PHP DateTime::createFromFormat doesn't parse ISO 8601 date time

Question

Code speaks a million words:

php > echo strtotime("2010-12-07T23:00:00.000Z");
1291762800
echo date('c', 1291762800);
2010-12-08T00:00:00+01:00
php > var_dump(DateTime::createFromFormat('c', "2010-12-07T23:00:00.000Z"));
bool(false)
php > var_dump(DateTime::createFromFormat(DateTime::ISO8601, "2010-12-07T23:00:00.000Z"));
bool(false)

Any idea what's going on?

Btw, yes, new DateTime("2010-12-07T23:00:00.000Z") works fine. But I prefer to know what input I am getting.

Your fractional seconds aren't part of the format. DateTime::ISO8601 is a string with the value Y-m-d\TH:i:sO. — salathe
– salathe, Commented Dec 10, 2010 at 17:53
WikiPedia disagrees: Decimal fractions may also be added to any of the three time elements. A decimal point, either a comma or a dot (without any preference as stated most recently in resolution 10 of the 22nd General Conference CGPM in 2003), is used as a separator between the time element and its fraction. A fraction may only be added to the lowest order time element in the representation. — Jake
– Jake, Commented Dec 10, 2010 at 18:07
public static DateTime DateTime::createFromFormat ( string $format , string $time [, DateTimeZone $timezone ] ), maybe is caused by inclusive of the timezone — ajreal
– ajreal, Commented Dec 10, 2010 at 18:11
Seems like "c" and DateTime::ISO8601 aren't the same either: php > var_dump(DateTime::createFromFormat('c', "2010-12-10T19:02:09+01:00")); bool(false) php > var_dump(DateTime::createFromFormat('c', '2010-12-10T19:02:09+01:00')); bool(false) php > var_dump(DateTime::createFromFormat(DateTime::ISO8601, '2010-12-10T19:02:09+01:00')); object(DateTime)#26 (3) { ["date"]=> string(19) "2010-12-10 19:02:09" ["timezone_type"]=> int(1) ["timezone"]=> string(6) "+01:00" } — Jake
– Jake, Commented Dec 10, 2010 at 18:20

Ja͢ck · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-13 17:30:56Z

48

There's a bug report that exactly describes your problem :)

https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=51950

Since 2016-08-07, the bug report has been marked as "not a bug". You need to use strtotime or new DateTime instead.

The constants that have been defined apply to both formatting and parsing in the same way, which forces your ways.

edited Oct 13, 2017 at 17:30

answered May 7, 2012 at 7:45

Ja͢ck

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4 Comments

jlh Over a year ago

Indeed disappointing. Why name a constant "ISO8601" if it's not actually compliant to that standard. This is why I don't like PHP much.

Douglas Gaskell Over a year ago

Bloody 7 years later and this still exists.... and is even marked as not a bug? If you want to accept different ISO-8601 date/time formats. Different ISO-8601 formats?? Why I dislike php in a nutshell.

Michael Ambrose Over a year ago

Feeling the pain too

aross Over a year ago

TBF, within PHP's design constraints, this is indeed not a bug. createFromFormat does not support optional date parts. That would be stupid to implement as well IMO, because the format specifiers use a simple syntax and a naive parser. PHP would have to support something like this: Y-m-d\TH:i:s[?v]P where the square brackets mean optional. That then probably has to be translated internally to regex. I'll have the naive parser, thanks. If you really want microseconds and you know that's the format you'll receive, use Y-m-d\TH:i:s?vP. If you want multiple formats just use new DateTime

a20 · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-04 09:43:49Z

19

Parsing ISO8601 date, and also switching timezone:

// create ISO8601 dateTime 
$date = DateTime::createFromFormat(DateTime::ISO8601, '2016-07-27T19:30:00Z');

// set to user's timezone
$date -> setTimeZone('Asia/Singapore');

echo $date -> format(DateTime::ISO8601);
// prints '2016-07-28T03:30:00+0800'

answered Jul 4, 2016 at 9:43

a20

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5 Comments

Alex Angelico Over a year ago

copied your code and it prints: "2016-07-27T19:30:00+0000" using PHP 5.6.10

a20 Over a year ago

@AlexAngelico What is the output for echo DateTime::ISO8601;? It prints Y-m-d\TH:i:sO for me.

