strtotime() function to get text string to unix timestamp and then date to different format of date and time

Parse relative date/time text with strtotime()

strtotime() parses English date/time text and returns a Unix timestamp or false on failure. Always test the return value before formatting it.

$timestamp = strtotime('next Monday 10:30');
if ($timestamp === false) {
    echo 'Invalid date/time expression';
} else {
    echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $timestamp);
}

For user-entered dates with a known format, createFromFormat() gives you tighter control than free-form parsing.

Strtotime gives Unix timestamp starting from 1st Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT;

echo strtotime('now');

Output is here

1790726429

Comparing two dates

By using strtotime we can compare two dates and return the highest ( or lowest ) date of them. Here is the code

$dt1='25-12-2015'; // First Date one in a variable
$dt2='01-07-2016'; // Second Date in a variable

$dt11=strtotime($dt1); // Converting first date to timestamp
$dt22=strtotime($dt2); // Converting second date to timestamp

if($dt11 > $dt22){
$dt=$dt1;
}else{
$dt=$dt2;
}
echo "Highest  Date : $dt ";

Output is here

Highest Date : 01-07-2016

What is the weekday today ?

echo date('D',strtotime('now'))

$pub_date='2024-02-11T15:36:25Z'
$my_date=date('d-M-Y h:i:s', strtotime($pub_date));

Check all the Date and time formats here
Using strtotime with date() to get formatted date and time output.

Code	Output
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('now'))	09-30-2026
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('11 July 2016'))	07-11-2016
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('+1 day'))	10-01-2026
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('+1 week'))	10-07-2026
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('+1 month'))	10-30-2026
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('+1 month 3 days'))	11-02-2026
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('+2 months -1 day'))	11-29-2026
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('Wednesday'))	09-30-2026
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('Sunday +1 day'))	10-05-2026
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('first day of this month'))	09-01-2026
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('last day of this month'))	09-30-2026
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('first day of next month'))	10-01-2026
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('last day of next month'))	10-31-2026
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('first day of previous month'))	08-01-2026
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('last day of previous month'))	08-31-2026
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('+5 years '))	09-30-2031
With Date & Time
date('m-d-Y H:i:s',strtotime('+1 hour '))	09-30-2026 06:30:29
date('m-d-Y H:i:s',strtotime('+10 minutes '))	09-30-2026 05:40:29
date('m-d-Y H:i:s',strtotime('+20 seconds '))	09-30-2026 05:30:49
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('last day of next month +1 Hour'))	10-31-2026 : 06
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('first day of next month +1 Hour 20 minutes'))	10-01-2026 : 06 : 50 : 29
Fixed Date
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('25-12-2012 +5 years '))	12-25-2017
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('25-12-2012 +1 month 1 week '))	02-01-2013
date('m-d-Y',strtotime('12-06-2018 next Monday '))	06-18-2018
date('d-M-Y',strtotime('07-06-2018 next Wednesday'))	13-Jun-2018

Date object by using similar string by using DateTime() Date Picker using JQuery

Other ways to get Unix Timestamp

Function	Description
mktime()	getting time stamp of input date and time
gettimestamp()	Getting Timestamp from date object

PHP Date Functions Adding Date by using DateInterval Today Date using Date()

Subhendu Mohapatra

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strtotime to get Unix timestamp

Parse relative date/time text with strtotime()

Comparing two dates

Other ways to get Unix Timestamp

Subhendu Mohapatra