NOW() function in PHP

Question

Is there a PHP function that returns the date and time in the same format as the MySQL function NOW()?

I know how to do it using date(), b

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

I was looking for the same answer, and I have come up with this solution for PHP 5.3 or later:

$dtz = new DateTimeZone("Europe/Madrid"); //Your timezone
$now = new DateTime(date("Y-m-d"), $dtz);
echo $now->format("Y-m-d H:i:s");

Answer 3

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

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

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