How do I get the current date and time in PHP?

The time would go by your server time. An easy workaround for this is to manually set the timezone by using date_default_timezone_set before the date() or time() functions are called to.

I'm in Melbourne, Australia so I have something like this:

date_default_timezone_set('Australia/Melbourne');

Or another example is LA - US:

date_default_timezone_set('America/Los_Angeles');

You can also see what timezone the server is currently in via:

date_default_timezone_get();

So something like:

$timezone = date_default_timezone_get();
echo "The current server timezone is: " . $timezone;

So the short answer for your question would be:

// Change the line below to your timezone!
date_default_timezone_set('Australia/Melbourne');
$date = date('m/d/Y h:i:s a', time());

Then all the times would be to the timezone you just set :)

// Simply:
$date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');

// Or:
$date = date('Y/m/d H:i:s');

// This would return the date in the following formats respectively:
$date = '2012-03-06 17:33:07';
// Or
$date = '2012/03/06 17:33:07';

/** 
 * This time is based on the default server time zone.
 * If you want the date in a different time zone,
 * say if you come from Nairobi, Kenya like I do, you can set
 * the time zone to Nairobi as shown below.
 */

date_default_timezone_set('Africa/Nairobi');

// Then call the date functions
$date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
// Or
$date = date('Y/m/d H:i:s');

// date_default_timezone_set() function is however
// supported by PHP version 5.1.0 or above.

For a time-zone reference, see List of Supported Timezones.

PHP's time() returns a current Unix timestamp. With this, you can use the date() function to format it to your needs.

$date = date('Format String', time());

As Paolo mentioned in the comments, the second argument is redundant. The following snippet is equivalent to the one above:

$date = date('Format String');

You can either use the $_SERVER['REQUEST_TIME'] variable (available since PHP 5.1.0) or the time() function to get the current Unix timestamp.

You can use both the $_SERVER['REQUEST_TIME'] variable or the time() function. Both of these return a Unix timestamp.

Most of the time these two solutions will yield the exact same Unix Timestamp. The difference between these is that $_SERVER['REQUEST_TIME'] returns the time stamp of the most recent server request and time() returns the current time. This may create minor differences in accuracy depending on your application, but for most cases both of these solutions should suffice.

Based on your example code above, you are going to want to format this information once you obtain the Unix Timestamp. Unformatted Unix time looks like: 1232659628

So in order to get something that will work, you can use the date() function to format it.

A good reference for ways to use the date() function is located in the PHP Manual.

As an example, the following code returns a date that looks like this: 01/22/2009 04:35:00 pm :

echo date("m/d/Y h:i:s a", time());

For the new PHP programmer might confuse why there are lot of method for to get current date and time and which one to use in their project.

1. date method (PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)

This is the very common and very easiest way to get the date and time in php.

// set the default timezone to use. Available since PHP 5.1
date_default_timezone_set('UTC');


// Prints something like: Monday
echo date("l");

// Prints something like: Monday 8th of August 2005 03:12:46 PM
echo date('l jS \of F Y h:i:s A');

// Prints: July 1, 2000 is on a Saturday
echo "July 1, 2000 is on a " . date("l", mktime(0, 0, 0, 7, 1, 2000));

/* use the constants in the format parameter */
// prints something like: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 15:28:57 -0700
echo date(DATE_RFC2822);

// prints something like: 2000-07-01T00:00:00+00:00
echo date(DATE_ATOM, mktime(0, 0, 0, 7, 1, 2000));

You can learn more about it in here

2. DateTime class (PHP 5 >= 5.2.0, PHP 7)

when you want to use PHP with OOP, this is the best way to get date and time.

