PHP: Date/Time Arithmetic

Date/Time Arithmetic

The following examples show some pitfalls of Date/Time arithmetic with regard to DST transitions and months having different numbers of days.

Örnek 1 DateTimeImmutable::add/sub add intervals which cover elapsed time

Adding PT24H over a DST transition will appear to add 23/25 hours (for most timezones).

<?php
$dt = new DateTimeImmutable("2015-11-01 00:00:00", new DateTimeZone("America/New_York"));
echo "Start: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
$dt = $dt->add(new DateInterval("PT3H"));
echo "End:   ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
?>

Yukarıdaki örneğin çıktısı:

Start: 2015-11-01 00:00:00 -04:00
End:   2015-11-01 02:00:00 -05:00

Örnek 2 DateTimeImmutable::modify and strtotime increment or decrement individual component values

Adding +24 hours over a DST transition will add exactly 24 hours as seen in the date/time string (unless the start or end time is on a transition point).

<?php
$dt = new DateTimeImmutable("2015-11-01 00:00:00", new DateTimeZone("America/New_York"));
echo "Start: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
$dt = $dt->modify("+24 hours");
echo "End:   ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
?>

Yukarıdaki örneğin çıktısı:

Start: 2015-11-01 00:00:00 -04:00
End:   2015-11-02 00:00:00 -05:00

Örnek 3 Adding or subtracting times can over- or underflow dates

Like where January 31st + 1 month will result in March 2nd (leap year) or 3rd (normal year).

<?php
echo "Normal year:\n"; // February has 28 days
$dt = new DateTimeImmutable("2015-01-31 00:00:00", new DateTimeZone("America/New_York"));
echo "Start: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
$dt = $dt->modify("+1 month");
echo "End:   ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;

echo "Leap year:\n"; // February has 29 days
$dt = new DateTimeImmutable("2016-01-31 00:00:00", new DateTimeZone("America/New_York"));
echo "Start: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
$dt = $dt->modify("+1 month");
echo "End:   ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
?>

Yukarıdaki örneğin çıktısı:

Normal year:
Start: 2015-01-31 00:00:00 -05:00
End:   2015-03-03 00:00:00 -05:00
Leap year:
Start: 2016-01-31 00:00:00 -05:00
End:   2016-03-02 00:00:00 -05:00

To get the last day of the next month (i.e. to prevent the overflow), the last day of format is available.

<?php
echo "Normal year:\n"; // February has 28 days
$dt = new DateTimeImmutable("2015-01-31 00:00:00", new DateTimeZone("America/New_York"));
echo "Start: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
$dt = $dt->modify("last day of next month");
echo "End:   ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;

echo "Leap year:\n"; // February has 29 days
$dt = new DateTimeImmutable("2016-01-31 00:00:00", new DateTimeZone("America/New_York"));
echo "Start: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
$dt = $dt->modify("last day of next month");
echo "End:   ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
?>

Yukarıdaki örneğin çıktısı:

Normal year:
Start: 2015-01-31 00:00:00 -05:00
End:   2015-02-28 00:00:00 -05:00
Leap year:
Start: 2016-01-31 00:00:00 -05:00
End:   2016-02-29 00:00:00 -05:00

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User Contributed Notes 1 note

down

laurent dot payetFORBOTS at FORBOTSsupervan dot fr ¶

1 month ago

Be careful when subtracting a duration crossing a DST change, it can output a resulting date AFTER your base date.

// tested in 8.3.18, 7.4.33

// DST timezone shift is applied properly when setting time explicitely

echo (new DateTime('2025-03-30'))->setTimeZone(new DateTimeZone('Europe/Paris'))->setTime(1,59,0)->format('c').PHP_EOL;
echo (new DateTime('2025-03-30'))->setTimeZone(new DateTimeZone('Europe/Paris'))->setTime(2,0,0)->format('c').PHP_EOL;
echo (new DateTime('2025-03-30'))->setTimeZone(new DateTimeZone('Europe/Paris'))->setTime(2,1,0)->format('c').PHP_EOL;

// 2025-03-30T01:59:00+01:00 < correct
// 2025-03-30T03:00:00+02:00 < correct
// 2025-03-30T03:01:00+02:00 < correct

echo PHP_EOL;

// DST timezone shift is applied properly when addind a duration

$startDateTime = (new DateTime('2025-03-30'))->setTimeZone(new DateTimeZone('Europe/Paris'))->setTime(1,58,0);
echo $startDateTime->format('c').PHP_EOL;
$endDatetime = clone($startDateTime)->add(DateInterval::createFromDateString('4 minutes'));
echo $endDatetime->format('c').PHP_EOL;

// 2025-03-30T01:58:00+01:00 < correct
// 2025-03-30T03:02:00+02:00 < correct

echo PHP_EOL;

// DST timezone shift is applied improperly when subtracting a duration

$startDateTime = (new DateTime('2025-03-30'))->setTimeZone(new DateTimeZone('Europe/Paris'))->setTime(3,2,0);
echo $startDateTime->format('c').PHP_EOL;
$endDatetime = clone($startDateTime)->sub(DateInterval::createFromDateString('4 minutes'));
echo $endDatetime->format('c').PHP_EOL;

// 2025-03-30T03:02:00+02:00 < correct
// 2025-03-30T03:58:00+02:00 < incorrect !!!

echo PHP_EOL;

// DST timezone shift is still applied improperly when adding a negative duration

$startDateTime = (new DateTime('2025-03-30'))->setTimeZone(new DateTimeZone('Europe/Paris'))->setTime(3,2,0);
echo $startDateTime->format('c').PHP_EOL;
$endDatetime = clone($startDateTime)->add(DateInterval::createFromDateString('-4 minutes'));
echo $endDatetime->format('c').PHP_EOL;

// 2025-03-30T03:02:00+02:00 < correct
// 2025-03-30T03:58:00+02:00 < incorrect !!!

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