How to convert date format to Unix timestamp using php

In web development, dealing with dates is a very common task. As a server-side programming language, PHP provides some useful functions to handle dates. The most common of these is to convert a date string to a Unix timestamp, which is useful for date comparison and sorting operations. This article will explain how to convert date format to Unix timestamp using PHP.

Unix timestamp is the number of seconds elapsed since January 1, 1970 00:00:00 GMT. It is an integer indicating how many seconds it is from this starting time point. PHP can obtain the current Unix timestamp through the time() function, and the strtotime() function can convert the date format into a Unix timestamp.

The following is a sample code:

$date = "2021-12-01";
$timestamp = strtotime($date);
echo $timestamp;

In the above code, we use the strtotime() function to convert the date string "2021-12-01" into a Unix timestamp. The result will be an integer output, representing the number of seconds from the starting time of this date. If you need a more precise timestamp, you can add the time part after the date string, such as "2021-12-01 10:30:00".

In addition to the strtotime() function, PHP also provides some other functions for processing date formats. For example, the date() function can format a Unix timestamp into a specified date format, such as "Y-m-d H:i:s". This function can be used to format a Unix timestamp into the desired date string.

Here is a sample code:

$timestamp = time();
$date = date("Y-m-d H:i:s", $timestamp);
echo $date

In the above code, we use the time() function to get the current Unix timestamp and pass it to the date() function. The date() function accepts two parameters, the first is the string that needs to be formatted, and the second is the Unix timestamp. It will format the Unix timestamp into the specified date string and return it.

To summarize, PHP provides some functions for processing date formats. Use the strtotime() function to convert a date string to a Unix timestamp, and use the date() function to format a Unix timestamp into a specified date format. These functions can greatly simplify date processing. If you need to deal with dates in web development, these functions are must-know.

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