<?php
// Specified date/time in your computer's time zone.
$date = new DateTime('2000-01-01');
echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:sP') . "\n";

// Specified date/time in the specified time zone.
$date = new DateTime('2000-01-01', new DateTimeZone('Pacific/Nauru'));
echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:sP') . "\n";

// Current date/time in your computer's time zone.
$date = new DateTime();
echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:sP') . "\n";

// Current date/time in the specified time zone.
$date = new DateTime(null, new DateTimeZone('Pacific/Nauru'));
echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:sP') . "\n";

// Using a UNIX timestamp.  Notice the result is in the UTC time zone.
$date = new DateTime('@946684800');
echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:sP') . "\n";

// Non-existent values roll over.
$date = new DateTime('2000-02-30');
echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:sP') . "\n";
?>

You can learn more about it in here

3. Carbon Date time package

if you are using Composer, Laravel, Symfony or any kinda framework this is the best way to get the date and time. Also this package extends DateTime class in php so you use all the method in Datetime class. This in-built in frameworks like laravel so you don't have to install it separately.

printf("Right now is %s", Carbon::now()->toDateTimeString());
printf("Right now in Vancouver is %s", Carbon::now('America/Vancouver')); // automatically converted to string
$tomorrow = Carbon::now()->addDay();
$lastWeek = Carbon::now()->subWeek();

// Carbon embed 823 languages:
echo $tomorrow->locale('fr')->isoFormat('dddd, MMMM Do YYYY, h:mm');
echo $tomorrow->locale('ar')->isoFormat('dddd, MMMM Do YYYY, h:mm');

$officialDate = Carbon::now()->toRfc2822String();

$howOldAmI = Carbon::createFromDate(1975, 5, 21)->age;

$noonTodayLondonTime = Carbon::createFromTime(12, 0, 0, 'Europe/London');

$internetWillBlowUpOn = Carbon::create(2038, 01, 19, 3, 14, 7, 'GMT');

if (Carbon::now()->isWeekend()) {
    echo 'Party!';
}
echo Carbon::now()->subMinutes(2)->diffForHumans(); // '2 minutes ago'

You can learn more about it in here

Hope this helps and if you know any other way to get the date and time feel free to edit the answer.

Use:

$date = date('m/d/Y h:i:s a', time());

It works.

You can use this format also:

$date = date("d-m-Y");

Or

$date = date("Y-m-d H:i:s");

Very simple

date_default_timezone_set('Asia/Kolkata');
$date = date('m/d/Y H:i:s', time());

Your Country Time Zone: List of Supported Timezones

date_default_timezone_set('Asia/Kolkata');

$dateYmd = date('Y-m-d');
echo "Current Year Month Day: $dateYmd";

Current Year Month Day: 2022-01-03

$datehms = date('h:i:s');
echo "Current Hour Minute Second: $datehms";

Current Hour Minute Second: 11:05:38

Normally, this function for date is useful for everyone: date("Y/m/d");

But time is something different, because the time function depends on either the PHP version or system date.

So probably use it like this to get our own time zone:

$date = new DateTime('now', new DateTimeZone('Asia/Kolkata'));
echo $date->format('H:m:s');

This function shows the 24 hours time.

echo date('y-m-d'); // Today

This will return today's date.

simply use: date("Y-m-d H:i:s") this will give you your date and time like '2020-08-22 12:20:30' this . add date_default_timezone_set("your time zone") before date() function to get the time date of your area/zone. here you can find you time zone

Here are some characters that are commonly used for times:

• d - Represents the day of the month (01 to 31)

• m - Represents a month (01 to 12)

• Y - Represents a year (in four digits)

• l (lowercase 'L') - Represents the day of the week

• H - 24-hour format of an hour (00 to 23)

• h - 12-hour format of an hour with leading zeros (01 to 12)

• i - Minutes with leading zeros (00 to 59)

• s - Seconds with leading zeros (00 to 59)

• a - Lowercase Ante meridiem and Post meridiem (am or pm)

example :

echo "Today " . date("Y/m/d") ;
echo "time " . date("h:i:sa");

You can simply use this code to get current date and time

echo date('r', time());

Linux server time and PHP time() difference time zone as follows:

<?php
    putenv("TZ=Asia/Kabul");
    $t = time();
    echo date('d/m/Y H:i:sa', $t);
?>