CodeIgniter Date helper

Date helper contains functions that help us to work with dates.

Related Topic:

Codeigniter Interview Questions

Loading this Helper:

Use the given line in your controller or model file to load the Date helper.

$this->load->helper('date');

The following functions are available in this helper:

1 now(): This function is used to get the current time referenced either to your server’s local time or any PHP supported timezone. Time reference depends on the "time reference" setting in your application/config/config.php file.

Syntax:

now([$timezone = NULL]);

Parameter Description:

• $timezone (string) – Timezone

The return type of this function is int and it returns a UNIX timestamp.

Example:

Step 1 Open the application/controllers directory and create a new controller file Now_controller.php

<?php
   class Now_controller extends CI_Controller {

      public function index() {
		 $this->load->helper('date'); //load date helper
		echo now('Australia/Victoria');
      }
   }
?>

Step 2 Open the given URL into the browser to see the result.

http://localhost/ci/index.php/Now_controller

2 mdate(): This function is same as the PHP native function date(). The only difference is that it provides the facility to use MySQL style date codes, where each code letter is preceded with a percent sign, e.g. %Y %m %d.

Syntax:

mdate([$datestr = ''[, $time = '']]);

Parameter Description:

• $datestr (string) – Date string
• $time (int) – UNIX timestamp

The return type of this function is a string and it returns a MySQL-formatted date.

Example:

Step 1 Open the application/controllers directory and create a new controller file Mdate_controller.php

<?php
   class Mdate_controller extends CI_Controller {

      public function index() {
		 $this->load->helper('date'); //load date helper
		$datestring = 'Year: %Y Month: %m Day: %d - %h:%i %a';
		$time = time();
		echo mdate($datestring, $time);
      }
   }
?>

Step 2 Open the given URL into the browser to see the result.

http://localhost/ci/index.php/Mdate_controller

3 standard_date(): This function is used to generate the date string in different standardized formats provided by the user.

Some formats supported by this function are:

Syntax:

standard_date([$fmt = 'DATE_RFC822'[, $time = NULL]]);

Parameter Description:

• $fmt (string) – Date format
• $time (int) – UNIX timestamp

The return type of this function is a string and it returns formatted date or FALSE on the invalid format.

Example:

Step 1 Open the application/controllers directory and create a new controller file Standard_controller.php

<?php
   class Standard_controller extends CI_Controller {

      public function index() {
		 $this->load->helper('date'); //load date helper
		$format = 'DATE_RFC1036';
		$time = time();
		echo standard_date($format, $time);
      }
   }
?>

Step 2 Open the given URL into the browser to see the result.

http://localhost/ci/index.php/Standard_controller

4 local_to_gmt(): This function is used to convert UNIX timestamp into GMT format.

Syntax:

local_to_gmt([$time = '']);

Parameter Description:

• $time (int) – UNIX timestamp

The return type of this function is int and it returns a UNIX timestamp.

Example:

Step 1 Open the application/controllers directory and create a new controller file Local_to_gmt_controller.php

<?php
   class Local_to_gmt_controller extends CI_Controller {

      public function index() {
		 $this->load->helper('date'); //load date helper
		$gmt = local_to_gmt(time());
		echo $gmt;
      }
   }
?>

Step 2 Open the given URL into the browser to see the result.

http://localhost/ci/index.php/Local_to_gmt_controller

5 gmt_to_local(): This function is used to convert a UNIX timestamp (referenced to GMT) into a localized timestamp based on the timezone and Daylight Saving Time submitted.

Syntax:

gmt_to_local([$time = ''[, $timezone = 'UTC'[, $dst = FALSE]]]);

Parameter Description:

• $time (int) – UNIX timestamp
• $timezone (string) – Timezone
• $dst (bool) – Whether DST is active

The return type of this function is int and it returns a UNIX timestamp.

