time

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)

time — 返回当前的 Unix 时间戳

说明

int time ( void )

返回自从 Unix 纪元（格林威治时间 1970 年 1 月 1 日 00:00:00）到当前时间的秒数。

范例

Example #1 time() 例子

<?php
$nextWeek = time() + (7 * 24 * 60 * 60);
                   // 7 days; 24 hours; 60 mins; 60 secs
echo 'Now:       '. date('Y-m-d') ."\n";
echo 'Next Week: '. date('Y-m-d', $nextWeek) ."\n";
// or using strtotime():
echo 'Next Week: '. date('Y-m-d', strtotime('+1 week')) ."\n";
?>

以上例程的输出类似于：

Now:       2005-03-30
Next Week: 2005-04-06
Next Week: 2005-04-06

注释

Tip

自 PHP 5.1 起在 $_SERVER['REQUEST_TIME'] 中保存了发起该请求时刻的时间戳。

参见

  • date() - 格式化一个本地时间／日期
  • microtime() - 返回当前 Unix 时间戳和微秒数

User Contributed Notes

APM 24-Nov-2017 12:26
A better way to get a nice time-format (1 year ago, 2 months until) without all the trailing months, days, hours, minutes, seconds in the result is by using the DateTime format and using the date_diff function as they both does most of the heavy lifting for you

Function below as example

<?php
   
    // Get time interval function
    function getTimeInterval($date) {
       
        // Set date as DateTime object
        $date = new DateTime ($date);
       
        // Set now as DateTime object
        $now = date ('Y-m-d H:i:s', time()); // If you want to compare two dates you both provide just delete this line and add a $now to the function parameter (ie. function getTimeInterval($date, $now))
        $now = new DateTime ($now);
       
        // Check if date is in the past or future and calculate timedifference and set tense accordingly
        if ($now >= $date) {
            $timeDifference = date_diff ($date , $now);
            $tense = " ago";
        } else {
            $timeDifference = date_diff ($now, $date);
            $tense = " until";
        }
       
        // Set posible periods (lowest first as to end result with the highest value that isn't 0)
        $period = array (" second", " minute", " hour", " day", " month", " year");
       
        // Set values of the periods using the DateTime formats (matching the periods above)
        $periodValue= array ($timeDifference->format('%s'), $timeDifference->format('%i'), $timeDifference->format('%h'), $timeDifference->format('%d'), $timeDifference->format('%m'), $timeDifference->format('%y'));
       
        // Loop through the periods (ie. seconds to years)
        for ($i = 0; $i < count($periodValue); $i++) {
            // If current value is different from 1 add 's' to the end of current period (ie. seconds)
            if ($periodValue[$i] != 1) {
                $period[$i] .= "s";
            }
           
            // If current value is larger than 0 set new interval overwriting the lower value that came before ensuring the result shows only the highest value that isn't 0
            if ($periodValue[$i] > 0) {
                $interval = $periodValue[$i].$period[$i].$tense; // ie.: 3 months ago
            }
        }
       
        // If any values were larger than 0 (ie. timedifference is not 0 years, 0 months, 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds ago) return interval
        if (isset($interval)) {
            return $interval;
        // Else if no values were larger than 0 (ie. timedifference is 0 years, 0 months, 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minites, 0 seconds ago) return 0 seconds ago
        } else {
            return "0 seconds" . $tense;
        }
    }
   
    // Ex. (time now = November 23 2017)
    getTimeInterval("2016-05-04 12:00:00"); // Returns: 1 year ago
    getTimeInterval("2017-12-24 12:00:00"); // Returns: 1 month until
   
?>
jaak dot tamre at gmail dot com 23-Dec-2016 06:16
Does anyone know if the year 2038 issue will be solved in PHP?

Lets imagine it's year 2039 and the time() function will return negative numbers? This is not acceptable.

