PHP strtotime Examples

Common PHP strtotime examples for relative dates, fixed dates, and date formatting.

PHP strtotime() parses English-like date strings into Unix timestamps.

Code examples

echo date('Y-m-d', strtotime('+1 week'));
echo date('Y-m-d', strtotime('next Monday'));

Check for failure:

$timestamp = strtotime($input);

if ($timestamp === false) {
    throw new InvalidArgumentException('Invalid date');
}

Relative phrases depend on the current time and timezone. For critical logic, prefer DateTimeImmutable with explicit timezones.

What does strtotime return?

It returns a Unix timestamp or false on failure.

Should I check for false?

Yes. Always handle parse failures explicitly.

Preview common relative date phrases used with PHP strtotime.

Preview common PHP date format tokens against the current time or a supplied timestamp.

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Common PHP date format tokens with examples for dates, times, and timestamps.

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