Alex Angelico Over a year ago

yes, DateTime::ISO8601 prints Y-m-d\TH:i:sO I'm using this code to change the time to the correct Timezone. I'm in GMT-5

$fecha_str = '2017-04-12T21:43:54+02:00'; 	$date = strtotime($fecha_str); 	echo date("Y-m-d h:i:s", $date); 	/output=> 2017-04-12 07:43:54

puiu Over a year ago

Just as a heads up, don't use format(\DateTime::ISO8601) because it is not a valid ISO8601 format. Instead use either c, \DateTime::ATOM or DATE_ATOM. The reason is because the \DateTime:ISO8601 way would wrongly stores as 2005-08-15T15:52:01+0000 when in actuality a valid ISO8601 date string should have a colon between the time zone designator like 2005-08-15T15:52:01+00:00. This is mentioned in the PHP docs but is not immediately clear. Read the docs here: ca3.php.net/manual/en/…

ed22 Over a year ago

Neither \DateTime::ISO8601 nor \DateTime::ATOM work for me for dates like '2020-02-04T00:00:00.000Z'. The 'Y-m-d\TH:i:s+' format works great.

steven · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-05 16:14:47Z

16

Nobody mentioned to use DATE_ATOM which is as far as i know phps most correct implementation of ISO 8601. It should at least work for the last 3 of these:

<?php

$dates = array(
    "2010-12-07T23:00:00.000Z",
    "2010-12-07T23:00:00",
    "2010-12-07T23:00:00Z",
    "2010-12-07T23:00:00+01:00",
    (new \DateTime("now"))->format(DATE_ATOM)
);

foreach($dates as $d) {

    $res = \DateTime::createFromFormat(DATE_ATOM, $d);

    echo "try $d: \n";
    var_dump($res);
    echo "\n\n";
}

?>

To be able to parse all of them i wrote a tiny function:

<?php

function parse_iso_8601($iso_8601_string) {
    $results = array();
    $results[] = \DateTime::createFromFormat("Y-m-d\TH:i:s",$iso_8601_string);
    $results[] = \DateTime::createFromFormat("Y-m-d\TH:i:s.u",$iso_8601_string);
    $results[] = \DateTime::createFromFormat("Y-m-d\TH:i:s.uP",$iso_8601_string);
    $results[] = \DateTime::createFromFormat("Y-m-d\TH:i:sP",$iso_8601_string);
    $results[] = \DateTime::createFromFormat(DATE_ATOM,$iso_8601_string);

    $success = array_values(array_filter($results));
    if(count($success) > 0) {
        return $success[0];
    }
    return false;
}

// Test
$dates = array(
    "2010-12-07T23:00:00.000Z",
    "2010-12-07T23:00:00",
    "2010-12-07T23:00:00Z",
    "2010-12-07T23:00:00+01:00",
    (new \DateTime("now"))->format(DATE_ATOM)
);

foreach($dates as $d) {

    $res = parse_iso_8601($d);

    echo "try $d: \n";
    var_dump($res);
    echo "\n\n";
}

?>

As @Glutexo mentioned it works only if there are only 1 to 6 precision digits for the decimal part, too. Feel free to improve it.

answered Nov 5, 2016 at 16:14

steven

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2 Comments

Serhii Popov Over a year ago

You’re the man! I was googling something like "php parse all rfc 8601 formats" and accidentally found your solution. It very helped me.

aross Over a year ago

Why? This is basically what new DateTime does under the hood...

Etienne · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-03 14:41:31Z

6

try this:

DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d\TH:i:sP', $date)

answered Aug 3, 2015 at 14:41

Etienne

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1 Comment

dakujem Over a year ago

This value equals DateTimeInterface::ATOM or DATE_ATOM. Use a constant instead of a magic value.

stloc · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-20 14:31:16Z

6

Simply :

$dt = new DateTime('2018-04-07T16:32:44Z');
$dt->format('Ymd'); // 20180407

answered Apr 20, 2018 at 14:31

stloc

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Comments

John Erck · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-05 18:20:18Z

6

Use DATE_ATOM rather than 'c' when formatting like @Steven said. This is how you work with ISO 8601 in PHP.