Using the DateTime interface is nice, but will these timestamp helper functions be removed or fixed?
Ray.Paseur sometimes uses Gmail 22-Feb-2016 01:03
The number of 86,400 seconds in a day comes from the assumption of 60 seconds per minute, 60 minutes per hour and 24 hours per day: 60*60*24.  But not every day has 24 hours.  This edge case occurs on the days that clocks change as we enter and leave daylight savings (summer) time.  Date and time arithmetic is logically consistent and correct when you use PHP built-in functions, but it may not always work as expected if you try to write your own date and time arithmetic.
Peter F 04-Jun-2015 09:58
Javier:

The issue are highlighting is with the date() function, not with time(). the following code demonstrates this:

<?php
// server in BST Timezone
print 'server timezone<br>';
$time1 = date('H:i:s', time() - date('Z')); // 12:50:29
$time2 = date('H:i:s', gmdate('U')); // 13:50:29
$time3 = date('H:i:s', time()); // 13:50:29
$time4 = time() - date('Z'); // 1433418629
$time5 = gmdate('U'); // 1433422229
$time6 = time(); // 1433422229
print $time1.'<br>';
print $time2.'<br>';
print $time3.'<br>';
print $time4.'<br>';
print $time5.'<br>';
print $time6.'<br>';

ini_set('date.timezone', 'Europe/Berlin');
print 'Europe/Berlin<br>';
$time1 = date('H:i:s', time() - date('Z')); // 12:50:29
$time2 = date('H:i:s', gmdate('U')); // 14:50:29
$time3 = date('H:i:s', time()); // 14:50:29
$time4 = time() - date('Z'); // 1433415029
$time5 = gmdate('U'); // 1433422229
$time6 = time(); // 1433422229
print $time1.'<br>';
print $time2.'<br>';
print $time3.'<br>';
print $time4.'<br>';
print $time5.'<br>';
print $time6.'<br>';

ini_set('date.timezone', 'UTC');
print 'UTC<br>';
$time1 = date('H:i:s', time() - date('Z')); // 12:50:29
$time2 = date('H:i:s', gmdate('U')); // 12:50:29
$time3 = date('H:i:s', time()); // 12:50:29
$time4 = time() - date('Z'); // 1433422229
$time5 = gmdate('U'); // 1433422229
$time6 = time(); // 1433422229
print $time1.'<br>';
print $time2.'<br>';
print $time3.'<br>';
print $time4.'<br>';
print $time5.'<br>';
print $time6.'<br>';
?>
hoangvu4000 at gmail dot com 11-Apr-2014 02:53
//Calculate number of hours between pass and now
$dayinpass = "2013-06-23 05:09:12";
$today = time();
$dayinpass= strtotime($dayinpass);
echo round(abs($today-$dayinpass)/60/60);

//Calculate number of days between pass and now
$dayinpass = "2013-06-23 05:09:12";
$today = time();
$dayinpass= strtotime($dayinpass);
echo round(abs($today-$dayinpass)/60/60/24);
jnostuh at gmail dot com 18-Oct-2013 10:52
I built this function to get the strtotime numbers for the beginning and ending of the month and return them as arrays in an object.  Cheers.

        //Returns values in the format of strtotime for evaluating purposes!
        function returnDateFirstAndLast($numberOfMonths) {
            $time=time();
            $lastdayofcurrentmonth=strtotime('+1 month -1 day',strtotime(date('Y-m-1 24:59:59',$time)));
            $values=new stdClass();
           
            for ( $i = 0;$i < $numberOfMonths;$i++ ) {
                $time=time();
                $firstdayofmonth=strtotime('-'.$i.' month',strtotime(date('Y-m-1 00:00:00',$time)));
                $lastdayofmonth=strtotime('-'.($i - 1).' month -1 day',strtotime(date('Y-m-1 24:59:59',$time)));
                $first[$i]=$firstdayofmonth;
                if ( $i == 0 ) {
                    $last[$i]=$lastdayofcurrentmonth;
                } else {
                    $last[$i]=$lastdayofmonth;
                }
            }
            $values->first=$first;
            $values->last=$last;
           
            return $values;
        }
w dot scholtyssek at netdivision dot eu 26-Apr-2013 08:47
public static function daysBetween($date_1, $date_2) {
        $one_day = 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24;
        return round(abs(time($date_2) - time($date_1)) / $one_day);
    }
siegfried at anggit dot com 25-Jul-2012 08:03
elapsed time function with precision:

<?php

function elapsed_time($timestamp, $precision = 2) {
  $time = time() - $timestamp;
  $a = array('decade' => 315576000, 'year' => 31557600, 'month' => 2629800, 'week' => 604800, 'day' => 86400, 'hour' => 3600, 'min' => 60, 'sec' => 1);
  $i = 0;
    foreach($a as $k => $v) {
      $$k = floor($time/$v);
      if ($$k) $i++;
      $time = $i >= $precision ? 0 : $time - $$k * $v;
      $s = $$k > 1 ? 's' : '';
      $$k = $$k ? $$k.' '.$k.$s.' ' : '';
      @$result .= $$k;
    }
  return $result ? $result.'ago' : '1 sec to go';
}

echo elapsed_time('1234567890').'<br />'; // 3 years 5 months ago
echo elapsed_time('1234567890', 6); // 3 years 5 months 1 week 2 days 57 mins 4 secs ago

?>
salladin 09-May-2012 06:59
Two quick approaches to getting the time elapsed in human readable form.

