Display Date From Timestamp

**Jaan** · 03-13-2010 12:57 PM

Hey!

I have heard lots of questions about how to display date from timestamp.

This is very simple. First we need to get a timestamp. You can get it from MySQL database if you have set your columns type to "time".

Or you can also get it from PHP's function called time();

It's time to create a function what will convert our timestamp to date.

Let's start!

1. Creating A Function

First we need to create a function:

PHP Code:



function getTime($timestamp) {

    

    //.. Code here

    

}

So what have we done ?

function getTime($timestamp) { - This creates a new function called getTime(). As you can see there's a variable called $timestamp. It's for you so you can enter a timestamp to your function.

//.. Code here It is a PHP's comment. And this is the place where we will write our code

} Ends our function.

2. Let's Put It To Work

Now it's time to create a core for our function that will run it. Now remember to write code there were I showed you - inside those brackets.

First let's convert timestamp to date.

PHP Code:



$date = date("h:i:s jS F Y", $timestamp);

To read more about date(); function go here: http://ee.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php

As you can see I have added this $timestamp variable to that date function. This will tell to that function what timestamp to use instead of current timestamp.

And now we have to return a string of date.

PHP Code:



echo $date;

Wasn't that easy.

Now let's see our full code:

PHP Code:



function getTime($timestamp) {

    

    $date = date("h:i:s jS F Y", $timestamp);

    echo $date;

    

}

You can also change this "h:i:s jS F Y" inside of date function. At the moment it shows "hours":"minutes":"seconds" "day as 12 + th or rd" "month as March" and "year as 2010"

For example:

PHP Code:



$time = "1267742730";



function getTime($timestamp) {

    

    $date = date("h:i:s jS F Y", $timestamp);

    echo $date;

    

}



getTime($time);

It shows this:

12:45:30 5th March 2010

And this:

PHP Code:



<?php



$time = time(); // Get current UNIX timestamp



function getTime($timestamp) {

    

    $date = date("h:i:s jS F Y", $timestamp);

    echo $date;

    

}



getTime($time);



?>