PHP Script To Find and Print The Current Date And Time

Posted on in Categories , , last updated January 29, 2014

I would like to know what the current date or time is via my php based script? Can you provide me the sample php code to display current date and time?

PHP has inbuilt functions to display current date and time.

PHP date/time functions

[a] strftime() : Format a local time/date according to locale settings using php.

[b] date() : Format a local time/date using php.

Examples: PHP show current date and time

Consider the following simple php script example:

<?php
print strftime('%c');
?>

Sample outputs:

Mon Apr 23 01:22:58 2007

You need to pass format such as %c to strftime() to print date and time representation for the current system. You can use following format characters:

  • %m – month as a decimal number (range 01 to 12)
  • %d – day of the month as a decimal number (range 01 to 31)
  • %Y – year as a decimal number including the century
  • You can see the complete format conversion specifiers online here

You can also use date() as follows:

<?php
 print date('r');
 print "\\n";
 print date('D, d M Y H:i:s T');
 print "\\n";
?>

Sample outputs:

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 01:29:56 +0530
Mon, 23 Apr 2007 01:35:14 IST

You need to pass r format conversion to print formatted date. See the complete format conversion specifiers online here.

Posted by: Vivek Gite

The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin and a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. He has worked with global clients and in various industries, including IT, education, defense and space research, and the nonprofit sector. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+.

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18 comment

  4. Create a PHP web page which prints the current time in various formats and colors depending on the query string. Your php page is intended to be loaded with a simple query string which controls how the time is displayed, the page title and the background and text colors. The query string has three fields separated by colons. The first is the time format, the second is the text color and the third is the background color.

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  5. i will design contact us page in php
    in that i will send some information that fill to user. and also send current time and date

    then how can i send current time and date to mail
    i will send date by using date()
    so u will tell me how can i send current time

    thank you

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  8. I want to print date in php but date should be independent of system date means if I change the system date then it will print the current date from internet like if i change my system date from 1 nov to 23 nov then script will print the date of that day only not the system date 23 nov.

    Please suggest me some solution.
    Thank You in Advance.

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