<?php

function time_elapsed_A($secs){
    $bit = array(
        'y' => $secs / 31556926 % 12,
        'w' => $secs / 604800 % 52,
        'd' => $secs / 86400 % 7,
        'h' => $secs / 3600 % 24,
        'm' => $secs / 60 % 60,
        's' => $secs % 60
        );
       
    foreach($bit as $k => $v)
        if($v > 0)$ret[] = $v . $k;
       
    return join(' ', $ret);
    }
   

function time_elapsed_B($secs){
    $bit = array(
        ' year'        => $secs / 31556926 % 12,
        ' week'        => $secs / 604800 % 52,
        ' day'        => $secs / 86400 % 7,
        ' hour'        => $secs / 3600 % 24,
        ' minute'    => $secs / 60 % 60,
        ' second'    => $secs % 60
        );
       
    foreach($bit as $k => $v){
        if($v > 1)$ret[] = $v . $k . 's';
        if($v == 1)$ret[] = $v . $k;
        }
    array_splice($ret, count($ret)-1, 0, 'and');
    $ret[] = 'ago.';
   
    return join(' ', $ret);
    }
   

   
   
$nowtime = time();
$oldtime = 1335939007;

echo "time_elapsed_A: ".time_elapsed_A($nowtime-$oldtime)."\n";
echo "time_elapsed_B: ".time_elapsed_B($nowtime-$oldtime)."\n";

/** Output:
time_elapsed_A: 6d 15h 48m 19s
time_elapsed_B: 6 days 15 hours 48 minutes and 19 seconds ago.
**/
?>
tav 06-Jan-2012 01:06
Calculates the difference between $start and $s, returns a formatted string Xd Yh Zm As, e.g. 15d 23h 54m 31s. Empty sections will be stripped, returning 12d 4s, not 12d 0h 0m 4s.

Argument order (begin date, end date) doesn't matter.

<?php

function time_diff_conv($start, $s) {
    $t = array( //suffixes
        'd' => 86400,
        'h' => 3600,
        'm' => 60,
    );
    $s = abs($s - $start);
    foreach($t as $key => &$val) {
        $$key = floor($s/$val);
        $s -= ($$key*$val);
        $string .= ($$key==0) ? '' : $$key . "$key ";
    }
    return $string . $s. 's';
}

?>
instantcarma2000 at yahoo dot se 14-Oct-2011 11:54
This is a very basic and simple function to display either min -OR- hrs and min -OR- days and hrs -OR- days depending on how many seconds are given.

Example use:

<?php
$td = time_diff($timestamp1-$timestamp2); // has to be a positive result
$td .= ($td=="now")? "":" ago"; // in this example "ago"
echo $td;

function time_diff($s){
    $m=0;$hr=0;$d=0;$td="now";
    if($s>59) {
        $m = (int)($s/60);
        $s = $s-($m*60); // sec left over
        $td = "$m min";
    }
    if($m>59){
        $hr = (int)($m/60);
        $m = $m-($hr*60); // min left over
        $td = "$hr hr"; if($hr>1) $td .= "s";
        if($m>0) $td .= ", $m min";
    }
    if($hr>23){
        $d = (int)($hr/24);
        $hr = $hr-($d*24); // hr left over
        $td = "$d day"; if($d>1) $td .= "s";
        if($d<3){
            if($hr>0) $td .= ", $hr hr"; if($hr>1) $td .= "s";
        }
    }
    return $td;
}
?>
dev dot ivangc at gmail dot com 05-Aug-2011 12:05
Here a class extension to get the a datetime in the "X time ago" format easily.

