Creating DateTime from timestamp in PHP < 5.3

Question

How do you create a DateTime from timestamp in versions less than < 5.3?

In 5.3 it would be:

$date = DateTime::createFromFormat('U', $timeStamp);

The DateTime constructor wants a string, but this didn't work for me

$date = new DateTime("@$timeStamp");

According to the manual, that should work. Have you tried $date = new DateTime('@' . $timeStamp); ? And by "didn't work", what do you mean? — Jonah
– Jonah, Commented Dec 1, 2010 at 22:45
Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'Exception' with message 'DateTime::__construct() [<a href='datetime.--construct'>datetime.--construct</a>]: Failed to parse time string (@) at position 0 (@): Unexpected character' — Yarin
– Yarin, Commented Dec 1, 2010 at 22:55
@Yarin: It's giving you that error because the timestamp is empty. Find out why. — Jonah
– Jonah, Commented Dec 1, 2010 at 23:15

adrum · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-19 00:24:14Z

46

PHP 5 >= 5.3.0

$date = new DateTime();
$date->setTimestamp($timeStamp);

Edit: Added correct PHP version for setTimestamp

edited Jun 19, 2018 at 0:24

adrum

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answered Mar 27, 2012 at 20:22

Dawid Ohia

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2 Comments

Spencer Over a year ago

Think this is PHP 5 >= 5.3

Arkemlar Over a year ago

This answer is incorect, setTimestamp() added in php 5.3

Barry Simpson · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-01 23:09:46Z

32

Assuming you want the date and the time and not just the date as in the previous answer:

$dtStr = date("c", $timeStamp);
$date = new DateTime($dtStr);

Seems pretty silly to have to do that though.

answered Dec 1, 2010 at 23:09

Barry Simpson

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1 Comment

Jonah Over a year ago

This solution works, but unnecessarily spends time formatting the date string, then re-parsing.

Jonah · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-01 23:17:21Z

15

It's not working because your $timeStamp variable is empty. Try echoing the value of $timeStamp right before creating the DateTime and you'll see. If you run this:

new DateTime('@2345234');

You don't get an error. However, if you run:

new DateTime('@');

It produces the exact error you said it gives you. You'll need to do some debugging and find out why $timeStamp is empty.

answered Dec 1, 2010 at 23:17

Jonah

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2 Comments

Will B. Over a year ago

Be warned, that using @ in the constructor will ignore the environment's current timezone and the timezone when supplied in the second argument., even when using $dateTime->modify('@' . 1234) use setTimezone(date_default_timezone_get()) to change from the UTC timezone to the environment timezone.

thomasrutter Over a year ago

I had this same problem when I used '@' with an empty timestamp, thanks for this answer. The error message PHP gave was less than helpful, it implied the '@' was the problem.

Yarin · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-01 22:57:41Z

3

The following works:

$dateString = date('Ymd', $timeStamp);
$date = new DateTime($dateString);

answered Dec 1, 2010 at 22:57

Yarin

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2 Comments

Deepak Chaudhary Over a year ago

Timestamp[1] is not just Ymd, it's number of seconds(micro seconds in some cases) since 1st Jan 1970 UTC. [1] = en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time

Pete Over a year ago

May be $dateString = date('U', $timeStamp); then?!

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