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📅 PHP Date Format Builder & Timestamp Converter

Build a PHP date() format string by clicking, see the result live in any time zone, and convert Unix timestamps to dates and back, with copy-ready PHP code.

Result

date()

DateTimeImmutable

Format characters (click to add)

Day

  • Day of the month, 2 digits (01–31)
  • Day name, 3 letters (Mon–Sun)
  • Day of the month without leading zero (1–31)
  • Full day name (Monday–Sunday)
  • ISO day of week (1 = Monday … 7 = Sunday)
  • English ordinal suffix (st, nd, rd, th)
  • Day of week (0 = Sunday … 6 = Saturday)
  • Day of the year, from 0 (0–365)

Week

  • ISO week number (01–53)

Month

  • Full month name (January–December)
  • Month, 2 digits (01–12)
  • Month name, 3 letters (Jan–Dec)
  • Month without leading zero (1–12)
  • Days in the month (28–31)

Year

  • Leap year (1 or 0)
  • ISO week-numbering year
  • Full year (e.g. 2026)
  • Year, 2 digits (e.g. 26)

Time

  • am or pm
  • AM or PM
  • 12-hour hour without leading zero (1–12)
  • 24-hour hour without leading zero (0–23)
  • 12-hour hour, 2 digits (01–12)
  • 24-hour hour, 2 digits (00–23)
  • Minutes, 2 digits (00–59)
  • Seconds, 2 digits (00–59)
  • Milliseconds (000–999)
  • Microseconds (date() always prints 000000)

Time zone

  • Time zone identifier (e.g. Europe/London)
  • Daylight saving time in effect (1 or 0)
  • Offset from UTC, no colon (+0530)
  • Offset from UTC with colon (+05:30)
  • Like P, but Z for UTC
  • Time zone abbreviation
  • Offset from UTC in seconds

Full

  • ISO 8601 (2026-10-07T14:30:00+00:00)
  • RFC 2822 (Wed, 07 Oct 2026 14:30:00 +0000)
  • Unix timestamp (seconds)

Unix timestamp converter

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How PHP date formats work

Each letter in a PHP format string stands for one part of the date: Y is the year, m the month, d the day, H:i:s the time. Any character that isn’t a format letter is printed as-is, and a backslash prints the next letter literally. The same letters work in date(), DateTimeInterface::format() and Carbon’s format().

Good habits with dates in PHP

  • Store and compute in UTC, convert to the user’s time zone only for display.
  • Prefer DateTimeImmutable over DateTime, so modifying a date never changes the original by surprise.
  • Use Y-m-d H:i:s for MySQL DATETIME columns and DATE_ATOM or c for APIs.

Frequently asked questions

How do I format a date as Y-m-d in PHP?

Use date('Y-m-d') for the current date, or $date->format('Y-m-d') on a DateTimeImmutable. Y is the four-digit year, m the two-digit month and d the two-digit day, for example 2026-10-07.

How do I convert a Unix timestamp to a date in PHP?

Use date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $timestamp), or (new DateTimeImmutable('@' . $timestamp))->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone('Europe/London'))->format('Y-m-d H:i:s') to control the time zone explicitly.

How do I put literal letters in a PHP date format?

Escape them with a backslash, for example date('l \t\h\e jS') prints “Wednesday the 7th”. In double-quoted PHP strings, escape the backslash too, or use single quotes.

Why does date() show the wrong time?

date() uses the default time zone from date.timezone in php.ini or date_default_timezone_set(). Set it explicitly (for example UTC on servers) and convert to the user’s zone only for display.

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