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Create a DateTime from a Timestamp With this New Method Coming to PHP 8.4

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Create a DateTime from a Timestamp With this New Method Coming to PHP 8.4 image

Creating a DateTime from a Unix timestamp will be more convenient in PHP 8.4 with the new createFromTimestamp() method. It will support both a typical Unix timestamp as well as timestamps containing microseconds:

$dt = DateTimeImmutable::createFromTimestamp(1718337072);
$dt->format('Y-m-d'); // 2024-06-14
 
$dt = DateTimeImmutable::createFromTimestamp(1718337072.432);
$dt->format('Y-m-d h:i:s.u'); // 2024-06-14 03:51:12.432000

With PHP 8.3 and below, you need to use the createFromFormat() method to convert a timestamp into a DateTime or DateTimeImmutable instance. As you can see below, it's not too complicated, but it'll be nice to have a new method to take care of both cases below:

$dt = DateTimeImmutable::createFromFormat('U', (string) 1718337072);
// DateTimeImmutable @1718337072 {#7948
// date: 2024-06-14 03:51:12.0 +00:00,
// }
 
$dt = DateTimeImmutable::createFromFormat('U.u', (string) 1718337072.432);
// DateTimeImmutable @1718337072 {#7950
// date: 2024-06-14 03:51:12.432 +00:00,
// }

For those using the Carbon PHP library, it already has a createFromTimestamp() method available! It is encouraging that PHP is getting this new method at the language level as well!

Carbon\Carbon::createFromTimestamp(1718337072.432);
// Carbon\Carbon @1718337072 {#7981
// date: 2024-06-14 03:51:12.432 UTC (+00:00),
// }
 
Carbon\CarbonImmutable::createFromTimestamp(1718337072);
// Carbon\CarbonImmutable @1718337072 {#7999
// date: 2024-06-14 03:51:12.0 UTC (+00:00),
// }
Paul Redmond photo

Staff writer at Laravel News. Full stack web developer and author.

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