So I've checked the list of supported time zones in PHP and I was wondering how could I include them in the date() function?
Thanks!
I don't want a default timezone, each user has their timezone stored in the database, I take that timezone of the user and use it. How? I know how to take it from the database, not how to use it, though.
For such task, you should really be using PHP's DateTime class. Please ignore all of the answers advising you to use date() or date_set_time_zone, it's simply bad and outdated.
I'll use pseudocode to demonstrate, so try to adjust the code to suit your needs.
Assuming that variable $tz contains string name of a valid time zone and variable $timestamp contains the timestamp you wish to format according to time zone, the code would look like this:
$tz = 'Europe/London';
$timestamp = time();
$dt = new DateTime("now", new DateTimeZone($tz)); //first argument "must" be a string
$dt->setTimestamp($timestamp); //adjust the object to correct timestamp
echo $dt->format('d.m.Y, H:i:s');
DateTime class is powerful, and to grasp all of its capabilities - you should devote some of your time reading about it at php.net. To answer your question fully - yes, you can adjust the time zone parameter dynamically (on each iteration while reading from db, you can create a new DateTimeZone() object).
If I understood correct,You need to set time zone first like:
date_default_timezone_set('UTC');
And than you can use date function:
// Prints something like: Monday 8th of August 2005 03:12:46 PM
echo date('l jS \of F Y h:i:s A');
The answer above caused me to jump through some hoops/gotchas, so just posting the cleaner code that worked for me:
$dt = new DateTime();
$dt->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone('America/New_York'));
$dt->setTimestamp(123456789);
echo $dt->format('F j, Y # G:i');
Use the DateTime class instead, as it supports timezones. The DateTime equivalent of date() is DateTime::format.
An extremely helpful wrapper for DateTime is Carbon - definitely give it a look.
You'll want to store in the database as UTC and convert on the application level.
It should like this:
date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');
U can just add, timezone difference to unix timestamp.
Example for Moscow (UTC+3)
echo date('d.m.Y H:i:s', time() + 3 * 60 * 60);
Try this. You can pass either unix timestamp, or datetime string
public static function convertToTimezone($timestamp, $fromTimezone, $toTimezone, $format='Y-m-d H:i:s')
{
$datetime = is_numeric($timestamp) ?
DateTime::createFromFormat ('U' , $timestamp, new DateTimeZone($fromTimezone)) :
new DateTime($timestamp, new DateTimeZone($fromTimezone));
$datetime->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone($toTimezone));
return $datetime->format($format);
}
this works perfectly in 2019:
date('Y-m-d H:i:s',strtotime($date. ' '.$timezone));
I have created this very straightforward function, and it works like a charm:
function ts2time($timestamp,$timezone){ /* input: 1518404518,America/Los_Angeles */
$date = new DateTime(date("d F Y H:i:s",$timestamp));
$date->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone($timezone));
$rt=$date->format('M d, Y h:i:s a'); /* output: Feb 11, 2018 7:01:58 pm */
return $rt;
}
I have tried the answers based on the DateTime class. While they are working, I found a much simpler solution that makes a DateTime object timezone aware at the time of creation.
$dt = new DateTime("now", new DateTimeZone('Asia/Jakarta'));
echo $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s");
This returns the current local time in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Not mentioned above. You could also crate a DateTime object by providing a timestamp as string in the constructor with a leading # sign.
$dt = new DateTime('#123456789');
$dt->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone('America/New_York'));
echo $dt->format('F j, Y - G:i');
See the documentation about compound formats:
https://www.php.net/manual/en/datetime.formats.compound.php
Based on other answers I built a one-liner, where I suppose you need current date time. It's easy to adjust if you need a different timestamp.
$dt = (new DateTime("now", new DateTimeZone('Europe/Rome')))->format('d-m-Y_His');
If you use Team EJ's answer, using T in the format string for DateTime will display a three-letter abbreviation, but you can get the long name of the timezone like this:
$date = new DateTime('2/3/2022 02:11:17');
$date->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone('America/Chicago'));
echo "\n" . $date->format('Y-m-d h:i:s T');
/* Displays 2022-02-03 02:11:17 CST "; */
$t = $date->getTimezone();
echo "\nTimezone: " . $t->getName();
/* Displays Timezone: America/Chicago */
$now = new DateTime();
$now->format('d-m-Y H:i:s T')
Will output:
29-12-2021 12:38:15 UTC
I had a weird problem on a hosting. The timezone was set correctly, when I checked it with the following code.
echo ini_get('date.timezone');
However, the time it returned was UTC.
The solution was using the following code since the timezone was set correctly in the PHP configuration.
date_default_timezone_set(ini_get('date.timezone'));
You can replace database value in date_default_timezone_set function,
date_default_timezone_set(SOME_PHP_VARIABLE);
but just needs to take care of exact values relevant to the timezones.
I want to get a real timestamp of given time in specified timezone for using in frontend.
Currently i can set a timezone, and get the time for it. But i can't get a new one timestamp.
Carbon::setToStringFormat('U'); // Set __toString format
$instance = Carbon::createFromTimestamp('1460014482', "Europe/Kiev"); // Set global server timezone (or pickup from default PHP setting)
$instance->setTimezone("Indian/Maldives"); // Set user timezone
var_dump($instance->format('d M Y H:i:s')); // Shows the correct time +2 hours from Europe/Kiev
var_dump((string)$instance); // Shows the same timestamp specified in createFromTimestamp
var_dump(date('d M Y H:i:s', (string)$instance)) // So it won't show the timezone datetime
Explain how i can get a timestamp of time for a given timezone.
Thanks!
You need to use the function createFromFormat to use setTimezone. Here is an example for your code:
$originalDate = date("Y-m-d H:i:s", '1460014482');
$instance = Carbon::createFromFormat('Y-m-d H:i:s', $originalDate, 'Europe/Kiev');
$instance->setTimezone("Indian/Maldives");
Hope it helps.
I know its not a complete solution. But it works for my requirements.
Currently need to override __toString method of Carbon class, which i use to display date timestamp.
public function __toString()
{
return static::$toStringFormat == 'U' ? (string)strtotime($this->format('Y-m-d H:i:s')) : $this->format(static::$toStringFormat);
}
I have an application that needs to send a UTC timestamp in order for it to work correctly. In my application a user can have any number of timezones. So if they pick 3pm and their timezone is America/New_York, it is a different 3pm than if it was America/Chicago.
I need to figure out a way to change the date into the right UTC timestamp. I know I can use date_default_timezone_set("UTC")...but I don't think will work correctly.
I think I need to calculate a difference between UTC and regular timezone, but I am not sure. Any advice is welcomes.
date_default_timezone_set("UTC");
echo strtotime('5/13/2014 3:00 PM');
1399993200
date_default_timezone_set("America/New_York");
echo strtotime('5/13/2014 3:00 PM');
1400007600
As you can tell these 2 values are different.
EDIT: Here is what my code looks like. It doesn't seem to work correctly as the application doesn't show the event in the right time.
$previous_timezone = date_default_timezone_get();
date_default_timezone_set("UTC");
$aceroute_schedule = $this->sale_lib->get_send_to_aceroute_schedule();
if (($start_time = strtotime($aceroute_schedule['aceroute_schedule_date']. ' '.$aceroute_schedule['aceroute_schedule_time_start'])) !== FALSE)
{
//Append 000 as as string for 32 bit systems
$start_epoch = $start_time.'000';
$end_epoch = strtotime('+ '.$aceroute_schedule['aceroute_duration'].' minutes', $start_time).'000';
}
else //Default to current time + 1 hour
{
//Append 000 as as string for 32 bit systems
$start_epoch = time().'000';
$end_epoch = strtotime('+1 hour', time()).'000';
}
$event->start_epoch = $start_epoch;
$event->end_epoch = $end_epoch;
Update:
This will now create a DateTime object in the user's DateTimeZone ('America/New_York'). And then it will set that object's timezone to UTC. To get the timestamp (or other string representations of date), use ::format().
# Create NY date
$NY = new DateTimeZone("America/New_York");
$NYdate = new DateTime('5/13/2014 3:00 PM', $NY);
# Set timezone to UTC
$UTC = new DateTimeZone("UTC");
$UTCdate = $NYdate->setTimezone($UTC);
# Get timestamp (PHP 5.2 compatible)
$timezone = $UTCdate->format('U');
var_dump($timezone); // a string containing UNIX timestamp
First I create 2 DateTime objects based off of their respective DateTimeZone objects. Then we can either use OOP ::diff() to get another object containing information about the time difference. Or we can use simple integers representing the difference in seconds from ::getTimestamp.
