Timestamp handling in PHP: How to use the strftime function to format a timestamp into a localized date time

Timestamp processing in PHP: How to use the strftime function to format a timestamp into a localized date time

When developing PHP applications, we often need to process dates and times. PHP provides powerful date and time processing functions, among which the strftime function allows us to format timestamps into localized date and time.

The strftime function has the following syntax:

strftime(string $format[, int $timestamp = time()]) : string

Among them, the $format parameter is a A string of formatting instructions used to define the date and time format to be output. The $timestamp parameter is an optional parameter that specifies the timestamp to be formatted.

The following are some commonly used formatting instructions:

• %a: abbreviated day of the week name (for example: Mon to Sun)
• %A: complete Day of the week name (for example: Monday to Sunday)
• %b: Abbreviated month name (for example: Jan to Dec)
• %B: Full month name (for example: January to December)
• %d: Day (01 to 31)
• %e: Day (1 to 31)
• %H: Hour (00 to 23)
• %I: hour (01 to 12)
• %m: month (01 to 12)
• %M: minute (00 to 59)
• %p: morning or afternoon (AM or PM)
• %S: seconds (00 to 59)
• %Y: four-digit year (for example: 1970 to 2038)
• % y: a two-digit year (for example: 70 to 38)
• %%: a percent sign

Next, let’s go through a few code examples to see how to use strftime function.

Example 1: Format the current timestamp as a localized date and time

$date = strftime("%A, %B %d, %Y %I:%M %p");
echo $date;

Output: Wednesday, July 14, 2021 09:30 AM

Example 2: Format Specify the timestamp as the localized date and time

$timestamp = strtotime("2021-07-14 09:30:00");
$date = strftime("%A, %B %d, %Y %I:%M %p", $timestamp);
echo $date;

Output: Wednesday, July 14, 2021 09:30 AM

Example 3: Format the timestamp combined with Chinese characters

$timestamp = strtotime("2021-07-14 09:30:00");
setlocale(LC_ALL, 'zh_CN.utf8');
$date = strftime("日期： %Y年%m月%d日 时间： %H时%M分%S秒", $timestamp);
echo $date;

Output: Date: July 14, 2021 Time: 09:30:00

In Example 3, we used the setlocale function to set the localized environment to Simplified Chinese. In this way, the strftime function will convert date and time into Chinese characters.

In addition to the date and time format in the above example, the strftime function also supports many other formatting instructions. You can choose the appropriate format according to your needs.

It should be noted that the strftime function only works with UNIX timestamps (seconds since January 1, 1970), if you pass a timestamp in other formats to the function, it may return Wrong results.

Summary:

This article introduces how to use PHP's strftime function to format a timestamp into a localized date and time. By setting formatting instructions, we can easily obtain various date and time formats as needed. This function is very useful when dealing with timestamps. I hope this article will help you understand and use the strftime function.

Reference materials:

• PHP strftime function documentation: https://www.php.net/manual/zh/function.strftime.php

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