You use date() with string argument to get the current date or time.
You might also use the function now() to get the current date & time.
For example, these examples will Illustrate use of date and time functions.
Example
Function
Result
<?php echo date("F j, Y"); ?>
Month name, day & full year
May 9, 2008
<?php echo date("m/d/y"); ?>
Mont/day/short year
05/09/08
<?php echo date("Ymd"); ?>
Full year, month and day
20080509
<?php echo date("d"); ?>
Digit day
09
<?php echo date("j"); ?>
Digit day-no leading 0
9
<?php echo date("D"); ?>
Day name
Fri
<?php echo date("m"); ?>
Digit month
05
<?php echo date("n"); ?>
Digit month-no leading 0
5
<?php echo date("M"); ?>
Short month name
May
<?php echo date("F"); ?>
Full month name
May
<?php echo date("t"); ?>
# of days in current month
31
<?php echo date("y"); ?>
Short Year
08
<?php echo date("Y"); ?>
Full year
2008
<?php echo date("w"); ?>
Day of week 0-Sun 6-Sat
5
<?php echo date("z"); ?>
Day of year 0-to-365
129
<?php echo date("W"); ?>
Current week of the year (53w)
19
<?php echo date("W"); ?>
Currently week of the year (53w)
19
<?php echo date("a"); ?>
am or pm
pm
<?php echo date("A"); ?>
AM or PM
PM
<?php echo date("g"); ?>
12h format
5
<?php echo date("G"); ?>
24h format
17
<?php echo date("h"); ?>
12h format with leading 0
05
<?php echo date("H"); ?>
24h with leading 0
17
<?php echo date("i"); ?>
Minutes
36
<?php echo date("s"); ?>
Seconds
03
<?php echo date("T"); ?>
Timezon
MDT
Following example utilizes Date() function to illustrate more.
<?php
print "Today's date is: ";
print date("F j, Y");
print " and there is ";
print 365-date("z");
print " days left of the year ";
print date("Y");
?>
Execution Result:
Today's date is: May 9, 2008 and there is 236 days left of the year 2008
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Database Access