DateInterval::format

    (PHP 5 >= 5.3.0, PHP 7, PHP 8)

    DateInterval::format — Formats the interval

    Description

    public DateInterval::format(string $format): string

    Formats the interval.

    Parameters

    format

    The following characters are recognized in the format parameter string. Each format character must be prefixed by a percent sign (%).
    format character Description Example values
    % Literal % %
    Y Years, numeric, at least 2 digits with leading 0 01, 03
    y Years, numeric 1, 3
    M Months, numeric, at least 2 digits with leading 0 01, 03, 12
    m Months, numeric 1, 3, 12
    D Days, numeric, at least 2 digits with leading 0 01, 03, 31
    d Days, numeric 1, 3, 31
    a Total number of days as a result of a DateTime::diff() or (unknown) otherwise 4, 18, 8123
    H Hours, numeric, at least 2 digits with leading 0 01, 03, 23
    h Hours, numeric 1, 3, 23
    I Minutes, numeric, at least 2 digits with leading 0 01, 03, 59
    i Minutes, numeric 1, 3, 59
    S Seconds, numeric, at least 2 digits with leading 0 01, 03, 57
    s Seconds, numeric 1, 3, 57
    F Microseconds, numeric, at least 6 digits with leading 0 007701, 052738, 428291
    f Microseconds, numeric 7701, 52738, 428291
    R Sign "-" when negative, "+" when positive -, +
    r Sign "-" when negative, empty when positive -,

    Return Values

    Returns the formatted interval.

    Changelog

    Version Description
    7.2.12 The F and f format will now always be positive.
    7.1.0 The F and f format characters were added.

    Examples

    Example #1 DateInterval example

    <?php

    $interval     = new DateInterval('P2Y4DT6H8M');
    echo     $interval->format('%d days');

    ?>

    The above example will output:

    4 days

    Example #2 DateInterval and carry over points

    <?php

    $interval     = new DateInterval('P32D');
    echo     $interval->format('%d days');

    ?>

    The above example will output:

    32 days

    Example #3 DateInterval and DateTime::diff() with the %a and %d modifiers

    <?php

    $january     = new DateTime('2010-01-01');
    $february = new DateTime('2010-02-01');
    $interval = $february->diff($january);

    // %a will output the total number of days.
    echo $interval->format('%a total days')."\n";

    // While %d will only output the number of days not already covered by the
    // month.
    echo $interval->format('%m month, %d days');

    ?>

    The above example will output:

    31 total days
1 month, 0 days

    Notes

    Note:

    The DateInterval::format() method does not recalculate carry over points in time strings nor in date segments. This is expected because it is not possible to overflow values like "32 days" which could be interpreted as anything from "1 month and 4 days" to "1 month and 1 day".

    See Also

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    User Contributed Notes 1 note

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    1
    online dot cloudmeetings dot marco at gmail dot com
    4 months ago
    Pls note these important abbreviations;

    P: period
    Y: years
    M: months
    D: days
    T: time
    H: hours
    M: minutes
    S: seconds

    The above is from the ISO 8601 - an international standard that defines how to use, store, and transfer date, time, and duration information.
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