date_create to create date and time object in PHP

date_create in PHP class is available in PHP 5 and higher versions .
Today's date

$today   =  date_create('now');

echo $today->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

The above example will display today's date and time in Year-month-date Hour:minutes:second format. Here is the output

2026-04-13 08:12:32

date_default_timezone_set('America/Chicago');
$today   = date_create('2019-05-29');
echo $today->format('Y-m-d H:i:s')

Output is here

2019-05-29 00:00:00

If you are getting warning message saying not to rely on system time zone , then add this line to the top.

date_default_timezone_set('America/Chicago');

$today   =  date_create('now');

echo $today->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

Let us try tomorrow's date

date_default_timezone_set('America/Chicago');

$date =  date_create("now");

echo $date->format('d-m-y H:i:s');

echo "<br><br>";

$date =  date_create("tomorrow");

echo $date->format('d-m-y H:i:s');

Out put is here

13-04-26 03:12:32

14-04-26 00:00:00

Another way

date_default_timezone_set('America/Chicago');

$date = date_create('2013-07-19 23:16:30');

echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s') ;

Output is here

2013-07-19 23:16:30

Code	Output
$d = date_create('now'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-04-13
$d = date_create('19 July 2018'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2018-07-19
$d = date_create('Tomorrow'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-04-14
$d = date_create('Yesterday'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-04-12
$d = date_create('+1 day'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-04-14
$d = date_create('+1 week'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-04-20
$d = date_create('+1 week 5 days'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-04-25
$d = date_create('+1 month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-05-13
$d = date_create('+1 month 10 days'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-05-23
$d = date_create('+3 months -1 day'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-07-12
$d = date_create('+3 years'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2029-04-13
$d = date_create('+1 year 5 days'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2027-04-18
$d = date_create('Monday'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-04-13
$d = date_create('Monday +1 day '); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-04-14
$d = date_create('first day of this month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-04-01
$d = date_create('last day of this month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-04-30
$d = date_create('first day of previous month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-03-01
$d = date_create('last day of previous month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-03-31
$d = date_create('first day of next month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-05-01
$d = date_create('last day of next month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-05-31
$d = date_create('last day of next month +1 hour'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d : H:i:s') ;	2026-05-31 : 04:12:32
$d = date_create('Monday +1 hour +20 minutes +10 seconds'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d : H:i:s') ;	2026-04-13 : 01:20:10
echo date('m-d-Y',strtotime('24-06-2018 next Monday '));	06-25-2018

06-25-2018 Here we are getting output as date object and then converting to string by using format. We can directly get date as string by using strtotime.

Date as string by using strtotime()
By using this date object we can add, subtract or modify dates
PHP Date Functions Timestamp in PHP Displaying calendar for selection of date by user

Subhendu Mohapatra

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date_create(): creates a new DateTime object

Subhendu Mohapatra