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 */
public const string DateTimeInterface::ATOM = "Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP";
public const string DateTimeInterface::COOKIE = "l, d-M-Y H:i:s T";
public const string DateTimeInterface::ISO8601 = "Y-m-d\\TH:i:sO";
public const string DateTimeInterface::ISO8601_EXPANDED = "X-m-d\\TH:i:sP";
public const string DateTimeInterface::RFC822 = "D, d M y H:i:s O";
public const string DateTimeInterface::RFC850 = "l, d-M-y H:i:s T";
public const string DateTimeInterface::RFC1036 = "D, d M y H:i:s O";
public const string DateTimeInterface::RFC1123 = "D, d M Y H:i:s O";
public const string DateTimeInterface::RFC7231 = "D, d M Y H:i:s \\G\\M\\T";
public const string DateTimeInterface::RFC2822 = "D, d M Y H:i:s O";
public const string DateTimeInterface::RFC3339 = "Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP";
public const string DateTimeInterface::RFC3339_EXTENDED = "Y-m-d\\TH:i:s.vP";
public const string DateTimeInterface::RSS = "D, d M Y H:i:s O";
public 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): static
public static createFromInterface(DateTimeInterface $object): DateTime
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.

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