Example:

Step 1 Open the application/controllers directory and create a new controller file Gmt_to_local_controller.php

<?php
   class Gmt_to_local_controller extends CI_Controller {

      public function index() {
		 $this->load->helper('date'); //load date helper
		$timestamp = 1140153693;
		$timezone = 'UM8';
		$daylight_saving = TRUE;
		echo gmt_to_local($timestamp, $timezone, $daylight_saving);
      }
   }
?>

Step 2 Open the given URL into the browser to see the result.

http://localhost/ci/index.php/Gmt_to_local_controller

6 mysql_to_unix(): This function is used to convert MySQL Timestamp into a UNIX timestamp.

Syntax:

mysql_to_unix([$time = '']);

Parameter Description:

• $time (string) – MySQL timestamp

The return type of this function is int and it returns a UNIX timestamp.

Example:

Step 1 Open application/controllers directory and create a new controller file Mysql_to_unix_controller.php

<?php
   class Mysql_to_unix_controller extends CI_Controller {

      public function index() {
		 $this->load->helper('date'); //load date helper
		$unix = mysql_to_unix('20061124092345');
		echo $unix;
      }
   }
?>

Step 2 Open the given URL into the browser to see the result.

http://localhost/ci/index.php/Mysql_to_unix_controller

7 unix_to_human(): This function is used to convert a UNIX timestamp into a human-readable format with the given prototype:

YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS AM/PM

Syntax:

unix_to_human([$time = ''[, $seconds = FALSE[, $fmt = 'us']]]);

Parameter Description:

• $time (int) – UNIX timestamp
• $seconds (bool) – Whether to show seconds
• $fmt (string) – format (us or euro)

The return type of this function is a string and it returns a formatted date.

Example:

Step 1 Open application/controllers directory and create a new controller file Unix_to_human.php

<?php
   class Unix_to_human extends CI_Controller {

      public function index() {
		 $this->load->helper('date'); //load date helper
		 $now = time();
		echo unix_to_human($now); // U.S. time, no seconds
		echo '<br>'.unix_to_human($now, TRUE, 'us'); // U.S. time with seconds
		echo '<br>'.unix_to_human($now, TRUE, 'eu'); // Euro time with seconds
      }
   }
?>

Step 2 Open the given URL into the browser to see the result.

http://localhost/ci/index.php/Unix_to_human

8 human_to_unix(): This function takes human time as input and converts it into a UNIX timestamp.

Syntax:

human_to_unix([$datestr = '']);

Parameter Description:

• $datestr (int) – Date string

The return type of this function is int and it returns UNIX timestamp or FALSE on failure.

Example:

Step 1 Open application/controllers directory and create a new controller file Human_to_unix.php

<?php
   class Human_to_unix extends CI_Controller {

      public function index() {
		 $this->load->helper('date'); //load date helper
		 $now = time();
		$human = unix_to_human($now);
		$unix = human_to_unix($human);
		echo "Human readable date: $human <br>";
		echo "UNIX timestamp :$unix";
      }
   }
?>

Step 2 Open the given URL into the browser to see the result.

http://localhost/ci/index.php/Human_to_unix

9 nice_date(): This function is used to convert a number of poorly-formed date formats into something useful.

Syntax:

nice_date([$bad_date = ''[, $format = FALSE]]);

Parameter Description:

• $bad_date (int) – The terribly formatted date-like string
• $format (string) – Date format to return (same as PHP’s date() function)

The return type of this function is a string and it returns a formatted date.

Example:

Step 1 Open the application/controllers directory and create a new controller file Nice_date.php

<?php
   class Nice_date extends CI_Controller {

      public function index() {
		 $this->load->helper('date'); //load date helper
		 $bad_date = '9-11-2001';
		// Should Produce: 2001-09-11
		$better_date = nice_date($bad_date, 'Y-m-d');
		echo "bad date: $bad_date <br>";
		echo "good date: $better_date";
      }
   }
?>

Step 2 Open the given URL into the browser to see the result.

http://localhost/ci/index.php/Nice_date

10 timespan(): This function is used to convert a UNIX timestamp into the given format.

1 Year, 10 Months, 2 Weeks, 5 Days, 10 Hours, 16 Minutes

Syntax:

timespan([$seconds = 1[, $time = ''[, $units = '']]]);

Parameter Description:

• $seconds (int) – Number of seconds
• $time (string) – UNIX timestamp
• $units (int) – Number of time units to display

The return type of this function is a string and it returns a formatted time difference.

