The DateTime class

(PHP 5 >= 5.2.0, PHP 7, PHP 8)

Introduction

Representation of date and time.

This class behaves the same as DateTimeImmutable, except objects are modified itself when modification methods such as DateTime::modify() are called.

Warning

Calling methods on objects of the class DateTime will change the information encapsulated in these objects, if you want to prevent that you will have to use clone operator to create a new object. Use DateTimeImmutable instead of DateTime to obtain this recommended behaviour by default.

Class synopsis

class DateTime implements DateTimeInterface {

/* Inherited constants */

public const string DateTimeInterface::ATOM = "Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP";

public const string DateTimeInterface::COOKIE = "l, d-M-Y H:i:s T";

public const string DateTimeInterface::ISO8601 = "Y-m-d\\TH:i:sO";

public const string DateTimeInterface::ISO8601_EXPANDED = "X-m-d\\TH:i:sP";

public const string DateTimeInterface::RFC822 = "D, d M y H:i:s O";

public const string DateTimeInterface::RFC850 = "l, d-M-y H:i:s T";

public const string DateTimeInterface::RFC1036 = "D, d M y H:i:s O";

public const string DateTimeInterface::RFC1123 = "D, d M Y H:i:s O";

public const string DateTimeInterface::RFC7231 = "D, d M Y H:i:s \\G\\M\\T";

public const string DateTimeInterface::RFC2822 = "D, d M Y H:i:s O";

public const string DateTimeInterface::RFC3339 = "Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP";

public const string DateTimeInterface::RFC3339_EXTENDED = "Y-m-d\\TH:i:s.vP";

public const string DateTimeInterface::RSS = "D, d M Y H:i:s O";

public const string DateTimeInterface::W3C = "Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP";

/* Methods */

public function __construct(string $datetime = "now", ?DateTimeZone $timezone = null)

public function add(DateInterval $interval): DateTime

public static function createFromFormat(string $format, string $datetime, ?DateTimeZone $timezone = null): DateTime|false

public static function createFromImmutable(DateTimeImmutable $object): static

public static function createFromInterface(DateTimeInterface $object): DateTime

public static function createFromTimestamp(int|float $timestamp): static

public function modify(string $modifier): DateTime

public static function __set_state(array $array): DateTime

public function setDate(int $year, int $month, int $day): DateTime

public function setISODate(int $year, int $week, int $dayOfWeek = 1): DateTime

public function setMicrosecond(int $microsecond): static

public function setTime(
    int $hour,
    int $minute,
    int $second = 0,
    int $microsecond = 0
): DateTime

public function setTimestamp(int $timestamp): DateTime

public function setTimezone(DateTimeZone $timezone): DateTime

public function sub(DateInterval $interval): DateTime

public function diff(DateTimeInterface $targetObject, bool $absolute = false): DateInterval

public function format(string $format): string

public function getMicrosecond(): int

public function getOffset(): int

public function getTimestamp(): int

public function getTimezone(): DateTimeZone|false

public function __serialize(): array

public function __unserialize(array $data): void

#[\Deprecated(
since: '8.5',
message: 'this method is obsolete, as serialization hooks are provided by __unserialize() and __serialize()',
)]
public function __wakeup(): void

}

Changelog

Version	Description
8.4.0	The class constants are now typed.
7.2.0	The class constants of DateTime are now defined on DateTimeInterface.
7.1.0	The DateTime constructor now includes the current microseconds in the constructed value. Before this, it would always initialise the microseconds to `0`.

DateTime::add — Modifies a DateTime object, with added amount of days, months, years, hours, minutes and seconds
DateTime::__construct — Returns new DateTime object
DateTime::createFromFormat — Parses a time string according to a specified format
DateTime::createFromImmutable — Returns new DateTime instance encapsulating the given DateTimeImmutable object
DateTime::createFromInterface — Returns new DateTime object encapsulating the given DateTimeInterface object
DateTime::createFromTimestamp — Creates an instance from a Unix timestamp
DateTime::getLastErrors — Alias of DateTimeImmutable::getLastErrors
DateTime::modify — Alters the timestamp
DateTime::__set_state — The __set_state handler
DateTime::setDate — Sets the date
DateTime::setISODate — Sets the ISO date
DateTime::setMicrosecond — Sets microsecond part of the time
DateTime::setTime — Sets the time
DateTime::setTimestamp — Sets the date and time based on an Unix timestamp
DateTime::setTimezone — Sets the time zone for the DateTime object
DateTime::sub — Subtracts an amount of days, months, years, hours, minutes and seconds from a DateTime object

The DateTime class

Introduction

Class synopsis

Changelog

Table of Contents