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!

 

 

TLDR – QUICK SLIDES

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

 

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”.

 

 

 

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EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Click here for the source code on GitHub gist, just click on “download zip” or do a git clone. I have released it under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.

 

 

LINKS & REFERENCES

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

 

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