<?php
class Cokidoo_DateTime extends DateTime {
   
    protected $strings = array(
        'y' => array('1 year ago', '%d years ago'),
        'm' => array('1 month ago', '%d months ago'),
        'd' => array('1 day ago', '%d days ago'),
        'h' => array('1 hour ago', '%d hours ago'),
        'i' => array('1 minute ago', '%d minutes ago'),
        's' => array('now', '%d secons ago'),
    );
   
    /**
     * Returns the difference from the current time in the format X time ago
     * @return string
     */
    public function __toString() {
        $now = new DateTime('now');
        $diff = $this->diff($now);
       
        foreach($this->strings as $key => $value){
            if( ($text = $this->getDiffText($key, $diff)) ){
                return $text;
            }
        }
        return '';
    }
   
    /**
     * Try to construct the time diff text with the specified interval key
     * @param string $intervalKey A value of: [y,m,d,h,i,s]
     * @param DateInterval $diff
     * @return string|null
     */
    protected function getDiffText($intervalKey, $diff){
        $pluralKey = 1;
        $value = $diff->$intervalKey;
        if($value > 0){
            if($value < 2){
                $pluralKey = 0;
            }
            return sprintf($this->strings[$intervalKey][$pluralKey], $value);
        }
        return null;
    }
}
?>

How to use:
<?php
$date = new Cokidoo_Datetime('2011-01-01');
echo $date;
?>
residualenvy at gmail dot com 12-Mar-2011 12:34
My take on a function to find the differences between a timestamp and current time.

Format: findTime($sometime['stamp'], '%d Days, %h Hours, %m Minutes');

Always use plural it will auto correct on singular results.  You don't have to include all %d,%m,%h you may include only one.  To get Total Hours remaining(including days) use %ho.  To get Total Minutes remaining(including hours and days) use %mo.  Take a look at the format I assumed to make any changes.

<?php
function findTime($timestamp, $format) {       
        $difference = $timestamp - time();
        if($difference < 0)
            return false;
        else{
       
            $min_only = intval(floor($difference / 60));
            $hour_only = intval(floor($difference / 3600));
           
            $days = intval(floor($difference / 86400));
            $difference = $difference % 86400;
            $hours = intval(floor($difference / 3600));
            $difference = $difference % 3600;
            $minutes = intval(floor($difference / 60));
            if($minutes == 60){
                $hours = $hours+1;
                $minutes = 0;
            }
           
            if($days == 0){
                $format = str_replace('Days', '?', $format);
                $format = str_replace('Ds', '?', $format);
                $format = str_replace('%d', '', $format);
            }
            if($hours == 0){
                $format = str_replace('Hours', '?', $format);
                $format = str_replace('Hs', '?', $format);
                $format = str_replace('%h', '', $format);
            }
            if($minutes == 0){
                $format = str_replace('Minutes', '?', $format);
                $format = str_replace('Mins', '?', $format);
                $format = str_replace('Ms', '?', $format);       
                $format = str_replace('%m', '', $format);
            }
           
            $format = str_replace('?,', '', $format);
            $format = str_replace('?:', '', $format);
            $format = str_replace('?', '', $format);
           
            $timeLeft = str_replace('%d', number_format($days), $format);       
            $timeLeft = str_replace('%ho', number_format($hour_only), $timeLeft);
            $timeLeft = str_replace('%mo', number_format($min_only), $timeLeft);
            $timeLeft = str_replace('%h', number_format($hours), $timeLeft);
            $timeLeft = str_replace('%m', number_format($minutes), $timeLeft);
               
            if($days == 1){
                $timeLeft = str_replace('Days', 'Day', $timeLeft);
                $timeLeft = str_replace('Ds', 'D', $timeLeft);
            }
            if($hours == 1 || $hour_only == 1){
                $timeLeft = str_replace('Hours', 'Hour', $timeLeft);
                $timeLeft = str_replace('Hs', 'H', $timeLeft);
            }
            if($minutes == 1 || $min_only == 1){
                $timeLeft = str_replace('Minutes', 'Minute', $timeLeft);
                $timeLeft = str_replace('Mins', 'Min', $timeLeft);
                $timeLeft = str_replace('Ms', 'M', $timeLeft);           
            }
               
          return $timeLeft;
        }
    }
?>
php/hotblocks/nl 25-Feb-2011 11:40
The easiest way to get the gmtime is to use gmdate():

<?php
$gmtime = (int)gmdate('U');
?>
Yi 23-Feb-2011 05:29
A method return GMT time (gmttime):

<?php
$gmtimenow = time() - (int)substr(date('O'),0,3)*60*60;
echo $gmtimenow . "\n";
?>

it convert current time to GMT based on time zone offset.

by frank.
karls_post at hotmail dot com 23-Jan-2011 12:44
To accurately calculate the difference between the current time and a time in the future I use the following.

