PHP Manipulate Date

strtotime() function to convert human readable dates into unix timestamps

$linux_timestamp1 =strtotime("now");
$linux_timestamp2 =strtotime("today");
$linux_timestamp3 =strtotime("tomorrow");
$linux_timestamp4 =strtotime("yesterday");
$linux_timestamp5 =strtotime("+2 hours");
$linux_timestamp6 =strtotime("-2 month");
$linux_timestamp7 =strtotime("2 weeks ago");
$linux_timestamp8 =strtotime("30 seconds");
$linux_timestamp9 =strtotime("+2 years -3 months");
$linux_timestamp10 =strtotime("10 September 2000");
$linux_timestamp11 =strtotime("+1 day");
$linux_timestamp12 =strtotime("+1 week");
$linux_timestamp13 =strtotime("+1 week 2 days 4 hours 2 seconds");
$linux_timestamp14 =strtotime("next Thursday");
$linux_timestamp15 =strtotime("last Monday");

date() function

Char	Example	Result	Description
Year
y	$y1=date('y');	12	Two digit year
Y	$y2=date('Y');	2012	Four digit year
Month
F	$m1=date('F');	January	Full month name (January, February, May..)
M	$m2=date('M');	Jan	Three letter abbreviation month (Jan, Feb, Mar..)
m	$m3=date('m');	01	Two digit numeric month (01,02,03..)
n	$m4=date('n');	1	No zero numeric month (1,2,3,4..)
Day of Month
d	$d1=date('d');	01	Two digit day of month
j	$d2=date('j');	1	No zero day of month
S	$d3=date('S');	1st	Two digit day and include two chracters (st, nd, th)
Day of Week
l	$d4=date('l');	Monday	Full day of the day of the week
D	$d5=date('D');	Mon	Three characters day of the week
w	$d6=date('w');	0	Numeric representation of day of the week (0=Sunday, 6=Saturday)
Hour
h	$h1=date('h');	02	Two digit hour (12 hour format)
H	$h2=date('H');	21	Two digit hour (24 hour format)
g	$h3=date('g');	1	No leading zero hour (12 hour format)
G	$h4=date('G');	1	No leading zero hour(24 hour format)
a	$h5=date('a');	5 am	am/pm (lower case format)
A	$h6=date('A');	5 AM	AM/PM (upper case format)
Minute
i	$m=date('i');	02	two digit and leading zero minute format
j	$m2=date('j');	2	without leading zero minute
Second
s	$s1=date('s');	04	Second with leading zero (two digits)
Z	$s2=date('Z');	4	Second without leading zero

explode() function to get the date and hour

<?php
$date = '2012-10-03 08:10:57';

$date_aa = explode(' ',$date);
// get date only
echo 'Date: ' .$date_aa[0] . '<br/>';
// get hour only
echo 'Hour: ' .$date_aa[1] . '<br/>';
?>

Output

Date: 2012-10-03
Hour: 08:10:57

explode to separate the date into year, day, and month

$date_only = explode('-',$date_aa[0]);
foreach($date_only as $d) {
	echo $d . '<br/>'; 			  
}

Output

2012
10
03

explode to separate the hour into hour, minute, and second

$hr_only = explode(':',$date_aa[1]);
foreach($hr_only as $d) {
	echo $d . '<br/>'; 			  
}

Output

08
10
57

use substr to separate the date into year, day, month, hour, minute, and second

$date = '2012-10-03 08:10:57';

$date_parts[0] = substr($date,0,4);
$date_parts[1] = substr($date,5,2);
$date_parts[2] = substr($date,8,2);
$date_parts[3] = substr($date,11,2);
$date_parts[4] = substr($date,14,2);
$date_parts[5] = substr($date,17,2);

Using strtotime() and date() function to manipulate date and time

<?php

$today = strtotime("today");
$tomorrow = strtotime("tomorrow");
echo date("F d, Y", $today) . '<br/>';
echo date("F d, Y", $tomorrow);
?>

Output

April 17, 2012
April 18, 2012

Example 1

<?php

$two2ago = strtotime("2 days ago");
$next2days = strtotime("+2 days");
echo date("F d, Y", $two2ago) . '<br/>';
echo date("F d, Y", $next2days);
?>

Output

April 15, 2012
April 19, 2012