DateTime to create date and time object in PHP

$today   = new DateTime;
echo $today->format('Y-m-d H:i:s'); // today's date and time

The above example will display today's date and time in Year-month-date Hour:minutes:second format. Here is the output

2026-09-09 11:54:56

If you are getting warning message saying not to rely on system time zone , then add this line to the top.

date_default_timezone_set('America/Chicago');
$today   = new DateTime;
echo $today->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

Let us try differently

date_default_timezone_set('America/Chicago');
$date = new DateTime("now");
echo $date->format('d-m-y H:i:s');
echo "<br><br>";
$date = new DateTime("tomorrow");
echo $date->format('d-m-y H:i:s');

Out put is here

09-09-26 11:54:56

10-09-26 00:00:00

Another way ( object oriented style )

date_default_timezone_set('America/Chicago');

$date = new DateTime('2012-04-15 22:15:40');

echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s') ;

Output is here

2012-04-15 22:15:40

Procedural style

$date = date_create('2018-11-29 23:15:40');
echo date_format($date, 'Y/m/d H:i:s');

2018/11/29 23:15:40

Select Timezone to get current date and time using different formats

Using DateTimeZone

$date = new DateTime('2019-01-01 16:55:58', new DateTimeZone('America/Chicago'));
echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:sP'); // Output is 2019-01-01 16:55:58-06:00

Output as ISO 8601 date time format

PHP Script to display date & time in ISO format.

echo date(DateTime::ISO8601);

echo "<br>";
$dt_object = new DateTime('NOW');
echo $dt_object->format('c'); 

echo "<br>";

echo $dt_object->format(DateTime::ISO8601);

Output is here

2026-09-09T11:54:56-0500
2026-09-09T11:54:56-05:00
2026-09-09T11:54:56-0500

Code	Output
$d = new DateTime('now'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-09-09
$d = new DateTime('19 July 2018'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2018-07-19
$d = new DateTime('Tomorrow'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-09-10
$d = new DateTime('Yesterday'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-09-08
$d = new DateTime('+1 day'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-09-10
$d = new DateTime('+1 week'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-09-16
$d = new DateTime('+1 week 5 days'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-09-21
$d = new DateTime('+1 month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-10-09
$d = new DateTime('+1 month 10 days'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-10-19
$d = new DateTime('+3 months -1 day'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-12-08
$d = new DateTime('+3 years'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2029-09-09
$d = new DateTime('+1 year 5 days'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2027-09-14
$d = new DateTime('Monday'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-09-14
$d = new DateTime('Monday +1 day '); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-09-15
$d = new DateTime('first day of this month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-09-01
$d = new DateTime('last day of this month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-09-30
$d = new DateTime('first day of previous month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-08-01
$d = new DateTime('last day of previous month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-08-31
$d = new DateTime('first day of next month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-10-01
$d = new DateTime('last day of next month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-10-31
$d = new DateTime('last day of next month +1 hour'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d : H:i:s') ;	2026-10-31 : 12:54:56
$d = new DateTime('Monday +1 hour +20 minutes +10 seconds'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d : H:i:s') ;	2026-09-14 : 01:20:10
$d = DateTime::createFromFormat('d-m-Y', '11-06-2018'); $d = $d->modify('next monday'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2018-06-18
echo date('m-d-Y',strtotime('24-06-2018 next Monday '));	06-25-2018

06-25-2018 , Here we are getting output as date object and then converting to string by using format. We can directly get date as string by using strtotime. Date as string by using strtotime()
By using this date object we can add, subtract or modify dates

PHP Date Functions Adding Date by using DateInterval

Subhendu Mohapatra

Author & Instructor at plus2net

I write and maintain practical tutorials on Python, PHP, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, jQuery, and web development at plus2net. The tutorials focus on clear explanations, working examples, and code that readers can test and adapt while learning.

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hgggfhhfhf ghf	26-08-2014
how to display this (Fri May 14 12:03:24 IST 2010)

slon	23-04-2015
Rather limited class. There is no easy way to get year, month, date etc. Stuid date difference returns a hole class istead of value in items I provide ('d', 'm', 'q' etc) as MSSQL & other conventional DateDiff functions do.

DateTime(): Creates date and time objects

Using DateTimeZone

Output as ISO 8601 date time format

Subhendu Mohapatra