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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;

1789009076

2 · baseTimestamp

<?

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

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

echo $return;

1789009076

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";
}

1789009076: 2026-09-10 37 02:57:56: now
1789009075: 2026-09-10 37 02:57:55: -1 second
1789009016: 2026-09-10 37 02:56:56: -1 minute
1789005476: 2026-09-10 37 01:57:56: -1 hour
1788922676: 2026-09-09 37 02:57:56: -1 day
1788404276: 2026-09-03 36 02:57:56: -1 week
1786330676: 2026-08-10 33 02:57:56: -1 month
1757473076: 2025-09-10 37 02:57:56: -1 year
1754099815: 2025-08-02 31 01:56:55: -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";
}

1789009076: 2026-09-10 37 02:57:56: now
1789009077: 2026-09-10 37 02:57:57: 1 second
1789009136: 2026-09-10 37 02:58:56: 1 minute
1789012676: 2026-09-10 37 03:57:56: 1 hour
1789095476: 2026-09-11 37 02:57:56: 1 day
1789613876: 2026-09-17 38 02:57:56: 1 week
1791601076: 2026-10-10 41 02:57:56: 1 month
1820545076: 2027-09-10 36 02:57:56: 1 year
1823831937: 2027-10-18 42 03:58:57: 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";
}

1789009076: 2026-09-10 37 02:57:56: now
1788912000: 2026-09-09 37 00:00:00: yesterday
1788998400: 2026-09-10 37 00:00:00: today
1788998400: 2026-09-10 37 00:00:00: midnight
1789041600: 2026-09-10 37 12:00:00: noon
1789084800: 2026-09-11 37 00:00:00: tomorrow
1789040700: 2026-09-10 37 11:45:00: front of 12
1789042500: 2026-09-10 37 12:15:00: back of 12
1788922676: 2026-09-09 37 02:57:56: previous day
1789095476: 2026-09-11 37 02:57:56: next day
1788922676: 2026-09-09 37 02:57:56: 1 day ago
1789095476: 2026-09-11 37 02:57:56: -1 day ago
1788231476: 2026-09-01 36 02:57:56: first day of
1790737076: 2026-09-30 40 02:57:56: 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 Friday the 11th of September 2026 at 02:57:56 AM