What is PHP getdate() Function?
If you want to get detail of current local date-time or a specific timestamp, use getdate() function. the function lets you know the following detail-
| Key | Description | Example |
seconds | Numeric seconds | 0 to 59 |
minutes | Numeric minutes | 0 to 59 |
hours | Numeric hours | 0 to 23 |
mday | Day of the month | 1 to 31 |
wday | Day of the week (0 = Sunday, 6 = Saturday) | 0 to 6 |
mon | Numeric month | 1 to 12 |
year | 4-digit Numeric year | e.g., 2024 |
yday | Day of the year (0-indexed) | 0 to 365 |
weekday | Full textual day of the week | “Sunday” to “Saturday” |
month | Full textual of the month | “January” to “December” |
0 | Seconds since the Unix Epoch (the timestamp) | 1768024581 |
Syntax:
gatedate(timestamp)
Parameters:
The function has 1 parameter which is optional-
timestamp (Optional): It specifies a timestamp. If the timestamp is omitted, it becomes current local time.
Return Values:
The function returns an associative array which contains detail (See the table above) of a date-time.
Examples:
Example 1:
<pre>
<?php
$today = getdate();
echo "Current local date-time detail is-<br />";
print_r($today);
?>
Output:
Current local date-time detail is-
Array
(
[seconds] => 46
[minutes] => 27
[hours] => 7
[mday] => 10
[wday] => 6
[mon] => 1
[year] => 2026
[yday] => 9
[weekday] => Saturday
[month] => January
[0] => 1768026466
)
Example 2:
<pre>
<?php
date_default_timezone_set("America/Los_Angeles");
$LosAngelesTimestamp = time();
$LosAngelesTimeDetail = getdate($LosAngelesTimestamp);
echo "Current local Los Angeles date-time detail is-<br />";
print_r($LosAngelesTimeDetail);
?>
</pre>
Output:
Current local Los Angeles date-time detail is-
Array
(
[seconds] => 46
[minutes] => 27
[hours] => 22
[mday] => 9
[wday] => 5
[mon] => 1
[year] => 2026
[yday] => 8
[weekday] => Friday
[month] => January
[0] => 1768026466
)
Example 3:
<pre>
<?php
$timestamp = strtotime("2026-01-10 12:52:00");
$dateTimeDetail = getdate($timestamp);
echo "Current local date-time detail of \"2026-09-01 12:52:00\" is-<br />";
print_r($dateTimeDetail);
?>
</pre>
Output:
Current local date-time detail of "2026-09-01 12:52:00" is-
Array
(
[seconds] => 0
[minutes] => 52
[hours] => 12
[mday] => 10
[wday] => 6
[mon] => 1
[year] => 2026
[yday] => 9
[weekday] => Saturday
[month] => January
[0] => 1768078320
)
PHP Version Support:
PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8
Summary: PHP getdate() Function
The getdate() function may be the most commonly used built-in PHP date and time function. To know the detail of a date-time, use this function.