DateTime to create date and time object in PHP

$today   = new DateTime;
echo $today->format('Y-m-d H:i:s'); // today's date and time

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

2025-07-20 11:58:02

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

Let us try differently

date_default_timezone_set('America/Chicago');
$date = new DateTime("now");
echo $date->format('d-m-y H:i:s');
echo "<br><br>";
$date = new DateTime("tomorrow");
echo $date->format('d-m-y H:i:s');

Out put is here

20-07-25 11:58:02

21-07-25 00:00:00

Another way ( object oriented style )

date_default_timezone_set('America/Chicago');

$date = new DateTime('2012-04-15 22:15:40');

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

Output is here

2012-04-15 22:15:40

Procedural style

$date = date_create('2018-11-29 23:15:40');
echo date_format($date, 'Y/m/d H:i:s');

2018/11/29 23:15:40

Select Timezone to get current date and time using different formats

Using DateTimeZone

$date = new DateTime('2019-01-01 16:55:58', new DateTimeZone('America/Chicago'));
echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:sP'); // Output is 2019-01-01 16:55:58-06:00

Output as ISO 8601 date time format

PHP Script to display date & time in ISO format.

echo date(DateTime::ISO8601);

echo "<br>";
$dt_object = new DateTime('NOW');
echo $dt_object->format('c'); 

echo "<br>";

echo $dt_object->format(DateTime::ISO8601);

Output is here

2025-07-20T11:58:02-0500
2025-07-20T11:58:02-05:00
2025-07-20T11:58:02-0500

Code	Output
$d = new DateTime('now'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2025-07-20
$d = new DateTime('19 July 2018'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2018-07-19
$d = new DateTime('Tomorrow'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2025-07-21
$d = new DateTime('Yesterday'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2025-07-19
$d = new DateTime('+1 day'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2025-07-21
$d = new DateTime('+1 week'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2025-07-27
$d = new DateTime('+1 week 5 days'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2025-08-01
$d = new DateTime('+1 month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2025-08-20
$d = new DateTime('+1 month 10 days'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2025-08-30
$d = new DateTime('+3 months -1 day'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2025-10-19
$d = new DateTime('+3 years'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2028-07-20
$d = new DateTime('+1 year 5 days'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2026-07-25
$d = new DateTime('Monday'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2025-07-21
$d = new DateTime('Monday +1 day '); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2025-07-22
$d = new DateTime('first day of this month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2025-07-01
$d = new DateTime('last day of this month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2025-07-31
$d = new DateTime('first day of previous month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2025-06-01
$d = new DateTime('last day of previous month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2025-06-30
$d = new DateTime('first day of next month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2025-08-01
$d = new DateTime('last day of next month'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2025-08-31
$d = new DateTime('last day of next month +1 hour'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d : H:i:s') ;	2025-08-31 : 12:58:02
$d = new DateTime('Monday +1 hour +20 minutes +10 seconds'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d : H:i:s') ;	2025-07-21 : 01:20:10
$d = DateTime::createFromFormat('d-m-Y', '11-06-2018'); $d = $d->modify('next monday'); echo $d->format('Y-m-d') ;	2018-06-18
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 Adding Date by using DateInterval

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel here

DateTime(): Creates date and time objects

Using DateTimeZone

Output as ISO 8601 date time format