How To Create Date Range In PHP (Simple Examples)

Welcome to a quick tutorial on how to create a date range in PHP. Need to loop through a range of dates, or generate date intervals?

That should cover the basics, but let us walk through more examples in this guide – Read on!

ⓘ I have included a zip file with all the source code at the start of this tutorial, so you don’t have to copy-paste everything… Or if you just want to dive straight in.

 

 

TLDR – QUICK SLIDES

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

QUICK NOTES

If you spot a bug, feel free to comment below. I try to answer short questions too, but it is one person versus the entire world… If you need answers urgently, please check out my list of websites to get help with programming.

 

EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Click here to download all the example source code, I have released it under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.

 

 

 

1) USING DATE-TIME OBJECTS

<?php
// (A) START & END DATE
$start = new DateTime("2020-01-01");
$end = new DateTime("2020-03-02");
 
// (B) DAILY INTERVAL
// USE P2D FOR 2 DAYS, P3D FOR 3 DAYS, AND SO ON...
echo "DAILY<br>";
$interval = new DateInterval("P1D");
$range = new DatePeriod($start, $interval, $end);
foreach ($range as $date) {
  echo $date->format("Y-m-d") . "<br>";
}
 
// (C) WEEKLY INTERVAL - CAPTAIN OBVIOUS P7D
echo "WEEKLY<br>";
$interval = new DateInterval("P7D");
$range = new DatePeriod($start, $interval, $end);
foreach ($range as $date) {
  echo $date->format("Y-m-d") . "<br>";
}
 
// (D) MONTHLY INTERVAL
echo "MONTHLY<br>";
$interval = new DateInterval("P1M");
$range = new DatePeriod($start, $interval, $end);
foreach ($range as $date) {
  echo $date->format("Y-m-d") . "<br>";
}

Well, this should be pretty self-explanatory.

• First, define the start and end dates –
  • $start = new DateTime("YYYY-MM-DD")
  • $end = new DateTime("YYYY-MM-DD")
• Specify the interval – $interval = new DateInterval("INTERVAL").
  • PXD Intervals of X days.
  • PXM Intervals of X months.
  • PXY Intervals of  X years.
• Then, create the range itself – $range = new DatePeriod($start, $interval, $end).
• Lastly, loop through the range to get the dates – foreach ($range as $date) { $date->format("Y-m-d"); }

P.S. The intervals can go down to even hours, minutes, and seconds. Will leave a link in the extras section below to the PHP manual.

 

 

2) USING UNIX TIMESTAMPS

<?php
// (A) START & END UNIX TIMESTAMPS
$start = strtotime("2020-01-01");
$end = strtotime("2020-03-02");
 
// (B) DAILY INTERVAL (1 DAY = 86400 SECONDS)
echo "DAILY<br>";
for ($i=$start; $i<=$end; $i+=86400) {
  echo date("Y-m-d", $i) . "<br>";
}
 
// (C) WEEKLY INTERVAL (1 DAY = 604800 SECONDS)
echo "WEEKLY<br>";
for ($i=$start; $i<=$end; $i+=604800) {
  echo date("Y-m-d", $i) . "<br>";
}
 
// (D) MONTHLY INTERVAL
echo "MONTHLY<br>";
$i = $start;
while ($i < $end) {
  $idate = date("Y-m-d", $i);
  echo $idate."<br>";
  $i = strtotime($idate . "+1 month");
}

For those who are new, the Unix Timestamp is simply the number of seconds that have elapsed since 1 Jan 1970.

• First, get the Unix Timestamps for the start and end dates.
  • $start = strtotime("YYYY-MM-DD")
  • $end = strtotime("YYYY-MM-DD")
• To create the date range, we simply loop through the timestamps at respective seconds intervals.
  • 1 day has 86400 seconds, so for a daily range – for ($i=$start; $i<=$end; $i+=86400) { ... }
  • 1 week has 604800 seconds, so for a weekly range – for ($i=$start; $i<=$end; $i+=604800) { ... }
  • Take note of the monthly range though, not all months have exactly 30 days. So the safest way to loop is to use strtotime("YYYY-MM-DD +1 MONTH") to calculate the exact “timestamp for the next months”.

 

 

 

LINKS & REFERENCES

• The Date Time Class – PHP
• Date Period – PHP
• Date Interval – PHP
• String To Time – PHP

 

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