<?php
function time_difference($endtime){
    $days= (date("j",$endtime)-1);
    $months =(date("n",$endtime)-1);
    $years =(date("Y",$endtime)-1970);
    $hours =date("G",$endtime);
    $mins =date("i",$endtime);
    $secs =date("s",$endtime);
    $diff="'day': ".$days.",'month': ".$months.",'year': ".$years.",'hour': ".$hours.",'min': ".$mins.",'sec': ".$secs;
    return $diff;
}   
$end_time = $future_date - time();
$difference = time_difference($end_time);
echo $difference;

//sample output
'day': 2,'month': 1,'year': 0,'hour': 2,'min': 05,'sec': 41

?>
Timo K 02-Oct-2010 02:49
The documentation should have this info. The function time() returns always timestamp that is timezone independent (=UTC).

<?php
date_default_timezone_set("UTC");
echo "UTC:".time();
echo "<br>";

date_default_timezone_set("Europe/Helsinki");
echo "Europe/Helsinki:".time();
echo "<br>";
?>

Local time as string can be get by strftime() and local timestamp (if ever needed) by mktime().
johan dot lindskog at humlab dot umu dot se 26-Aug-2010 03:35
I needed to convert between Unix timestamps and Windows/AD timestamps, so I wrote a pair of simple functions for it.

<?php
function unix_time_to_win_time($unix_time) {
  //add the seconds between 1601-01-01 and 1970-01-01 and make it 100-nanosecond precision
  $win_time = ($unix_time + 11644477200) * 10000000;
  return $win_time;
}

function win_time_to_unix_time($win_time) {
  //round the win timestamp down to seconds and remove the seconds between 1601-01-01 and 1970-01-01
  $unix_time = round($win_time / 10000000) - 11644477200;
  return $unix_time;
}
?>
John Galt 15-Aug-2010 12:46
This is another function to calculate the difference between two times and output it in a relative format. This one, however, combines various units. In other words, it will return "3 days, 2 hours, 6 minutes, and 2 seconds ago" instead of "3 days ago."

Please bear in mind that it is intended for times that are very close together. It will not be accurate for calculating dates more than a month apart. This is because one of the units it relies on is "weeks," which do not correspond directly with months. What I'm trying to get across is, the program assumes that a month is precisely 4 weeks long, i.e. 28 days. This also means that a "year" according to this function is 336 days.

<?php
 function rel_time($from, $to = null)
 {
  $to = (($to === null) ? (time()) : ($to));
  $to = ((is_int($to)) ? ($to) : (strtotime($to)));
  $from = ((is_int($from)) ? ($from) : (strtotime($from)));

  $units = array
  (
   "year"   => 29030400, // seconds in a year   (12 months)
   "month"  => 2419200,  // seconds in a month  (4 weeks)
   "week"   => 604800,   // seconds in a week   (7 days)
   "day"    => 86400,    // seconds in a day    (24 hours)
   "hour"   => 3600,     // seconds in an hour  (60 minutes)
   "minute" => 60,       // seconds in a minute (60 seconds)
   "second" => 1         // 1 second
  );

  $diff = abs($from - $to);
  $suffix = (($from > $to) ? ("from now") : ("ago"));

  foreach($units as $unit => $mult)
   if($diff >= $mult)
   {
    $and = (($mult != 1) ? ("") : ("and "));
    $output .= ", ".$and.intval($diff / $mult)." ".$unit.((intval($diff / $mult) == 1) ? ("") : ("s"));
    $diff -= intval($diff / $mult) * $mult;
   }
  $output .= " ".$suffix;
  $output = substr($output, strlen(", "));

  return $output;
 }
?>

The function rel_time() accepts two parameters: $from and $to. For best results, provide them as UNIX timestamps (derived from PHP's time() function). They also accept formats supported by strtotime(). $to is an optional argument and defaults to the current time.

The function will calculate the difference between $from and $to. If $from occurs after $to, the function will substitue "ago" with "from now."

Example usage:
<?php
 echo rel_time("September 2, 2010 4:20 PM");
 // returns "2 weeks, 4 days, 23 hours, 25 minutes, and 3 seconds from now"
?>
nickr at visuality dot com 08-Feb-2010 10:54
Here is a version for the difference code that displays "ago" code.

