$datetime→strtotime()

Parse about any English textual datetime description into a Unix timestamp using PHP’s strtotime()

This function behaves the same as PHP’s version except that it optionally accepts an $options array and lets you specify the return value for empty or zeroed dates like 0000-00-00. If given a zero’d date then it returns null by default (rather than throwing an error as PHP8 does). As of 3.0.238+ this method also lets you optionally specify an input format should the given date string not be strtotime compatible.

Available since version 3.0.178.

Usage

// basic usage
$false = $datetime->strtotime(string $str);

// usage with all arguments
$false = $datetime->strtotime(string $str, $options = []);

Arguments

NameType(s)Description
$strstring

Date/time string

$options (optional)array int

Options to modify behavior, or specify int for the baseTimestamp option, or string for inputFormat option.

  • emptyReturnValue (int|null|false): Value to return for empty or zero-only date strings Default:null
  • baseTimestamp (int|null): The timestamp which is used as a base for the calculation of relative dates.
  • inputFormat (string): Optional date format that given $str is in, if not strtotime() compatible. 3.0.238+
  • outputFormat (string): Optionally return value in this date format rather than unix timestamp 3.0.238+

Return value

false int null

$datetime methods and properties

API reference based on ProcessWire core version 3.0.251