How do I use PHP to get the current year?

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64003

PHP
date

09-06-2019
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Question

I want to put a copyright notice in the footer of a web site, but I think it's incredibly tacky for the year to be out-of-date. How would I make the year update automatically with PHP 4 and PHP 5?

Solution

You can use either date or strftime. In this case I'd say it doesn't matter as a year is a year, no matter what (unless there's a locale that formats the year differently?)

For example:

<?php echo date("Y"); ?>

On a side note, when formatting dates in PHP it matters when you want to format your date in a different locale than your default. If so, you have to use setlocale and strftime. According to the php manual on date:

To format dates in other languages, you should use the setlocale() and strftime() functions instead of date().

From this point of view, I think it would be best to use strftime as much as possible, if you even have a remote possibility of having to localize your application. If that's not an issue, pick the one you like best.

OTHER TIPS

<?php echo date("Y"); ?>

My super lazy version of showing a copyright line, that automatically stays updated:

&copy; <?php 
$copyYear = 2008; 
$curYear = date('Y'); 
echo $copyYear . (($copyYear != $curYear) ? '-' . $curYear : '');
?> Me, Inc.

This year (2008), it will say:

© 2008 Me, Inc.

Next year, it will say:

© 2008-2009 Me, Inc.

and forever stay updated with the current year.

Or (PHP 5.3.0+) a compact way to do it using an anonymous function so you don't have variables leaking out and don't repeat code/constants:

&copy; 
<?php call_user_func(function($y){$c=date('Y');echo $y.(($y!=$c)?'-'.$c:'');}, 2008); ?> 
Me, Inc.

With PHP heading in a more object-oriented direction, I'm surprised nobody here has referenced the built-in DateTime class:

$now = new DateTime();
$year = $now->format("Y");

or one-liner with class member access on instantiation (php>=5.4):

$year = (new DateTime)->format("Y");

http://us2.php.net/date

echo date('Y');

strftime("%Y");

I love strftime. It's a great function for grabbing/recombining chunks of dates/times.

Plus it respects locale settings which the date function doesn't do.

This one gives you the local time:

$year = date('Y'); // 2008

And this one UTC:

$year = gmdate('Y'); // 2008

For 4 digit representation:

<?php echo date('Y'); ?>

2 digit representation:

<?php echo date('y'); ?>

Check the php documentation for more info: https://secure.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php

Here's what I do:

<?php echo date("d-m-Y") ?>

below is a bit of explanation of what it does:

d = day
m = month
Y = year

Y will gives you four digit (e.g. 1990) and y for two digit (e.g. 90)

echo date('Y') gives you current year, and this will update automatically since date() give us the current date.

print date('Y');

For more information, check date() function documentation: https://secure.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php

If your server supports Short Tags, or you use PHP 5.4, you can use:

<?=date("Y")?>

Just write:

date("Y") // A full numeric representation of a year, 4 digits
          // Examples: 1999 or 2003

Or:

date("y"); // A two digit representation of a year     Examples: 99 or 03

And 'echo' this value...

use a PHP function which is just called date().

It takes the current date and then you provide a format to it

and the format is just going to be Y. Capital Y is going to be a four digit year.

<?php echo date("Y"); ?>

<?php echo date("Y"); ?>

This code should do

You can use the simple PHP date class. It provides many useful methods and functions:

$date = new simpleDate();
echo $date->now()->getYear(); 
echo $date->now()->getMonth();
echo $date->set('2013-01-21')->getDayString();
echo $date->now()->compare('2013-01-21')->isBefore();
...

You can check the library tutorials page for more examples

For up to php 5.4+

<?php
    $current= new \DateTime();
    $future = new \DateTime('+ 1 years');

    echo $current->format('Y'); 
    //For 4 digit ('Y') for 2 digit ('y')
?>

Or you can use it with one line

$year = (new DateTime)->format("Y");

If you wanna increase or decrease the year another method; add modify line like below.

<?PHP 
  $now   = new DateTime;
  $now->modify('-1 years'); //or +1 or +5 years 
  echo $now->format('Y');
  //and here again For 4 digit ('Y') for 2 digit ('y')
?>

**Symbol, Year, Author/Owner and Rights statement.**

Using PHP + HTML:

<p id='copyright'>&copy; <?php echo date("Y"); ?> Company Name All Rights Reserved</p>

<p id='copyright'>&copy; <?php echo "2010-".date("Y"); ?> Company Name All Rights Reserved</p

<?php date_default_timezone_set("Asia/Kolkata");?><?=date("Y");?>

You can use this in footer sections to get dynamic copyright year

Get full Year used:

 <?php 
    echo $curr_year = date('Y'); // it will display full year ex. 2017
?>

Or get only two digit of year used like this:

 <?php 
    echo $curr_year = date('y'); // it will display short 2 digit year ex. 17
?>

My way to show the copyright, That keeps on updating automatically

<p class="text-muted credit">Copyright &copy;
    <?php
        $copyYear = 2017; // Set your website start date
        $curYear = date('Y'); // Keeps the second year updated
        echo $copyYear . (($copyYear != $curYear) ? '-' . $curYear : '');
    ?> 
</p>

It will output the results as

copyright @ 2017   //if $copyYear is 2017 
copyright @ 2017-201x    //if $copyYear is not equal to Current Year.

use a PHP date() function.

and the format is just going to be Y. Capital Y is going to be a four digit year.

<?php echo date("Y"); ?>

best shortcode for this section:

<?= date("Y"); ?>

<?php
$time_now=mktime(date('h')+5,date('i')+30,date('s'));
$dateTime = date('d_m_Y   h:i:s A',$time_now);

echo $dateTime;
?>

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