2008');
$timestamp = mktime(0, 0, 0, $date['month'], $date['day'], $date['year']);

<?php echo date('U') ?>

If you want, put it in a MySQL input type timestamp. The above works very well (only in PHP 5 or later):

<?php $timestamp_for_mysql = date('c') ?>

Here is how I'd do it:

function dateToTimestamp($date, $format, $timezone='Europe/Belgrade')
{
    //returns an array containing day start and day end timestamps
    $old_timezone=date_timezone_get();
    date_default_timezone_set($timezone);
    $date=strptime($date,$format);
    $day_start=mktime(0,0,0,++$date['tm_mon'],++$date['tm_mday'],($date['tm_year']+1900));
    $day_end=$day_start+(60*60*24);
    date_default_timezone_set($old_timezone);
    return array('day_start'=>$day_start, 'day_end'=>$day_end);
}

$timestamps=dateToTimestamp('15.02.1991.', '%d.%m.%Y.', 'Europe/London');
$day_start=$timestamps['day_start'];

This way, you let the function know what date format you are using and even specify the timezone.

This method works on both Windows and Unix and is time-zone aware, which is probably what you want if you work with dates.

If you don't care about timezone, or want to use the time zone your server uses:

$d = DateTime::createFromFormat('d-m-Y H:i:s', '22-09-2008 00:00:00');
if ($d === false) {
    die("Incorrect date string");
} else {
    echo $d->getTimestamp();
}

1222093324 _{(This will differ depending on your server time zone...)}

If you want to specify in which time zone, here EST. (Same as New York.)

$d = DateTime::createFromFormat(
    'd-m-Y H:i:s',
    '22-09-2008 00:00:00',
    new DateTimeZone('EST')
);

if ($d === false) {
    die("Incorrect date string");
} else {
    echo $d->getTimestamp();
}

1222093305

Or if you want to use UTC. (Same as "GMT".)

$d = DateTime::createFromFormat(
    'd-m-Y H:i:s',
    '22-09-2008 00:00:00',
    new DateTimeZone('UTC')
);

if ($d === false) {
    die("Incorrect date string");
} else {
    echo $d->getTimestamp();
}

1222093289

Regardless, it's always a good starting point to be strict when parsing strings into structured data. It can save awkward debugging in the future. Therefore I recommend to always specify date format.

If you know the format use strptime because strtotime does a guess for the format, which might not always be correct. Since strptime is not implemented in Windows there is a custom function

• http://nl3.php.net/manual/en/function.strptime.php#86572

Remember that the returnvalue tm_year is from 1900! and tm_month is 0-11

Example:

$a = strptime('22-09-2008', '%d-%m-%Y');
$timestamp = mktime(0, 0, 0, $a['tm_mon']+1, $a['tm_mday'], $a['tm_year']+1900)

Here is a very simple and effective solution using the split and mtime functions:

$date="30/07/2010 13:24"; //Date example
list($day, $month, $year, $hour, $minute) = split('[/ :]', $date); 

//The variables should be arranged according to your date format and so the separators
$timestamp = mktime($hour, $minute, 0, $month, $day, $year);
echo date("r", $timestamp);

It worked like a charm for me.

Be careful with functions like strtotime() that try to "guess" what you mean (it doesn't guess of course, the rules are here).

Indeed 22-09-2008 will be parsed as 22 September 2008, as it is the only reasonable thing.

How will 08-09-2008 be parsed? Probably 09 August 2008.

What about 2008-09-50? Some versions of PHP parse this as 20 October 2008.

So, if you are sure your input is in DD-MM-YYYY format, it's better to use the solution offered by @Armin Ronacher.

Use PHP function strtotime()

echo strtotime('2019/06/06');

date — Format a local time/date

Using mktime:

list($day, $month, $year) = explode('-', '22-09-2008');
echo mktime(0, 0, 0, $month, $day, $year);

With DateTime API:

$dateTime = new DateTime('2008-09-22'); 
echo $dateTime->format('U'); 

// or 

$date = new DateTime('2008-09-22');
echo $date->getTimestamp();

The same with the procedural API:

$date = date_create('2008-09-22');
echo date_format($date, 'U');

// or

$date = date_create('2008-09-22');
echo date_timestamp_get($date);

If the above fails because you are using a unsupported format, you can use

$date = DateTime::createFromFormat('!d-m-Y', '22-09-2008');
echo $dateTime->format('U'); 

// or

$date = date_parse_from_format('!d-m-Y', '22-09-2008');
echo date_format($date, 'U');

Note that if you do not set the !, the time portion will be set to current time, which is different from the first four which will use midnight when you omit the time.

Yet another alternative is to use the IntlDateFormatter API:

$formatter = new IntlDateFormatter(
    'en_US',
    IntlDateFormatter::FULL,
    IntlDateFormatter::FULL,
    'GMT',
    IntlDateFormatter::GREGORIAN,
    'dd-MM-yyyy'
);
echo $formatter->parse('22-09-2008');

Unless you are working with localized date strings, the easier choice is likely DateTime.