<?php
$now_date = new DateTime();
$now_iso_8601 = $now_date->format(DATE_ATOM);
echo "Now in ISO 8601 format: {$now_iso_8601}\n";
$date_from_string_and_format = date_create_from_format(DATE_ATOM, $now_iso_8601);
echo "ISO 8601 formatted string, back to DateTime object:\n";
var_dump($date_from_string_and_format);

prints

Now in ISO 8601 format: 2018-09-05T08:17:35-10:00
ISO 8601 formatted string, back to DateTime object:
object(DateTime)#2 (3) {
  ["date"]=>
  string(26) "2018-09-05 08:17:35.000000"
  ["timezone_type"]=>
  int(1)
  ["timezone"]=>
  string(6) "-10:00"
}

answered Sep 5, 2018 at 18:20

John Erck

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Comments

Dmitry Davydov · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-03 09:39:05Z

5

It is very strange and disappointing that this bug is still actual. Here is a right pattern for parsing date with microseconds in decimal part of seconds:

Y-m-d\TH:i:s.uO

Usage:

$dateStr = '2015-04-29T11:42:56.000+0400'
$ISO = 'Y-m-d\TH:i:s.uO'
$date = DateTime::createFromFormat($ISO, $dateStr)

answered May 3, 2015 at 9:39

Dmitry Davydov

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2 Comments

Glutexo Over a year ago

Actually, this work only if the decimal part of the seconds is present. Moreover, it works only if there are only 1 to 6 precision digits. If the decimal part is omitted or if it is more precise, false is returned.

skywind Over a year ago

Its work for me thx!

Dzung Nguyen · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-21 10:25:52Z

3

For the answer listed here https://stackoverflow.com/a/14849503/2425651 we can use this format "Y-m-d\TH: i: s.u+" to keep the microseconds.

$format = 'Y-m-d\TH:i:s.u+';
$value = '2017-09-21T10:11:19.026Z'; // jsDate.toUTCString();
var_dump(\DateTime::createFromFormat($format, $value));

answered Sep 21, 2017 at 10:25

Dzung Nguyen

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Comments

rcd · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-07 11:45:21Z

2

This one works for me:

$date = (new DateTime)->setTimestamp(strtotime('2017-12-31T23:00:00.000Z'));

answered Feb 7, 2018 at 11:45

rcd

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1 Comment

Johan Velthuis Over a year ago

This is the only answer that interpretes the Z as UTC time and corrects it to the timezone php is in.

NitrusCS · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-10 22:56:54Z

2

This works for me:

$timeStamp = "2020-12-10T14:54:25.618Z";
var_dump(DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d\TH:i:s.v\Z', $timeStamp));
object(DateTime)#1 (3) {
  ["date"]=>
  string(26) "2020-12-10 14:54:25.618000"
  ["timezone_type"]=>
  int(3)
  ["timezone"]=>
  string(3) "UTC"
}

answered Dec 10, 2020 at 22:56

NitrusCS

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Comments

Sasa Blagojevic · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-21 23:28:54Z

1

I've experienced this issue with POSTGRES default Time with timezone format and this was the format that fixed it for me:

Y-m-d H:i:s.uO

answered Apr 21, 2019 at 23:28

Sasa Blagojevic

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Comments

OzzyCzech · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-10 14:28:08Z

I am using follow function that allow multiple ISO8601 formats:

function fromISO8601($time, \DateTimeZone $timezone = null) {
    // valid ISO time 2019-04-01T00:00:00.000+02:00
    $t = \DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d\TH:i:s.uO', $time) or
    // ISO time without millis 2019-04-01T00:00:00+02:00
    $t = \DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d\TH:i:sO', $time) or
    // ISO time without timezone 2019-04-01T00:00:00.000
    $t = \DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d\TH:i:s.u', $time, $timezone) or
    // ISO time without millis and timezone 2019-04-01T00:00:00.000+02:00
    $t = \DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d\TH:i:s', $time, $timezone);

    return $t;
}

here are all supported dates

var_dump(
    fromISO8601('2019-04-01T00:00:00.000+02:00'),
    fromISO8601('2019-04-01T00:00:00+02:00'),
    fromISO8601('2019-04-01T00:00:00.000'),
    fromISO8601('2019-04-01T00:00:00')
);

This code is benevolent for missing timezone and milliseconds and works in older php versions.

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