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strtotime

Description

The strtotime of Date / Time for PHP parse about any English textual datetime description into a Unix timestamp.

Syntax

strtotime(
    string $datetime,
    ?int $baseTimestamp = null
): int|false

Parameters

time

A date/time string. Valid formats are explained in Date and Time Formats.

baseTimestamp

The timestamp which is used as a base for the calculation of relative dates.

Return

Returns a timestamp on success, false otherwise.

Examples

1 · datetime

<?

$datetime = "now";

$return = strtotime($datetime);

echo $return;

1788945495

2 · baseTimestamp

<?

$datetime = "now";
$baseTimestamp = time();

$return = strtotime($datetime, $baseTimestamp);

echo $return;

1788945495

3 · -

<?

$array =
[
    "now",
    "-1 second",
    "-1 minute",
    "-1 hour",
    "-1 day",
    "-1 week",
    "-1 month",
    "-1 year",
    "-1 year -1 month -1 week -1 day -1 hour -1 minute -1 second"
];

foreach($array as $datetime)
{
    $return = strtotime($datetime);

    $format = "Y-m-d W H:i:s";

    $date = date($format, $return);

    echo "$return: $date: $datetime\n";
}

1788945496: 2026-09-09 37 09:18:16: now
1788945495: 2026-09-09 37 09:18:15: -1 second
1788945436: 2026-09-09 37 09:17:16: -1 minute
1788941896: 2026-09-09 37 08:18:16: -1 hour
1788859096: 2026-09-08 37 09:18:16: -1 day
1788340696: 2026-09-02 36 09:18:16: -1 week
1786267096: 2026-08-09 32 09:18:16: -1 month
1757409496: 2025-09-09 37 09:18:16: -1 year
1754036235: 2025-08-01 31 08:17:15: -1 year -1 month -1 week -1 day -1 hour -1 minute -1 second

4 · +

<?

$array =
[
    "now",
    "1 second",
    "1 minute",
    "1 hour",
    "1 day",
    "1 week",
    "1 month",
    "1 year",
    "1 year 1 month 1 week 1 day 1 hour 1 minute 1 second"
];

foreach($array as $datetime)
{
    $return = strtotime($datetime);

    $format = "Y-m-d W H:i:s";

    $date = date($format, $return);

    echo "$return: $date: $datetime\n";
}

1788945496: 2026-09-09 37 09:18:16: now
1788945497: 2026-09-09 37 09:18:17: 1 second
1788945556: 2026-09-09 37 09:19:16: 1 minute
1788949096: 2026-09-09 37 10:18:16: 1 hour
1789031896: 2026-09-10 37 09:18:16: 1 day
1789550296: 2026-09-16 38 09:18:16: 1 week
1791537496: 2026-10-09 41 09:18:16: 1 month
1820481496: 2027-09-09 36 09:18:16: 1 year
1823768357: 2027-10-17 41 10:19:17: 1 year 1 month 1 week 1 day 1 hour 1 minute 1 second

5 · day-based

<?

$array =
[
    "now",
    "yesterday",
    "today",
    "midnight",
    "noon",
    "tomorrow",
    "front of 12",
    "back of 12",
    "previous day",
    "next day",
    "1 day ago",
    "-1 day ago",
    "first day of",
    "last day of"
];

foreach($array as $datetime)
{
    $return = strtotime($datetime);

    $format = "Y-m-d W H:i:s";

    $date = date($format, $return);

    echo "$return: $date: $datetime\n";
}

1788945496: 2026-09-09 37 09:18:16: now
1788825600: 2026-09-08 37 00:00:00: yesterday
1788912000: 2026-09-09 37 00:00:00: today
1788912000: 2026-09-09 37 00:00:00: midnight
1788955200: 2026-09-09 37 12:00:00: noon
1788998400: 2026-09-10 37 00:00:00: tomorrow
1788954300: 2026-09-09 37 11:45:00: front of 12
1788956100: 2026-09-09 37 12:15:00: back of 12
1788859096: 2026-09-08 37 09:18:16: previous day
1789031896: 2026-09-10 37 09:18:16: next day
1788859096: 2026-09-08 37 09:18:16: 1 day ago
1789031896: 2026-09-10 37 09:18:16: -1 day ago
1788254296: 2026-09-01 36 09:18:16: first day of
1790759896: 2026-09-30 40 09:18:16: last day of

6 · specific

<?

$array =
[
    "01-02-03",
    "3 february 2001"
];

foreach($array as $datetime)
{
    $return = strtotime($datetime);

    $format = "Y-m-d W H:i:s";

    $date = date($format, $return);

    echo "$return: $date: $datetime\n";
}

981158400: 2001-02-03 05 00:00:00: 01-02-03
981158400: 2001-02-03 05 00:00:00: 3 february 2001

7 · holidays

<?

$array =
[
    "Mother's Day" => "second sunday of may",
    "Memorial Day" => "last monday of may",
    "Father's Day" => "third sunday of june",
    "Thanksgiving Day" => "fourth thursday of november"
];

foreach($array as $key => $datetime)
{
    $return = strtotime($datetime);

    $format = "Y-m-d";

    $date = date($format, $return);

    echo "$date: $key\n";
}

2026-05-10: Mother's Day
2026-05-25: Memorial Day
2026-06-21: Father's Day
2026-11-26: Thanksgiving Day

8 · escape

<?

$datetime = "next day";

$return = strtotime($datetime);

$format = 'l \t\h\e jS \o\f F Y \a\t h:i:s A';

$date = date($format, $return);

echo "\"$datetime\" is $date";

"next day" is Thursday the 10th of September 2026 at 09:18:16 AM