<?php echo date('M j Y g:i A', strtotime('2013-11-15 13:01:02')); ?>

http://php.net/manual/en/function.date.php

This method works on both Windows and Unix and is time-zone aware, which is probably what you want if you work with dates.

If you don't care about timezone, or want to use the time zone your server uses:

$d = DateTime::createFromFormat('d-m-Y H:i:s', '22-09-2008 00:00:00');
if ($d === false) {
    die("Incorrect date string");
} else {
    echo $d->getTimestamp();
}

1222093324 _{(This will differ depending on your server time zone...)}

If you want to specify in which time zone, here EST. (Same as New York.)

$d = DateTime::createFromFormat(
    'd-m-Y H:i:s',
    '22-09-2008 00:00:00',
    new DateTimeZone('EST')
);

if ($d === false) {
    die("Incorrect date string");
} else {
    echo $d->getTimestamp();
}

1222093305

Or if you want to use UTC. (Same as "GMT".)

$d = DateTime::createFromFormat(
    'd-m-Y H:i:s',
    '22-09-2008 00:00:00',
    new DateTimeZone('UTC')
);

if ($d === false) {
    die("Incorrect date string");
} else {
    echo $d->getTimestamp();
}

1222093289

Regardless, it's always a good starting point to be strict when parsing strings into structured data. It can save awkward debugging in the future. Therefore I recommend to always specify date format.

function date_to_stamp( $date, $slash_time = true, $timezone = 'Europe/London', $expression = "#^\d{2}([^\d]*)\d{2}([^\d]*)\d{4}$#is" ) {
    $return = false;
    $_timezone = date_default_timezone_get();
    date_default_timezone_set( $timezone );
    if( preg_match( $expression, $date, $matches ) )
        $return = date( "Y-m-d " . ( $slash_time ? '00:00:00' : "h:i:s" ), strtotime( str_replace( array($matches[1], $matches[2]), '-', $date ) . ' ' . date("h:i:s") ) );
    date_default_timezone_set( $_timezone );
    return $return;
}

// expression may need changing in relation to timezone
echo date_to_stamp('19/03/1986', false) . '<br />';
echo date_to_stamp('19**03**1986', false) . '<br />';
echo date_to_stamp('19.03.1986') . '<br />';
echo date_to_stamp('19.03.1986', false, 'Asia/Aden') . '<br />';
echo date('Y-m-d h:i:s') . '<br />';

//1986-03-19 02:37:30
//1986-03-19 02:37:30
//1986-03-19 00:00:00
//1986-03-19 05:37:30
//2012-02-12 02:37:30

Please be careful about time/zone if you set it to save dates in database, as I got an issue when I compared dates from mysql that converted to timestamp using strtotime. you must use exactly same time/zone before converting date to timestamp otherwise, strtotime() will use default server timezone.

Please see this example: https://3v4l.org/BRlmV

function getthistime($type, $modify = null) {
    $now = new DateTime(null, new DateTimeZone('Asia/Baghdad'));
    if($modify) {
        $now->modify($modify);
    }
    if(!isset($type) || $type == 'datetime') {
        return $now->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
    }
    if($type == 'time') {
        return $now->format('H:i:s');
    }
    if($type == 'timestamp') {
        return $now->getTimestamp();
    }
}
function timestampfromdate($date) {
    return DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d H:i:s', $date, new DateTimeZone('Asia/Baghdad'))->getTimestamp();
}

echo getthistime('timestamp')."--".
    timestampfromdate(getthistime('datetime'))."--".
    strtotime(getthistime('datetime'));

//getthistime('timestamp') == timestampfromdate(getthistime('datetime')) (true)
//getthistime('timestamp') == strtotime(getthistime('datetime')) (false)

$time = '22-09-2008';
echo strtotime($time);

If you're looking to convert a UTC datetime (2016-02-14T12:24:48.321Z) to timestamp, here's how you'd do it:

function UTCToTimestamp($utc_datetime_str)
{
    preg_match_all('/(.+?)T(.+?)\.(.*?)Z/i', $utc_datetime_str, $matches_arr);
    $datetime_str = $matches_arr[1][0]." ".$matches_arr[2][0];

    return strtotime($datetime_str);
}

$my_utc_datetime_str = '2016-02-14T12:24:48.321Z';
$my_timestamp_str = UTCToTimestamp($my_utc_datetime_str);

If you want to know for sure whether a date gets parsed into something you expect, you can use DateTime::createFromFormat():

$d = DateTime::createFromFormat('d-m-Y', '22-09-2008');
if ($d === false) {
    die("Woah, that date doesn't look right!");
}
echo $d->format('Y-m-d'), PHP_EOL;
// prints 2008-09-22

It's obvious in this case, but e.g. 03-04-2008 could be 3rd of April or 4th of March depending on where you come from :)

Using strtotime() function you can easily convert date to timestamp

<?php
// set default timezone
date_default_timezone_set('America/Los_Angeles');

//define date and time
$date = date("d M Y H:i:s");

// output
echo strtotime($date);
?> 

More info: http://php.net/manual/en/function.strtotime.php

Online conversion tool: http://freeonlinetools24.com/