It does use some precision after the time difference is longer than a day. ( ie days are more than 60 * 60 * 24 hours long )

<?php

    function ago($datefrom,$dateto=-1)
    {
        // Defaults and assume if 0 is passed in that
        // its an error rather than the epoch
   
        if($datefrom==0) { return "A long time ago"; }
        if($dateto==-1) { $dateto = time(); }
       
        // Make the entered date into Unix timestamp from MySQL datetime field

        $datefrom = strtotime($datefrom);
   
        // Calculate the difference in seconds betweeen
        // the two timestamps

        $difference = $dateto - $datefrom;

        // Based on the interval, determine the
        // number of units between the two dates
        // From this point on, you would be hard
        // pushed telling the difference between
        // this function and DateDiff. If the $datediff
        // returned is 1, be sure to return the singular
        // of the unit, e.g. 'day' rather 'days'
   
        switch(true)
        {
            // If difference is less than 60 seconds,
            // seconds is a good interval of choice
            case(strtotime('-1 min', $dateto) < $datefrom):
                $datediff = $difference;
                $res = ($datediff==1) ? $datediff.' second ago' : $datediff.' seconds ago';
                break;
            // If difference is between 60 seconds and
            // 60 minutes, minutes is a good interval
            case(strtotime('-1 hour', $dateto) < $datefrom):
                $datediff = floor($difference / 60);
                $res = ($datediff==1) ? $datediff.' minute ago' : $datediff.' minutes ago';
                break;
            // If difference is between 1 hour and 24 hours
            // hours is a good interval
            case(strtotime('-1 day', $dateto) < $datefrom):
                $datediff = floor($difference / 60 / 60);
                $res = ($datediff==1) ? $datediff.' hour ago' : $datediff.' hours ago';
                break;
            // If difference is between 1 day and 7 days
            // days is a good interval               
            case(strtotime('-1 week', $dateto) < $datefrom):
                $day_difference = 1;
                while (strtotime('-'.$day_difference.' day', $dateto) >= $datefrom)
                {
                    $day_difference++;
                }
               
                $datediff = $day_difference;
                $res = ($datediff==1) ? 'yesterday' : $datediff.' days ago';
                break;
            // If difference is between 1 week and 30 days
            // weeks is a good interval           
            case(strtotime('-1 month', $dateto) < $datefrom):
                $week_difference = 1;
                while (strtotime('-'.$week_difference.' week', $dateto) >= $datefrom)
                {
                    $week_difference++;
                }
               
                $datediff = $week_difference;
                $res = ($datediff==1) ? 'last week' : $datediff.' weeks ago';
                break;           
            // If difference is between 30 days and 365 days
            // months is a good interval, again, the same thing
            // applies, if the 29th February happens to exist
            // between your 2 dates, the function will return
            // the 'incorrect' value for a day
            case(strtotime('-1 year', $dateto) < $datefrom):
                $months_difference = 1;
                while (strtotime('-'.$months_difference.' month', $dateto) >= $datefrom)
                {
                    $months_difference++;
                }
               
                $datediff = $months_difference;
                $res = ($datediff==1) ? $datediff.' month ago' : $datediff.' months ago';

                break;
            // If difference is greater than or equal to 365
            // days, return year. This will be incorrect if
            // for example, you call the function on the 28th April
            // 2008 passing in 29th April 2007. It will return
            // 1 year ago when in actual fact (yawn!) not quite
            // a year has gone by
            case(strtotime('-1 year', $dateto) >= $datefrom):
                $year_difference = 1;
                while (strtotime('-'.$year_difference.' year', $dateto) >= $datefrom)
                {
                    $year_difference++;
                }
               
                $datediff = $year_difference;
                $res = ($datediff==1) ? $datediff.' year ago' : $datediff.' years ago';
                break;
               
        }
        return $res;

?>
yasmary at gmail dot com 06-Mar-2009 09:48
A time difference function that outputs the time passed in facebook's style: 1 day ago, or 4 months ago. I took andrew dot macrobert at gmail dot com function and tweaked it a bit. On a strict enviroment it was throwing errors, plus I needed it to calculate the difference in time between a past date and a future date.

