How to Get Current Date & Time in PHP

Question – How to Get Current Date Time with PHP? How do I get current date and time in PHP script? PHP Script to get current date and time in Y-m-d H:i:s format?

You can use date() function to get current Date and Time in any PHP version. A DateTime PHP class is also available in PHP > 5.2 to get Date and Time. Also find the example to get date and time in JavaScript

PHP Date and Time

Print the current date and time using date() function. It will use the default timezone configured in php.ini.

<?php echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s'); ?>123<?phpecho date('Y-m-d H:i:s');?>

Print the current date time using DateTime() class. It will also use the default timezone.

<?php $datetime = new DateTime(); echo $datetime->format('Y-m-d H:i:s'); ?>1234<?php$datetime = new DateTime();echo $datetime->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');?>

PHP Date and Time with Timezone:

You can also define the specific timezone for your Application. Now PHP will not use the system defined timezone.

<?php date_default_timezone_set('UTC'); $datetime = new DateTime(); echo $datetime->format('Y-m-d H:i:s'); ?>123456<?phpdate_default_timezone_set('UTC'); $datetime = new DateTime();echo $datetime->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');?>

Storing date and time UTC format is the best practice. UTC is refereed as Universal Time Coordinated. It is also known as 「Z time」 or 「Zulu Time」.

Convert Date Time Timezone

For example, you have stored date (2018-01-11 01:17:23) in UTC timezone in your database. Now convert this DateTime to EST timezone.

<?php $date = new DateTime('2011-11-10 20:17:23', new DateTimeZone('UTC')); $date->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone('EST')); echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s'); ?>123456<?php$date = new DateTime('2011-11-10 20:17:23', new DateTimeZone('UTC')); $date->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone('EST'));echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');?>

After executing the above command, you will find the results like below.

2018-01-11 01:17:23