Using DateTime as a one-liner in PHP

Question

A short and simple question which I couldn't really find an answer for.

In procedural PHP I could echo a date

echo date('Y-m-d'); ?>

In Object oriented PHP I have to use two lines

$now = new DateTime();
echo $now->format('Y-m-d');

Is it possible to do this in one line?

You might be looking for dereferencing which is available in [PHP >= 5.4.0](http://php.net/manual/en/migration54.new-features.php) — Narendrasingh Sisodia, Oct 10 '16 at 08:32

score 16 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 10 '16 at 08:30

16

echo (new DateTime())->format('Y-m-d');

answered Oct 10 '16 at 08:30

Eugen Dimboiu

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What php version does this syntax require? – Peter Oct 10 '16 at 08:31
2

you'll need to use PHP >5.4 – Eugen Dimboiu Oct 10 '16 at 08:32
I thought about this syntax but I'm using PHP `5.3.3`. – Peter Oct 10 '16 at 08:35
Consider upgrading your php version if possible, php 5.3.3 is a very old version (22 Jul 2010) – Eugen Dimboiu Oct 10 '16 at 08:36
for the updated ISO8601 format, use eg `echo $datetime->format(DATE_ATOM);` - see also https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5322285/how-do-i-convert-datetime-to-iso-8601-in-php – Sandra Aug 12 '22 at 09:40

danopz · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-23T06:57:46.777

13

There are two options:

Create a DateTime instance using parenthesis and format the result:
```
// requires PHP >= 5.4
echo (new \DateTime())->format('Y-m-d');
```

You can use the date_create function:

// date_create is similar to new DateTime()
echo \date_create()->format('Y-m-d');

Live Example: https://3v4l.org/fllco

edited Feb 23 '22 at 06:57

answered Oct 10 '16 at 08:32

danopz

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Wow, the parentheses did it. Thank you! – ᴍᴇʜᴏᴠ Apr 01 '20 at 10:14
What's the backslash for, dear Sir? – rlatief Jun 07 '22 at 02:48
It's an indicator for "global php namespace" and for function it's an optimization for the opcache (performance). You don't need to prefix classes when you are not inside a namespace. Read more about that on SO itself: https://stackoverflow.com/q/4790020/3893182 – danopz Jun 07 '22 at 08:26

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 10 '16 at 08:31

-1

You can try this way:

echo $date = new DateTime('2016-01-01');

Object Oriented Style:

<?php
try {
    $date = new DateTime('2000-01-01');
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
    exit(1);
}

echo $date->format('Y-m-d');
?>

Procedural Style:

<?php
$date = date_create('2000-01-01');
if (!$date) {
    $e = date_get_last_errors();
    foreach ($e['errors'] as $error) {
        echo "$error\n";
    }
    exit(1);
}

echo date_format($date, 'Y-m-d');
?>

answered Oct 10 '16 at 08:31

Aman Garg

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Can you explain that further? The first example does not use custom formatting, the later two are obviously no one-liners – Nico Haase Apr 02 '20 at 08:48

Using DateTime as a one-liner in PHP

3 Answers3