NOW() function in PHP

You can use the date function:

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

date('Y-m-d H:i:s')

Look here for more details: http://pl.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php

Try this:

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

Use strftime:

strftime("%F %T");

• %F is the same as %Y-%m-%d.

• %T is the same as %H:%M:%S.

Here's a demo on ideone.

Or you can use DateTime constants:

echo date(DateTime::W3C); // 2005-08-15T15:52:01+00:00

Here's the list of them:

ATOM = "Y-m-d\TH:i:sP" ;               // -> 2005-08-15T15:52:01+00:00
COOKIE = "l, d-M-Y H:i:s T" ;          // -> Monday, 15-Aug-2005 15:52:01 UTC
ISO8601 = "Y-m-d\TH:i:sO" ;            // -> 2005-08-15T15:52:01+0000
RFC822 = "D, d M y H:i:s O" ;          // -> Mon, 15 Aug 05 15:52:01 +0000
RFC850 = "l, d-M-y H:i:s T" ;          // -> Monday, 15-Aug-05 15:52:01 UTC
RFC1036 = "D, d M y H:i:s O" ;         // -> Mon, 15 Aug 05 15:52:01 +0000
RFC1123 = "D, d M Y H:i:s O" ;         // -> Mon, 15 Aug 2005 15:52:01 +0000
RFC2822 = "D, d M Y H:i:s O" ;         // -> Mon, 15 Aug 2005 15:52:01 +0000
RFC3339 = "Y-m-d\TH:i:sP" ;            // -> 2005-08-15T15:52:01+00:00 ( == ATOM)
RFC3339_EXTENDED = "Y-m-d\TH:i:s.vP" ; // -> 2005-08-15T15:52:01.000+00:00
RSS = "D, d M Y H:i:s O" ;             // -> Mon, 15 Aug 2005 15:52:01 +0000
W3C = "Y-m-d\TH:i:sP" ;                // -> 2005-08-15T15:52:01+00:00

For debugging I prefer a shorter one though (3v4l.org):

echo date('ymd\THisP'); // 180614T120708+02:00

You can use the PHP date function with the correct format as the parameter,

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

My answer is superfluous, but if you are OCD, visually oriented and you just have to see that now keyword in your code, use:

date( 'Y-m-d H:i:s', strtotime( 'now' ) );

There is no built-in PHP now() function, but you can do it using date().

Example

function now() {
    return date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
}

You can use date_default_timezone_set() if you need to change timezone.

Otherwise you can make use of Carbon - A simple PHP API extension for DateTime.

shortly

echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s');

php advanced now class extra addMinute addYear as such addHour etc ...

<?php /** @noinspection PhpUnhandledExceptionInspection */

/**
 * Class Now
 * @author  dılo sürücü <berxudar@gmail.com>
 */
class Now
{

    /**
     * @var DateTime
     */
    private $dateTime;

    /**
     * Now constructor.
     * @throws Exception
     */
    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->dateTime = new DateTime('now');
    }


    /**
     * @param int $year
     * @return Now
     * @throws Exception
     * @noinspection PhpUnused
     */
    public function addYear(int $year): self
    {
        $this->dateTime->add(new DateInterval('P' . $year . 'Y'));

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * @noinspection PhpUnused
     * @param int $month
     * @return Now
     * @throws Exception
     * @noinspection PhpUnused
     */
    public function addMonth(int $month):self 
    {
        $this->dateTime->add(new DateInterval('P' . $month . 'M'));

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * @param int $day
     * @return $this
     * @throws Exception
     */
    public function addDay(int $day): self
    {
        $this->dateTime->add(new DateInterval('P' . $day . 'D'));
        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * @noinspection PhpUnused
     * @param int $week
     * @return $this
     * @throws Exception
     */
    public function addWeek(int $week): self
    {
        return $this->addDay($week * 7);
    }

    /**
     * @noinspection PhpUnused
     * @param int $second
     * @return $this
     * @throws Exception
     */
    public function addSecond(int $second): self
    {
        $this->dateTime->add(new DateInterval('PT' . $second . 'S'));
        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * @param int $minute
     * @return $this
     * @throws Exception
     */
    public function addMinute(int $minute): self
    {
        $this->dateTime->add(new DateInterval('PT' . $minute . 'M'));
        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * @param int $hour
     * @return $this
     * @throws Exception
     */
    public function addHour(int $hour): self
    {
        $this->dateTime->add(new DateInterval('PT' . $hour . 'H'));
        return $this;
    }


    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function get(): string
    {
        return $this->dateTime->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function __toString()
    {
        return $this->get();
    }

}


/**
 * @return Now
 * @throws Exception
 */
function now()
{
    return new Now();

}

using

  echo now(); //2020-03-10 22:10


echo now()->addDay(1); //2020-03-11 22:10


echo now()->addDay(1)->addHour(1); // //2020-03-11 23:10


echo now()->addDay(1)->addHour(1)->addMinute(30); // //2020-03-11 23:40


echo now()->addDay(1)->addHour(1)->addMinute(30)->addSecond(10); // //2020-03-11 23:50

//or u can use get method for example

echo now()->addDay(1)->addHour(1)->addMinute(30)->get(); // //2020-03-11 23:40

In PHP the logic equivalent of the MySQL's function now() is time().

But time() return a Unix timestamp that is different from a MySQL DATETIME.

So you must convert the Unix timestamp returned from time() in the MySQL format.

You do it with: date("Y-m-d H:i:s");

But where is time() in the date() function? It's the second parameter: infact you should provide to date() a timestamp as second parameter, but if it is omissed it is defaulted to time().

This is the most complete answer I can imagine.

Greetings.

If you want to get time now including AM / PM

<?php 
    $time_now = date("Y-m-d h:i:s a");
    echo $time_now;
?>

It outputs 2020-05-01 05:45:28 pm

or

<?php 
    $time_now = date("Y-m-d h:i:s A");
    echo $time_now;
?>

It outputs 2020-05-01 05:45:28 PM

You might find this helpful

new \DateTime()

The PHP equivalent is time(): http://php.net/manual/en/function.time.php