How do I get the current date and time in PHP?
Nadia S.
—The Problem
How do I get the current date and time in PHP?
The Solution
Use the date() function to get the current date and time of the server.
In this example, we pass in the argument of d/m H:i to get the current date and time in the day/month hour:minute format:
$currentDateTime = date('d/m H:i'); echo $currentDateTime;
Output:
18/05 23:12
Format Parameters
You can combine the following format parameters with common date and time symbols such as /, :, and - to get the time and date in your desired format.
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ‘Y’ | Year (four digits) | 2023 |
| ‘m’ | Month (two digits) | 05 |
| ‘F’ | Month (noun) | May |
| ‘d’ | Day (two digits) | 18 |
| ‘l’ | Day (noun) | Thursday |
| ‘H’ | Hour (24 hour) | 23 |
| ‘h’ | Hour (12 hour) | 11 |
| ‘A’ | AM or PM | PM |
| ‘i’ | 60 minute time | 12 |
| ’s’ | 60 second time | 08 |
- Listen to the Syntax Podcast
![Syntax.fm logo]()
Tasty treats for web developers brought to you by Sentry. Get tips and tricks from Wes Bos and Scott Tolinski.
SEE EPISODES
Considered “not bad” by 4 million developers and more than 150,000 organizations worldwide, Sentry provides code-level observability to many of the world’s best-known companies like Disney, Peloton, Cloudflare, Eventbrite, Slack, Supercell, and Rockstar Games. Each month we process billions of exceptions from the most popular products on the internet.