In 32-bit system the unix timestamp will overflow if the date goes beyond year 2038 and this method will return false. In 64-bit systems this function will still work as intended. For more information please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem.
DateTimeInterface::getTimestamp
DateTimeImmutable::getTimestamp
DateTime::getTimestamp
date_timestamp_get
(PHP 5 >= 5.3.0, PHP 7, PHP 8)
DateTimeInterface::getTimestamp -- DateTimeImmutable::getTimestamp -- DateTime::getTimestamp -- date_timestamp_get — Gets the Unix timestamp
Description
Object-oriented style
Procedural style
Gets the Unix timestamp.
Parameters
This function has no parameters.
Return Values
Returns the Unix timestamp representing the date.
Errors/Exceptions
If the timestamp cannot be represented as int, a
DateRangeError is thrown. Prior to PHP
8.3.0, a ValueError is thrown. And, prior to
PHP 8.0.0, false was returned in this case. Still, the timestamp can be
retrieved as string by using
DateTimeInterface::format() with the
U format.
Changelog
| Version | Description |
|---|---|
| 8.3.0 | The out-of-range exception is now DateRangeError. |
| 8.0.0 |
These functions no longer return false on failure.
|
Examples
Example #1 DateTime::getTimestamp() example
Object-oriented style
<?php
$date = new DateTimeImmutable();
echo $date->getTimestamp();
?>Procedural style
<?php
$date = date_create();
echo date_timestamp_get($date);
?>The above examples will output something similar to:
1272509157
If you need to retrieve the timestamp with millisecond or microsecond resolution, then you can use the DateTimeInterface::format() function.
Example #2 Retrieving timestamp with milli and microsecond resolution
Object-oriented style
<?php
$date = new DateTimeImmutable();
$milli = (int)$date->format('Uv'); // Timestamp in milliseconds
$micro = (int)$date->format('Uu'); // Timestamp in microseconds
echo $milli, "\n", $micro, "\n";
?>The above examples will output something similar to:
1674057635586 1674057635586918
See Also
- DateTime::setTimestamp() - Sets the date and time based on an Unix timestamp
- DateTimeImmutable::setTimestamp() - Sets the date and time based on a Unix timestamp
- DateTimeInterface::format() - Returns date formatted according to given format
add a note
User Contributed Notes 3 notes
heiccih at gmail dot com ¶
10 years ago
Justin Heesemann ¶
14 years ago
Note that for dates before the unix epoch getTimestamp() will return false, whereas format("U") will return a negative number.
<?php
$date = new DateTime("1899-12-31");
// "-2209078800"
echo $date->format("U");
// false
echo $date->getTimestamp();
?>
Julien Bornstein ¶
4 years ago
Please note that DateTime::gettimestamp() will return an integer, but DateTime::format("U") will return a string.
timestamp must always be typed as int because in PHP, timestamps are integers.
eg:
- strftime ( string $format [, int $timestamp = time() ] ) : string
- time() // return int
- ...
So IMHO, as PHP becomes more and more a typed language, avoid using DateTime::format("U") to avoid this kind of errors "strftime() expects parameter 2 to be int, string given"
