Format a GMT/UTC date/time

gettimeofday
gmmktime
Date/Time Functions
PHP Manual

# gmdate

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

gmdate — Format a GMT/UTC date/time

### Description

string gmdate ( string `$format` [, int `$timestamp` ] )

Identical to the date() function except that the time returned is Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

### Parameters

`format`

  The format of the outputted date string . See the formatting options for the date() function.

`timestamp`

  The optional `timestamp` parameter is an integer Unix timestamp that defaults to the current local time if a `timestamp` is not given. In other words, it defaults to the value of time().

### Return Values

Returns a formatted date string. If a non-numeric value is used for `timestamp`, `FALSE` is returned and an `E_WARNING` level error is emitted.

### Changelog

Version | Description
--- | ---
5.1.0 | The valid range of a timestamp is typically from Fri, 13 Dec 1901 20:45:54 GMT to Tue, 19 Jan 2038 03:14:07 GMT. (These are the dates that correspond to the minimum and maximum values for a 32-bit signed integer). However, before PHP 5.1.0 this range was limited from 01-01-1970 to 19-01-2038 on some systems (e.g. Windows).
5.1.1 | There are useful constants of standard date/time formats that can be used to specify the `format` parameter.

### Examples

Example #1 gmdate() example

When run in Finland (GMT +0200), the first line below prints "Jan 01 1998 00:00:00", while the second prints "Dec 31 1997 22:00:00".

`<?php
echo date("M d Y H:i:s", mktime(0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1998));
echo gmdate("M d Y H:i:s", mktime(0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1998));
?>`

### See Also

- date() - Format a local time/date
- mktime() - Get Unix timestamp for a date
- gmmktime() - Get Unix timestamp for a GMT date
- strftime() - Format a local time/date according to locale settings

gettimeofday
gmmktime
Date/Time Functions
PHP Manual