How to convert date and time to timestamp in PHP

When developing web applications, we often need to convert dates and times into a format that can be stored and processed in the computer. Timestamp is one such format. The timestamp is the number of seconds since the "UNIX Epoch", which is January 1, 1970 00:00:00 UTC.

PHP is a popular web development language with built-in functions and classes for handling dates and times. In this article, we will discuss how to convert date and time to timestamp in PHP.

Use the time function to get the current timestamp

PHP’s built-in time() function can be used to get the timestamp of the current time. This function does not require any parameters and can be called directly. Here is a simple example:

$timestamp = time();
echo $timestamp;

This code will output a timestamp of the current time.

Use the strtotime function to convert a date string into a timestamp

strtotime()The function can convert a standard date string into a timestamp. Here is an example:

$timestamp = strtotime('2021-03-01 12:00:00');
echo $timestamp;

This code converts the date string "2021-03-01 12:00:00" into the corresponding timestamp.

In addition to date and time, the strtotime() function can also handle relative time strings. For example, the following code will return a timestamp five days after the current time:

$timestamp = strtotime('+5 days');

Convert a datetime to a timestamp using a DateTime object

PHP's DateTime class provides the Advanced processing of dates and times, including formatting, comparisons, calculations, and more. This class can convert date and time into timestamp.

The following is an example of converting a date string to a timestamp using a DateTime object:

$dateStr = '2021-03-01 12:00:00';
$dateTime = new DateTime($dateStr);
$timestamp = $dateTime->getTimestamp();
echo $timestamp;

The code will also return "2021-03-01 12:00 :00" timestamp.

Use the mktime function to convert date time into a timestamp

mktime()The function can generate a time from specific time parameters (such as hours, minutes, seconds, etc.) stamp. Here is an example:

$timestamp = mktime(12, 0, 0, 3, 1, 2021);
echo $timestamp;

This code will generate a timestamp for the specified date and time (12 noon on March 1, 2021).

Conclusion

Converting date and time to timestamp is a common task in PHP, but also very simple. We can use the built-in time() function to get the timestamp of the current time, use the strtotime() function to convert a date string to a timestamp, and use DateTime Class converts a datetime into a timestamp, or you can use the mktime() function to generate a timestamp from a specific time parameter.

We need to choose each option carefully and consider how best to meet our needs. By using these methods, we can easily perform various date-time related calculations and operations in PHP applications.

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