Getting date format m-d-Y H:i:s.u from milliseconds
PhpDateTimestampMillisecondsPhp Problem Overview
I am trying to get a formatted date, including the microseconds from a UNIX timestamp specified in milliseconds.
The only problem is I keep getting 000000, e.g.
$milliseconds = 1375010774123;
$d = date("m-d-Y H:i:s.u", $milliseconds/1000);
print $d;
>07-28-2013 11:26:14.000000
Php Solutions
Solution 1 - Php
You can readily do this this with the input format U.u
.
$now = DateTime::createFromFormat('U.u', microtime(true));
echo $now->format("m-d-Y H:i:s.u");
This produces the following output:
04-13-2015 05:56:22.082300
From the PHP manual page for date formats:
- U = Seconds since the Unix Epoch
- u = Microseconds
http://php.net/manual/en/function.date.php
Thanks goes to giggsey for pointing out a flaw in my original answer, adding number_format()
to the line should fix the case of the exact second. Too bad it doesn't feel quite as elegant any more...
$now = DateTime::createFromFormat('U.u', number_format(microtime(true), 6, '.', ''));
http://php.net/manual/en/function.number-format.php
A note on time zones in response to DaVe.
Normally the createFromFormat()
method will use the local time zone if one is not specified.
http://php.net/manual/en/datetime.createfromformat.php
However, the technique described here is initialising the DateTime object using microtime()
which returns the number of seconds elapsed since the Unix Epoch (01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT).
http://php.net/manual/en/function.microtime.php
This means that the DateTime object is implicitly initialised to UTC, which is fine for server internal tasks that just want to track elapsed time.
If you need to display the time for a particular time zone then you need to set it accordingly. However, this should be done as a separate step after the initialisation (not using the third parameter of createFromFormat()
) because of the reasons discussed above.
The setTimeZone()
method can be used to accomplish this requirement.
http://php.net/manual/en/datetime.settimezone.php
As an example:
$now = DateTime::createFromFormat('U.u', number_format(microtime(true), 6, '.', ''));
echo $now->format("m-d-Y H:i:s.u") . '<br>';
$local = $now->setTimeZone(new DateTimeZone('Australia/Canberra'));
echo $local->format("m-d-Y H:i:s.u") . '<br>';
Produces the following output:
10-29-2015 00:40:09.433818
10-29-2015 11:40:09.433818
Note that if you want to input into mysql, the time format needs to be:
format("Y-m-d H:i:s.u")
Solution 2 - Php
php.net says:
> Microseconds (added in PHP 5.2.2). Note that date()
will always generate 000000
since it takes an integer parameter, whereas DateTime::format()
does support microseconds if DateTime
was created with microseconds.
So use as simple:
$micro_date = microtime();
$date_array = explode(" ",$micro_date);
$date = date("Y-m-d H:i:s",$date_array[1]);
echo "Date: $date:" . $date_array[0]."<br>";
Recommended and use dateTime()
class from referenced:
$t = microtime(true);
$micro = sprintf("%06d",($t - floor($t)) * 1000000);
$d = new DateTime( date('Y-m-d H:i:s.'.$micro, $t) );
print $d->format("Y-m-d H:i:s.u"); // note at point on "u"
Note u
is microseconds (1 seconds = 1000000 µs).
Another example from php.net:
$d2=new DateTime("2012-07-08 11:14:15.889342");
Reference of dateTime()
on php.net
I've answered on question as short and simplify to author. Please see for more information to author: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17909871/getting-date-format-m-d-y-his-u-from-milliseconds/17909891#29598719
Solution 3 - Php
Here's a slightly shorter approach. Rather than work to create a high-precision numeric date/time, I convert the microsecond value to a string, remove the 0
, and add it to the end of the date/time string. I can easily trim the number of decimals by adjusting the string length parameter; here I use 4
to get milliseconds, but you could use 7
to get microseconds.
$t = explode(" ",microtime());
echo date("m-d-y H:i:s",$t[1]).substr((string)$t[0],1,4);
For a microtime() value of 0.98236000 1407400573
, this returns 08-07-14 01:08:13.982
.
Solution 4 - Php
I'm use
echo date("Y-m-d H:i:s.").gettimeofday()["usec"];
output: 2017-09-05 17:04:57.555036
Solution 5 - Php
# PHP 8 type safe when using declare(strict_types=1);
echo date('m-d-Y H:i:s').substr((string) fmod(microtime(true), 1), 1, 4);
example output:
02-06-2019 16:45:03.53811192512512
If you have a need to limit the number of decimal places then the below line (credit mgutt) would be a good alternative. (With the code below, the 6 limits the number of decimal places to 6.)
echo date('m-d-Y H:i:').sprintf('%09.6f', date('s')+fmod(microtime(true), 1));
example output:
02-11-2019 15:33:03.624493
Solution 6 - Php
For PHP 8.0+
The bug has been recently fixed and now you can use UNIX timestamps with a fractional part.
