The DateTime class

(PHP 5 >= 5.2.0, PHP 7, PHP 8)

Introduction

Representation of date and time.

This class behaves the same as DateTimeImmutable except objects are modified itself when modification methods such as DateTime::modify() are called.

Warning

Calling methods on objects of the class DateTime will change the information encapsulated in these objects, if you want to prevent that you will have to use clone operator to create a new object. Use DateTimeImmutable instead of DateTime to obtain this recommended behaviour by default.

Class synopsis

class DateTime implements DateTimeInterface {

/* Inherited constants */

const string DateTimeInterface::ATOM = "Y-m-d\TH:i:sP";

const string DateTimeInterface::COOKIE = "l, d-M-Y H:i:s T";

const string DateTimeInterface::ISO8601 = "Y-m-d\TH:i:sO";

const string DateTimeInterface::ISO8601_EXPANDED = "X-m-d\TH:i:sP";

const string DateTimeInterface::RFC822 = "D, d M y H:i:s O";

const string DateTimeInterface::RFC850 = "l, d-M-y H:i:s T";

const string DateTimeInterface::RFC1036 = "D, d M y H:i:s O";

const string DateTimeInterface::RFC1123 = "D, d M Y H:i:s O";

const string DateTimeInterface::RFC7231 = "D, d M Y H:i:s \G\M\T";

const string DateTimeInterface::RFC2822 = "D, d M Y H:i:s O";

const string DateTimeInterface::RFC3339 = "Y-m-d\TH:i:sP";

const string DateTimeInterface::RFC3339_EXTENDED = "Y-m-d\TH:i:s.vP";

const string DateTimeInterface::RSS = "D, d M Y H:i:s O";

const string DateTimeInterface::W3C = "Y-m-d\TH:i:sP";

/* Methods */

public __construct(string $datetime = "now", ?DateTimeZone $timezone = null)

public add(DateInterval $interval): DateTime

public static createFromFormat(string $format, string $datetime, ?DateTimeZone $timezone = null): DateTime|false

public static createFromImmutable(DateTimeImmutable $object): DateTime

public static createFromInterface(DateTimeInterface $object): DateTime

public static getLastErrors(): array|false

public modify(string $modifier): DateTime|false

public static __set_state(array $array): DateTime

public setDate(int $year, int $month, int $day): DateTime

public setISODate(int $year, int $week, int $dayOfWeek = 1): DateTime

public setTime(
    int $hour,
    int $minute,
    int $second = 0,
    int $microsecond = 0
): DateTime

public setTimestamp(int $timestamp): DateTime

public setTimezone(DateTimeZone $timezone): DateTime

public sub(DateInterval $interval): DateTime

public diff(DateTimeInterface $targetObject, bool $absolute = false): DateInterval

public format(string $format): string

public getOffset(): int

public getTimestamp(): int

public getTimezone(): DateTimeZone|false

public __wakeup(): void

}

Changelog

Version	Description
7.2.0	The class constants of DateTime are now defined on DateTimeInterface.
7.1.0	The DateTime constructor now includes the current microseconds in the constructed value. Before this, it would always initialise the microseconds to `0`.

DateTime::add — Modifies a DateTime object, with added amount of days, months, years, hours, minutes and seconds
DateTime::__construct — Returns new DateTime object
DateTime::createFromFormat — Parses a time string according to a specified format
DateTime::createFromImmutable — Returns new DateTime object encapsulating the given DateTimeImmutable object
DateTime::createFromInterface — Returns new DateTime object encapsulating the given DateTimeInterface object
DateTime::getLastErrors — Returns the warnings and errors
DateTime::modify — Alters the timestamp
DateTime::__set_state — The __set_state handler
DateTime::setDate — Sets the date
DateTime::setISODate — Sets the ISO date
DateTime::setTime — Sets the time
DateTime::setTimestamp — Sets the date and time based on an Unix timestamp
DateTime::setTimezone — Sets the time zone for the DateTime object
DateTime::sub — Subtracts an amount of days, months, years, hours, minutes and seconds from a DateTime object