Example:

Step 1 Open application/controllers directory and create a new controller file Timespan.php

<?php
   class Timespan extends CI_Controller {

      public function index() {
		 $this->load->helper('date'); //load date helper
		$post_date = '1079621429';
		$now = time();
		$units = 2;
		echo "Time in 2 units: ".timespan($post_date, $now, $units)."<br>";
		$units = 4;
		echo "Time in 4 units: ".timespan($post_date, $now, $units);
	  }
   }
?>

Step 2 Open the given URL into the browser to see the result.

http://localhost/ci/index.php/Timespan

11 days_in_month(): This function is used to returns the number of days in a given month/year. It is also considered a leap year concept. Working of this function is same as PHP native function cal_days_in_month().

Syntax:

days_in_month([$month = 0[, $year = '']]);

Parameter Description:

• $month (int) – a numeric month
• $year (int) – a numeric year

The return type of this function is a string and it returns the Count of days in the specified month.

Example:

Step 1 Open the application/controllers directory and create a new controller file Days_in_month.php

<?php
   class Days_in_month extends CI_Controller {

      public function index() {
		 $this->load->helper('date'); //load date helper
		echo days_in_month(06, 2020);
	  }
   }
?>

Step 2 Open the given URL into the browser to see the result.

http://localhost/ci/index.php/Days_in_month

12 date_range(): This function is used to get a list of dates within a specified period.

Syntax:

date_range([$unix_start = ''[, $mixed = ''[, $is_unix = TRUE[, $format = 'Y-m-d']]]]);

Parameter Description:

• $unix_start (int) – UNIX timestamp of the range start date
• $mixed (int) – UNIX timestamp of the range end date or interval in days
• $is_unix (bool) – set to FALSE if $mixed is not a timestamp
• $format (string) – Output date format, same as in date()

The return type of this function is an array and it returns an array of dates.

Example:

Step 1 Open the application/controllers directory and create a new controller file Date_range.php

<?php
   class Date_range extends CI_Controller {

      public function index() {
		 $this->load->helper('date'); //load date helper
		 $range = date_range('2021-01-01', '2021-01-15');
		echo "First 15 days of 2021:";
		foreach ($range as $date)
		{
				echo $date."<br>";
		}
	  }
   }
?>

Step 2 Open the given URL into the browser to see the result.

http://localhost/ci/index.php/Date_range

13 timezones(): This function takes a timezone reference as input and returns the number of hours offset from UTC.

Syntax:

timezones([$tz = '']);

Parameter Description:

• $tz (string) – A numeric timezone

The return type of this function is int and it returns an hour difference from UTC.

Example:

Step 1 Open the application/controllers directory and create a new controller file Timezone.php

<?php
   class Timezone extends CI_Controller {

      public function index() {
		 $this->load->helper('date'); //load date helper
		echo timezones('UM5');
	  }
   }
?>

Step 2 Open the given URL into the browser to see the result.

http://localhost/ci/index.php/Date_range

14 timezone_menu(): This function is used to generates a pull-down menu of timezones. This menu is most commonly used in a membership site in which your users are allowed to set their local timezone value.

Syntax:

timezone_menu([$default = 'UTC'[, $class = ''[, $name = 'timezones'[, $attributes = '']]]]);

Parameter Description:

• $default (string) – Timezone
• $class (string) – Class name
• $name (string) – Menu name
• $attributes (mixed) – HTML attributes

The return type of this function is a string and it returns HTML drop-down menu with time zones.

Example:

Step 1 Open the application/controllers directory and create a new controller file Timezone_menu.php

<?php
   class Timezone_menu extends CI_Controller {

      public function index() {
		 $this->load->helper('date'); //load date helper
		echo timezone_menu('UM8');
	  }
   }
?>

Step 2 Open the given URL into the browser to see the result.

http://localhost/ci/index.php/Timezone_menu

Timezone Reference:

Different timezones and their locations are listed below: