Date Formats

This page describes the different date formats in a BNF-like syntax, that the DateTimeImmutable, DateTime, date_create, date_create_immutable, and strtotime parser understands.

To format DateTimeImmutable and DateTime objects, please refer to the documentation of the DateTimeInterface::format method.

Note:

For the y and yy formats, years below 100 are handled in a special way when the y or yy symbol is used. If the year falls in the range 0 (inclusive) to 69 (inclusive), 2000 is added. If the year falls in the range 70 (inclusive) to 99 (inclusive) then 1900 is added. This means that "00-01-01" is interpreted as "2000-01-01".

Note:

The "Day, month and two digit year, with dots or tabs" format (dd [.\t] mm "." yy) only works for the year values 61 (inclusive) to 99 (inclusive) - outside those years the time format "HH [.:] MM [.:] SS" has precedence.

Note:

The "Year (and just the year)" format only reliably works if a time string has already been found. Otherwise, if the four digit year matches HH MM then these two date elements are set instead.

To consistently parse just a year, use DateTimeImmutable::createFromFormat with the Y specifier.