<?php
function nicetime($date)
{
    if(empty($date)) {
        return "No date provided";
    }
   
    $periods         = array("second", "minute", "hour", "day", "week", "month", "year", "decade");
    $lengths         = array("60","60","24","7","4.35","12","10");
   
    $now             = time();
    $unix_date         = strtotime($date);
   
       // check validity of date
    if(empty($unix_date)) {   
        return "Bad date";
    }

    // is it future date or past date
    if($now > $unix_date) {   
        $difference     = $now - $unix_date;
        $tense         = "ago";
       
    } else {
        $difference     = $unix_date - $now;
        $tense         = "from now";
    }
   
    for($j = 0; $difference >= $lengths[$j] && $j < count($lengths)-1; $j++) {
        $difference /= $lengths[$j];
    }
   
    $difference = round($difference);
   
    if($difference != 1) {
        $periods[$j].= "s";
    }
   
    return "$difference $periods[$j] {$tense}";
}

$date = "2009-03-04 17:45";
$result = nicetime($date); // 2 days ago

?>
anon 27-Jan-2009 02:16
Below, a function to create TNG-style stardates, taking 2009 to start stardate 41000.0.  In fact, the offset is trivial to adjust if you wish to begin from a different date.

<?php
function getStardate(void)
{
  $offset = 2000;
  $seconds_per_stardate = 31449.6; // is the number of seconds in a year divided by 1000, for hopefully obvious reasons
  return time() / $seconds_per_stardate + $offset;
}
?>

Other series use less reliable stardate formats, which makes it difficult [read: nigh impossible] to create a function that converts a unix timestamp into a stardate.
Anonymous 02-Sep-2008 02:30
A cleaner example (half the comparisons) of distanceOfTimeInWords() function below:

<?php
public static function distanceOfTimeInWords($fromTime, $toTime = 0, $showLessThanAMinute = false) {
    $distanceInSeconds = round(abs($toTime - $fromTime));
    $distanceInMinutes = round($distanceInSeconds / 60);
       
        if ( $distanceInMinutes <= 1 ) {
            if ( !$showLessThanAMinute ) {
                return ($distanceInMinutes == 0) ? 'less than a minute' : '1 minute';
            } else {
                if ( $distanceInSeconds < 5 ) {
                    return 'less than 5 seconds';
                }
                if ( $distanceInSeconds < 10 ) {
                    return 'less than 10 seconds';
                }
                if ( $distanceInSeconds < 20 ) {
                    return 'less than 20 seconds';
                }
                if ( $distanceInSeconds < 40 ) {
                    return 'about half a minute';
                }
                if ( $distanceInSeconds < 60 ) {
                    return 'less than a minute';
                }
               
                return '1 minute';
            }
        }
        if ( $distanceInMinutes < 45 ) {
            return $distanceInMinutes . ' minutes';
        }
        if ( $distanceInMinutes < 90 ) {
            return 'about 1 hour';
        }
        if ( $distanceInMinutes < 1440 ) {
            return 'about ' . round(floatval($distanceInMinutes) / 60.0) . ' hours';
        }
        if ( $distanceInMinutes < 2880 ) {
            return '1 day';
        }
        if ( $distanceInMinutes < 43200 ) {
            return 'about ' . round(floatval($distanceInMinutes) / 1440) . ' days';
        }
        if ( $distanceInMinutes < 86400 ) {
            return 'about 1 month';
        }
        if ( $distanceInMinutes < 525600 ) {
            return round(floatval($distanceInMinutes) / 43200) . ' months';
        }
        if ( $distanceInMinutes < 1051199 ) {
            return 'about 1 year';
        }
       
        return 'over ' . round(floatval($distanceInMinutes) / 525600) . ' years';
}
?>
Josh Abraham 28-Sep-2007 04:43
When dealing with the results of the time function, taking the modulus (remainder) is often a good way to find recurring information such as day of the week, week of the year, or month of the year. In the example given below of a firefighter's shift, you could do the following to simplify the code.

<?php

function whatShift() {

  $referencePoint = mktime(7, 0, 0, 9, 11, 2004);   // Sept 11, 2004 at 7AM started an A Shift.

  //This is the where we divide the current time since reference by the amount of time in all shifts
  //The result of this is the remainder.
  $sinceReference = (time() - $referencePoint) % (60 * 60 * 24 * 3);

  //The rest of the code can be basically the same so I shortened it here.
  if ($sinceReference < 60 * 60 * 25)  $shift = "A";
  elseif ($sinceReference < 60 * 60 * 49)  $shift = "B";
  else $shift = "C"; 

  return $shift;

}

?>
lsd25 at hotmail dot com 01-Sep-2007 04:53
I did an article on floating point time you can download from my website. Roun movements is the radial ounion movement and there is a quantum ounion movement as well, this code will generate the data for http://www.chronolabs.org.au/bin/roun-time-article.pdf which is an article on floating point time, I have created the calendar system as well for this time. It is compatible with other time and other solar systems with different revolutions of the planets as well as different quantumy stuff.

Thanks:

<?php
if ($gmt>0){
        $gmt=-$gmt;
    } else {
        $gmt=$gmt+$gmt+$gmt;
    }
   
    $ptime = strtotime('2008-05-11 10:05 AM')+(60*60*gmt);
    $weight = -20.22222222223+(1*gmt);

    $roun_xa = ($tme)/(24*60*60);
    $roun_ya = $ptime/(24*60*60);
    $roun = (($roun_xa -$roun_ya) - $weight)+(microtime/999999);
   
    $nonedeficient = array("seq1" => array(31,30,31,30,30,30,31,30,31,30,31,30),
                           "seq2" => array(31,30,31,30,31,30,31,30,31,30,31,30),   
                           "seq3" => array(31,30,31,30,30,30,31,30,31,30,31,30),
                           "seq4" => array(31,30,31,30,30,30,31,30,31,30,31,30));

    $deficient =     array("seq1" => array(31,30,31,30,30,30,31,30,31,30,31,30),
                           "seq2" => array(31,30,31,30,31,30,31,30,31,30,31,30),   
                           "seq3" => array(31,30,31,30,31,30,31,30,30,30,31,30),
                           "seq4" => array(30,30,31,30,31,30,31,30,31,30,31,30));

    $monthusage = isset($_GET['deficienty']) ? ${$_GET['deficienty']} : $deficient;
   
    foreach($monthusage as $key => $item){
        $i++;
        foreach($item as $numdays){
            $ttl_num=$ttl_num+$numdays;
        }
    }
   
    $revolutionsperyear = $ttl_num / $i;
    $numyears = round((round(ceil($roun)) / $revolutionsperyear),0);
   
    $jtl = abs(abs($roun) - ceil($revolutionsperyear*($numyears+1)));
   
    while($month==0){
        $day=0;
        foreach($monthusage as $key => $item){
            $t++;
            $u=0;
            foreach($item as $numdays){
                if ($ii<abs($roun)){
                    $isbelow=true;
                }
                $ii=$ii+$numdays;
                if ($ii>abs($roun)){
                    $isabove=true;
                }
                if ($isbelow==true&&$isabove==true){
                    $daynum = floor(($ii-$numday)-abs($roun));
                    $month = $u;
                    $month++;
                    $isbelow=false;
                    $isabove=false;
                    $nodaycount=true;
                }
                if ($nodaycount==false)
                    $day++;
                $u++;
            }
        }
   
    }
   
    $timer = substr($roun, strpos($roun,'.')+1,strlen($roun)-strpos($roun,'.')-1);
   
    $roun_out= $numyears.'-'.$month.'-'.$daynum.' '.$day.".$timer";

?>
send at mail dot 2aj dot net 08-Jun-2006 08:58
If you want to create a "rounded" time stamp, for example, to the nearest 15 minutes use this as a reference:

<?php
$round_numerator = 60 * 15 // 60 seconds per minute * 15 minutes equals 900 seconds
//$round_numerator = 60 * 60 or to the nearest hour
//$round_numerator = 60 * 60 * 24 or to the nearest day

// Calculate time to nearest 15 minutes!
$rounded_time = ( round ( time() / $round_numerator ) * $round_numerator );

//If it was 12:40 this would return the timestamp for 12:45;
//3:04, 3:00; etc.
?>
mayank_arya at hotmail dot com 29-May-2003 03:13
Here's one way to generate all intermediate dates (in mySQL format) between any 2 dates.
Get start and end dates from user input, you'd need to do the basic validations that :
- start and end dates are valid dates
- start date <= end date.

<?php
//start date 2001-02-23
$sm=2;
$sd=23;
$sy=2001;

//end date 2001-03-14
$em=3;
$ed=14;
$ey=2001;

//utc of start and end dates
$s=mktime(0,0,0,$sm, $sd, $sy);
$e=mktime(0,0,0,$em, $ed, $ey);

while($s<=$e){
print date('Y-m-d',$s)."< br >"; //display date in  mySQL format
$s=$s+86400; //increment date by 86400 seconds(1 day)
}

Hope this helps :)

?>