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.
DateTime::getTimestamp
DateTimeImmutable::getTimestamp
DateTimeInterface::getTimestamp
date_timestamp_get
(PHP 5 >= 5.3.0, PHP 7)
DateTime::getTimestamp -- DateTimeImmutable::getTimestamp -- DateTimeInterface::getTimestamp -- date_timestamp_get — Gets the Unix timestamp
Description
Object oriented style
public DateTime::getTimestamp
( void
) : int
public DateTimeImmutable::getTimestamp
( void
) : int
public DateTimeInterface::getTimestamp
( void
) : int
Procedural style
Gets the Unix timestamp.
Parameters
This function has no parameters.
Return Values
Returns the Unix timestamp representing the date.
Examples
Example #1 DateTime::getTimestamp() example
Object oriented style
<?php
$date = new DateTime();
echo $date->getTimestamp();
?>
Procedural style
<?php
$date = date_create();
echo date_timestamp_get($date);
?>
The above examples will output something similar to:
1272509157
Notes
Using U as the parameter to DateTime::format() is an alternative when using PHP 5.2.
See Also
- DateTime::setTimestamp() - Sets the date and time based on an Unix timestamp
- DateTime::format() - Returns date formatted according to given format
add a note
User Contributed Notes 4 notes
heiccih at gmail dot com ¶
5 years ago
Justin Heesemann ¶
9 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();
?>
mindplay.dk ¶
3 years ago
Miguel's comment is wrong - getTimeStamp() always returns a timestamp, this has nothing to do with timezones at all, as you can see below.
What's really happening in Miguel's example, is he is parsing the input dates in different timezones.
There is no such thing as "a timestamp relative to the timezone".
<?php
$d = new DateTime('2016-03-11 11:00:00', new DateTimeZone('Europe/Rome'));
var_dump($d->getTimestamp()); // 1457690400
$d->setTimeZone(new DateTimeZone('America/New_York'));
var_dump($d->getTimestamp()); // 1457690400
miguelmuscat93 at gmail dot com ¶
3 years ago
Note that getTimestamp() does not return the UTC timestamp. It returns the timestamp relative to the set timezone, or the default server timezone. This also applies to dates in timezones with Daylight Savings.
<?php
// 11th March 2016 @ 11:00 UTC has timestamp: 1457694000
$d1 = new DateTime('2016-03-11 11:00:00', new DateTimeZone('Europe/Rome'));
$t1 = $d1->getTimestamp();
// 11th April 2016 @ 11:00 UTC has timestamp: 1460372400
$d2 = new DateTime('2016-04-11 11:00:00', new DateTimeZone('Europe/Rome'));
$t2 = $d2->getTimestamp();
printf("11 March: %d (diff = %d less)\n", $t1, 1457694000 - $t1);
printf("11 April: %d (diff = %d less)", $t2, 1460372400 - $t2);
// Prints:
// 1457690400 (diff = 3600)
// 1460365200 (diff = 7200)
