Oihana PHP

formatDateTime.php

Table of Contents

Functions

formatDateTime()  : string
Formats a given date/time string into a specified format and timezone.

Functions

formatDateTime()

Formats a given date/time string into a specified format and timezone.

formatDateTime([string|null $date = null ][, string $timezone = 'UTC' ][, string|null $format = DateFormat::DEFAULT ]) : string

The $timezone parameter is used only to interpret the input date string, and only when that string does not carry an offset of its own — 2025-07-20T09:30:00+02:00 says which moment it is, so PHP's own parser ignores $timezone for it.

The moment is then rendered in the timezone it was parsed in, except when $format asks for a literal Z (an escaped \Z, as in the default format) : Z is the ISO-8601 designator for UTC, so the moment is converted to UTC first and the suffix tells the truth. A format carrying a real offset token (P, O, T) is left in its own timezone, that token already saying which one it is.

Parameters
$date : string|null = null

The input date/time string to format. If null, "now" is used.

$timezone : string = 'UTC'

The timezone identifier (e.g., 'Europe/Paris'). Defaults to 'UTC'.

$format : string|null = DateFormat::DEFAULT

The date format string compatible with DateTime::format(). If null, DateFormat::DEFAULT is used (ISO 8601 UTC with milliseconds).

Tags
throws
DateInvalidTimeZoneException

If the provided timezone string is invalid.

DateMalformedStringException

If the input date string is malformed or cannot be parsed.

example 
echo formatDateTime( '2025-07-20 15:30' , 'Europe/Paris' , 'Y-m-d H:i' ) ;
// Output: '2025-07-20 15:30' — no literal Z, rendered in Paris as parsed.

echo formatDateTime( '2025-07-20T09:30:00+02:00' ) ;
// Output: '2025-07-20T07:30:00.000Z' — the default format ends on a literal Z, so UTC.

echo formatDateTime() ;
// Output: current date/time in UTC, e.g., '2025-07-20T13:30:20.676Z'
author

Marc Alcaraz (ekameleon)

since
1.0.0
Return values
string —

The formatted date/time string.

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