strtotime

Parse about any English textual datetime description into a Unix timestamp

&reftitle.description; ``int``false```strtotime` `string` `datetime` ``int``null```baseTimestamp`&null;

The function expects to be given a string containing an English date format and will try to parse that format into a Unix timestamp (the number of seconds since January 1 1970 00:00:00 UTC), relative to the timestamp given in `baseTimestamp`, or the current time if `baseTimestamp` is not supplied. The date string parsing is defined in Date and Time Formats, and has several subtle considerations. Reviewing the full details there is strongly recommended.

The Unix timestamp that this function returns does not contain information about time zones. In order to do calculations with date/time information, you should use the more capable `DateTimeImmutable`.

Each parameter of this function uses the default time zone unless a time zone is specified in that parameter. Be careful not to use different time zones in each parameter unless that is intended. See `date_default_timezone_get` on the various ways to define the default time zone.

&reftitle.parameters;

`datetime`

- &date.formats.parameter;

`baseTimestamp`

- The timestamp which is used as a base for the calculation of relative dates.

&reftitle.returnvalues;

Returns a timestamp on success, &false; otherwise.

&reftitle.errors; &date.timezone.errors.description;
&reftitle.changelog;

&Version; | &Description;
8.0.0 | `baseTimestamp` is nullable now.

&reftitle.examples;

### A `strtotime` example

    <?php
    echo strtotime("now"), "\n";
    echo strtotime("10 September 2000"), "\n";
    echo strtotime("+1 day"), "\n";
    echo strtotime("+1 week"), "\n";
    echo strtotime("+1 week 2 days 4 hours 2 seconds"), "\n";
    echo strtotime("next Thursday"), "\n";
    echo strtotime("last Monday"), "\n";
    ?>

### Checking for failure

    <?php
    $str = 'Not Good';

    if (($timestamp = strtotime($str)) === false) {
        echo "The string ($str) is bogus";
    } else {
        echo "$str == " . date('l dS \o\f F Y h:i:s A', $timestamp);
    }
    ?>

&reftitle.notes;

"Relative" date in this case also means that if a particular component of the date/time stamp is not provided, it will be taken verbatim from the `baseTimestamp`. That is, `strtotime('February')`, if run on the 31st of May 2022, will be interpreted as `31 February 2022`, which will overflow into a timestamp on `3 March`. (In a leap year, it would be `2 March`.) Using `strtotime('1 February')` or `strtotime('first day of February')` would avoid that problem.

If the number of the year is specified in a two digit format, the values between 00-69 are mapped to 2000-2069 and 70-99 to 1970-1999. See the notes below for possible differences on 32bit systems (possible dates might end on 2038-01-19 03:14:07).

The valid range of a timestamp is typically from Fri, 13 Dec 1901 20:45:54 UTC to Tue, 19 Jan 2038 03:14:07 UTC. (These are the dates that correspond to the minimum and maximum values for a 32-bit signed integer.)

For 64-bit versions of PHP, the valid range of a timestamp is effectively infinite, as 64 bits can represent approximately 293 billion years in either direction.

Using this function for mathematical operations is not advisable. It is better to use `DateTime::add` and `DateTime::sub`.

&reftitle.seealso;

- `DateTimeImmutable`
- `DateTimeImmutable::createFromFormat`
- Date and Time Formats
- `checkdate`
- `strptime`