$milliseconds = 1375010774123;
$d = new DateTime( '@'. $milliseconds/1000 );
print $d->format("m-d-Y H:i:s.u");
Output: >07-28-2013 11:26:14.123000
For PHP < 8.0
You need to specify the format of your UNIX timestamp before you can use it in the DateTime object. As noted in other answers, you can simply work around this bug by using createFromFormat()
and number_format()
$milliseconds = 1375010774123;
$d = DateTime::createFromFormat('U.v', number_format($milliseconds/1000, 3, '.', ''));
print $d->format("m-d-Y H:i:s.u");
Output: >07-28-2013 11:26:14.123000
For PHP < 7.3
If you are still using PHP older than 7.3 you can replace U.v
with U.u
. It will not make any difference, but the millisecond format identifier is present only since PHP 7.3.
$milliseconds = 1375010774123;
// V - Use microseconds instead of milliseconds
$d = DateTime::createFromFormat('U.u', number_format($milliseconds/1000, 3, '.', ''));
print $d->format("m-d-Y H:i:s.u");
Output: >07-28-2013 11:26:14.123000
Solution 7 - Php
If you want to format a date like JavaScript's (new Date()).toISOString()
for some reason, this is how you can do it in PHP:
$now = microtime(true);
gmdate('Y-m-d\TH:i:s', $now).sprintf('.%03dZ',round(($now-floor($now))*1000));
Sample output:
2016-04-27T18:25:56.696Z
Just to prove that subtracting off the whole number doesn't reduce the accuracy of the decimal portion:
>>> number_format(123.01234567890123456789,25)
=> "123.0123456789012408307826263"
>>> number_format(123.01234567890123456789-123,25)
=> "0.0123456789012408307826263"
PHP did round the decimal places, but it rounded them the same way in both cases.
Solution 8 - Php
This is based on answer from ArchCodeMonkey.
But just simplified, if you just want something quick that works.
function DateTime_us_utc(){
return DateTime::createFromFormat('U.u', number_format(microtime(true), 6, '.', ''));
}
function DateTime_us(){
$now = DateTime_us_utc();
return $now->setTimeZone(new DateTimeZone(date_default_timezone_get()));
}
So for me then
$now = DateTime_us();
$now->format("m-d-Y H:i:s.u");
Solution 9 - Php
As of PHP 7.1 you can simply do this:
$date = new DateTime( "NOW" );
echo $date->format( "m-d-Y H:i:s.u" );
It will display as:
04-11-2018 10:54:01.321688
Solution 10 - Php
Here is another method that I find slightly more elegant/simple:
echo date('Y-m-d-H:i:s.').preg_replace("/^.*\./i","", microtime(true));
Solution 11 - Php
// Procedural
$fineStamp = date('Y-m-d\TH:i:s') . substr(microtime(), 1, 9);
echo $fineStamp . PHP_EOL;
// Object-oriented (if you must). Still relies on $fineStamp though :-\
$d = new DateTime($fineStamp);
echo $d->format('Y-m-d\TH:i:s.u') . PHP_EOL;
Solution 12 - Php
The documentation says the following:
> Microseconds (added in PHP 5.2.2). Note that date() will always > generate 000000 since it takes an integer parameter, whereas > DateTime::format() does support microseconds.
I.e., use DateTime instead.
Solution 13 - Php
With PHP 7.0+ now here you can do the following:
$dateString = substr($millseconds_go_here,0,10);
$drawDate = new \DateTime(Date('Y-m-d H:i',$dateString));
$drawDate->setTimezone(new \DateTimeZone('UTC'));
This does the following in order:
- Trims the last 4 zeros off the string so
Date()
can handle the date. - Uses date to format the milliseconds into a date time string that DateTime can understand.
DateTime()
can then allow you to modify the time zone you are in, but ensure thatdate_default_timezone_set("Timezone");
is set before you useDateTime()
functions and classes.- It is good practice to use a constructor in your classes to make sure your in the correct timezone when
DateTime()
classes or functions are used.
Solution 14 - Php
if you are using Carbon, you can use the defined spec "RFC3339_EXTENDED". or customize it.
Carbon::RFC3339_EXTENDED = 'Y-m-d\TH:i:s.vP';
Solution 15 - Php
Based on @ArchCodeMonkey answer.
If you have declare(strict_types=1)
you must cast second argument to string
Solution 16 - Php
This function work from php5.2 till php7.4. Here it is including test code:
#!/usr/bin/php
<?php
function dtfn ($t=null) // for filenames, date + time, year first, ms always 3 digits
{
if (!$t) $t = microtime(true);
$dtx = date('Y-m-d_H.i.s', $t);
$ms = sprintf("%03u", 1000 * fmod($t,1));
return "$dtx.$ms";
}
function xxx($t)
{
echo sprintf("%12s: %s\n", $t, dtfn($t));
}
xxx(1);
xxx(1.0);
xxx(1.01);
xxx(1.0101);
xxx(1.23456789);
results:
1: 1970-01-01_01.00.01.000
1: 1970-01-01_01.00.01.000
1.01: 1970-01-01_01.00.01.010
1.0101: 1970-01-01_01.00.01.010
1.23456789: 1970-01-01_01.00.01.234
Solution 17 - Php
Single line version (useful as function param) for php >= 7.3:
printf("%s",
(DateTime::createFromFormat('U.u', microtime(true)))
->setTimezone(new \DateTimeZone('UTC'))
->format("Y-m-d.H:i:s.v")
);
See v
and u
in formats