$date = '5/13/2014 3:00 PM';
# Create NY date
$NY = new DateTimeZone("America/New_York");
$NYdate = new DateTime($date, $NY);
# Create UTC date
$UTC = new DateTimeZone("UTC");
$UTCdate = new DateTime($date, $UTC);
# Find difference object
$diff = $NYdate->diff($UTCdate);
var_dump($diff); // a DateInterval object containing time difference info
# Find difference in seconds
$diff = $NYdate->getTimestamp() - $UTCdate->getTimestamp();
var_dump($diff); // an integer containing time difference in seconds
Links:
DateTimeZone
DateTime
DateInterval
Example in http://www.php.net/manual/en/datetime.settimezone.php
$date = new DateTime('2000-01-01', new DateTimeZone('Pacific/Nauru'));
echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:sP') . "\n";
$date->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone('Pacific/Chatham'));
echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:sP') . "\n";
The first line creates a DateTIme object, using the timezone Pacific/Nauru.
You can then change the timezone using setTimezone as shown in line 4, and the output will be modified accordingly.
note: the default timezone (if you don't specify it in the 2nd parameter in line 1) is the one set in your php.ini file, which you can modify (at runtime) with date_default_timezone_set("America/New_York")
note2: the 1st parameter in line 1, is equivalent to the 1st parameter of the strtotime function.
note3: the format method takes the same format parameter as date (http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php)
I am trying to compare the current datetime, with a datetime from the database using string, as the following:
$today = new DateTime("now");
$todayString = $today->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
if($todayString >= $rows["PrioritizationDueDate"])
{...}
$todayString keeps giving me the time 7 hours earlier (i.e now its 11:03pm, its giving me 16:04).
More, is it better to compare this way, or should i compare using datetime objects?
$todayString keeps giving me the time 7 hours earlier
you have to setup a timezone for the DateTime object I believe.
is it better to compare this way
I doubt so.
The general way is to compare in the query, using SQL to do all date calculations and return only matching rows.
Set a correct timezone in the constructor to DateTime.
$today = new DateTime("now", new DateTimeZone('TimezoneString'));
Where TimezoneString is a valid timezone string.
Edit: For a more complete example using DateTime objects, I would use DateTime::diff in conjunction with DateTime::createFromFormat.
$rows["PrioritizationDueDate"] = '2011-11-20 10:30:00';
$today = new DateTime("now", new DateTimeZone('America/New_York'));
$row_date = DateTime::createFromFormat( 'Y-m-d H:i:s', $rows["PrioritizationDueDate"], new DateTimeZone('America/New_York'));
if( $row_date->diff( $today)->format('%a') > 1)
{
echo 'The row timestamp is more than one day in the past from now.';
}
Demo
First set time zone using this function
date_default_timezone_set('UTC');
Then either you can use function strtotime() or get difference directly...
What is easiest way to display the current time in PST (West Coast) time using PHP?
Well, the easiest might be:
date_default_timezone_set('America/Los_Angeles');
echo date('Y-m-d');
Take a look at supported timezones to find one suitable for your needs.
Let's try a solution that uses PHP's modern date handling. This example requires PHP 5.2 or better.
// Right now it's about four minutes before 1 PM, PST.
$pst = new DateTimeZone('America/Los_Angeles');
$three_hours_ago = new DateTime('-3 hours', $pst); // first argument uses strtotime parsing
echo $three_hours_ago->format('Y-m-d H:i:s'); // "2010-06-15 09:56:36"
If you are using or have access to Carbon you could do this:
$timezone = 'America/Los_Angeles';
$now = Carbon::now()->tz($timezone)->toDateTimeString();
echo $now;
.
echo date('r');
putenv('TZ=PST');
echo date('r');
To convert a date/time between timezones:
include ("Date.php");
$d = new Date("2010-06-21 10:59:27"); // initialize object
$d->setTZByID("GMT"); // set local time zone
$d->convertTZByID("PST"); // convert to foreign time zone
echo $d->format("%A, %d %B %Y %T"); // retrieve converted date/time