Yii2 get time as UTC - php

Question

Is there an easy way to get timestamp in UTC without updating the config file?
I am able to do so by using php date_default_timezone_set.
I need this in Yii2 and new \DateTimeZone('UTC') does not seem to work.

Answer 1

$date = new \DateTimeZone(\Yii::$app->timeZone);
echo $date->getName().'<br>';
$date = new DateTimeZone('UTC');
echo $date->getName().'<br>';
\Yii::$app->timeZone = 'EST';
$date = new DateTimeZone(\Yii::$app->timeZone);
echo $date->getName();
Using the Yii functions
// #var string the time zone to use for formatting time and date values.
// This can be any value that may be passed to [date_default_timezone_set()](http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.date-default-timezone-set.php)
Yii::$app->formatter->timeZone = 'UTC';
// #var string the default format string to be used to format a [[asDate()|date]]. `UTC`, `Europe/Berlin` or `America/Chicago`.
Yii::$app->formatter->defaultTimeZone = 'UTC';
// or
$formatter= new \yii\i18n\Formatter;
$formatter->defaultTimeZone = 'UTC'; // ..

Answer 2

Usually the most convenient way to handle this is to use Formatter component. If all dates are in the same timezone, you're configuring it in only one place using Formatter::$defaultTimezone setting in your config (you may skip this in your case, since UTC is default value):
'formatter' => [
'defaultTimeZone' => 'UTC',
],
Then you can use asTimestamp():
echo Yii::$app->getFormatter()->asTimestamp($date);

Answer 3

You can set the default time zone in the controller action using the following code
$UTC = new DateTimeZone("UTC");
$newTZ = new DateTimeZone("America/New_York");
$date = new DateTime( "2011-01-01 15:00:00", $UTC );
$date->setTimezone( $newTZ );
echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
OR use in any controller action
date_default_timezone_set("Asia/Bangkok");
echo date_default_timezone_get();