How to convert date to timestamp in php? Brief analysis of 3 methods

In the process of developing websites or applications, we often encounter the need to convert dates into timestamps. The timestamp refers to the number of seconds from 0:00 on January 1, 1970 to the present. It is widely used in programs. PHP is a very excellent programming language. It provides a very rich set of date and time functions, which can easily convert dates into timestamps.

1. Use the time function to get the current timestamp

In PHP, use the time() function to get the timestamp of the current time. The time() function does not require any parameters and can be called directly to return the timestamp of the current time.

Sample code:

<?php
echo time();
?>

Output result:

1604317413

This result represents the number of seconds from 0:00 on January 1, 1970 to the present. As you can see, the time() function returns an integer.

2. Use the strtotime function to convert a date into a timestamp

The strtotime() function is one of the commonly used date processing functions in PHP. It can convert a date containing Convert the string to a UNIX timestamp. It supports conversion of multiple date formats, such as "yyyy-mm-dd", "MM/DD/YYYY" and so on.

Sample code:

<?php
$date_str = &#39;2020-11-02&#39;;
echo strtotime($date_str);
?>

Output result:

1604275200

This result is similar to the result of the first example, starting from 0:00 on January 1, 1970 to the specified The number of seconds in the date.

3. Use the mktime function to convert dates into timestamps

The mktime() function can convert the incoming date parameters into timestamps. When using the mktime() function, you need to pass in parameters such as year, month, day, hour, minute, and second. The specific format is as follows:

mktime(hour,minute,second,month,day,year,is_dst);

Among them, hour represents the hour, minute represents the minute, and second represents the second. , month represents the month, day represents the day, year represents the year, is_dst is an optional parameter, indicating whether to consider daylight saving time. If is_dst is 1, daylight saving time will be considered, otherwise it will not be considered.

Sample code:

<?php
$year = 2020;
$month = 11;
$day = 2;
echo mktime(0, 0, 0, $month, $day, $year);
?>

Output result:

1604275200

Similarly, this result is also the number of seconds from 0:00 on January 1, 1970 to the specified date.

Summary

There are three ways to convert dates into timestamps in PHP, namely using the time() function, strtotime() function and mktime() function. Each of these three methods has its own advantages and disadvantages, and developers can choose the corresponding method according to specific needs. In actual projects, timestamps are widely used, such as recording logs, calculating time intervals, performing data statistics, etc. By mastering the date and time functions in PHP, you can improve development efficiency, reduce error rates, and get twice the result with half the effort.

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