This is meant as more of an introduction to the various classes, interfaces, enums and anything else found in the Inane\Datetime namespace and not an in-depth guide.

.1. TimeWrapper

The TimeWrapper interface implemented by Timespan and Timestamp (possibly more to come), started more as a convenience than actually any real requirement. Soon after implementing this interface the usage of the Datetime classes increased, thanks to the greater interoperability they had acquired. This in turn resulted in them quickly evolving from the skinny classes they were to what they are now, skinny but with some meat on them. Enough rambling and there’s nothing left to say about it anyway.

.1.1. Interface Methods

There are three interface methods shared by Datetime` classes:

interface methods

public function getSeconds(): int
public function format(string $format = 'Y-m-d H:i:s'): string
public function absoluteCopy(): Timestamp

getSeconds: int

At the core it’s all numbers and for these numbers it’s the seconds returned by this method.

method: getSeconds

public function getSeconds(): int;

format: string

Used to get the object as a string using a custom format pattern. The actual implementations may use different format options best suited to the type of data they contain. Where possible patterns mimic existing php patterns.

Timestamp: \DateTimeInterface::format()
Timespan: \DateTimeInterface::format()

The method uses the same formatting pattern as date and DateTime, as well as numerous other php functions, to return a string representation of the object.

method: format

public function format(string $format = ''): string;

absoluteCopy: TimeWrapper

Get a copy of the object with an absolute value.

method: absoluteCopy

public function absoluteCopy(): TimeWrapper;

.1.2. Format

A subset of format options commonly used by Datetime classes.

Table 1. Format Subset

format character	Description	Example returned values
Day	---	---
d	Day of the month, 2 digits with leading zeros	01 to 31
D	A textual representation of a day, three letters	Mon through Sun
j	Day of the month without leading zeros	1 to 31
l (lowercase 'L')	A full textual representation of the day of the week	Sunday through Saturday
Month	---	---
F	A full textual representation of a month	January through December
m	Numeric representation of a month, with leading zeros	01 through 12
M	A three letter textual representation of a month	Jan through Dec
n	Numeric representation of a month, no leading zeros	1 through 12
Year	---	---
Y	Full numeric year, at least 4 digits, - for years BCE	Examples: -0055, 0787, 1999, 2003, 10191
Time	---	---
a	Lowercase Ante meridiem and Post meridiem	am or pm
A	Uppercase Ante meridiem and Post meridiem	AM or PM
g	12-hour format of an hour without leading zeros	1 through 12
G	24-hour format of an hour without leading zeros	0 through 23
h	12-hour format of an hour with leading zeros	01 through 12
H	24-hour format of an hour with leading zeros	00 through 23
i	Minutes with leading zeros	00 to 59
s	Seconds with leading zeros	00 through 59
Full date/time	---	---
c	ISO 8601 date	2004-02-12T15:19:21+00:00
r	» RFC 2822/» RFC 5322 formatted date	Example: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 16:01:07 +0200

.2. Timetrait

The TimesTrait trait simple addes some properties for the three timestamps: seconds, milliseconds and microseconds.

.2.1. Properties

There are three properties added by TimeTrait:

trait properties

public private(set) int $seconds
public private(set) int $milliseconds
public private(set) int $microseconds

Only $microseconds actually stores a value while the $milliseconds and $seconds calculate their value from it.

$seconds (int)

Returns a timestamp the has 10 digits.

example

1746045170

$milliseconds (int)

Returns a timestamp the has 13 digits.

example

1746045170733

$microseconds (int)

Returns a timestamp the has 16 digits.

example

1746045170733444

.3. Timescale

The Timescale enum simply defines three timestamps of various length: seconds (10 digits), milliseconds (13 digits) and microseconds (16 digits).

.3.1. Cases

SECOND
- 10 digits
MILLISECOND
- 13 digits
MICROSECOND
- 16 digits

.3.2. Methods

class methods

public static function tryFromName(string $name, bool $ignoreCase = false): ?static
public static function tryFromTimestamp(int|Timestamp $timestamp): ?Timescale

instance methods

public function timestamp(bool $asObject = false): int|Timestamp
public function unit(): string

.4. Timespan

The Timespan class represents a timespan or duration(fn-duration) which is essentially a number of seconds. As with most things, seconds can be expressed in various formats to suite the situation, for instance 5400 and 2years 3d 7secs, Timespan makes this easy for you.

Quickly get a moment^[1] in the future or past by adding or subtracting a Timespan from a Timestamp. Working together these two classes have you covered in the past, present, future or anytime in between.

Note	The Timespan as is a period of time or duration and a Timestamp^[2] is a moment or point in time.

.4.1. Moments and Durations

This covers a basic overview of different Timespan formats and types.

Time Durations

A length of time, like 5 minutes which is the same as a timespan 300.

Table 2. Supported Time Durations

Name	Type	Example
timespan	int (seconds)	`5400`
duration	string	`2years 3d 7secs`
DateInterval	class	new DateInterval('PT300S')`

Moments in Time

A specific point in time, like 01 January 1970 02:00:00 AM SAST which is the same as the unix timestamp 0.

Note	A unix timestamp or epoc time while being a moment in time as also a duration, the number of seconds since the epoch (0).

Table 3. Supported Date Times

Name	Type	Example
timestamp	seconds	`236988000`
formatted date	string	`06 July 1977 12:00:00 AM SAST`
DateTime(Immutable)	class	`new DateTime('NOW')`

.4.2. Examples

example

// Create with current seconds since epoch
$epoch = new \Inane\Datetime\Timespan(time());
echo("Time since epoch: $epoch\n"); // 52y 32w 1d 6h 13i 1s (not what you got! lol.)

// Create from duration
$ts1 = \Inane\Datetime\Timespan::fromDuration('3 yrs 2w 2days 4 min');

// Automatic string conversion
echo("$ts1");                    // 3y 2w 2d 4i

echo($ts1->getSeconds());       // 96053496 (seconds)
// Timestamp uses now as it's point of reference
echo($ts1->getTimestamp());      // 1756477381 (added timespan to now)
echo($ts1->getTimestamp(false)); // 1564370389 (subtracted timespan from now)

// default format: Y-m-d H:i:s
echo($ts1->format());                   // 2025-08-29 16:23:01
echo($ts1->format('', false) . "\n");   // 2019-07-29 05:19:49

// Another Timespan
$ts2 = new \Inane\Datetime\Timespan(8600);
echo("Symbol Format:");
echo("Default:\t" . $ts2->getDuration());                                                   // 2hrs 23mins 20secs
echo("Char:\t\t" . $ts2->getDuration(\Inane\Datetime\Timespan::SYMBOL_CHAR));               // 2h 23i 20s (not the `i` for min char.)
echo("Abbreviated:\t" . $ts2->getDuration(\Inane\Datetime\Timespan::SYMBOL_ABBREVIATED));   // 2hrs 23mins 20secs
echo("Word:\t\t" . $ts2->getDuration(\Inane\Datetime\Timespan::SYMBOL_WORD) . "\n");        // 2hours 23minutes 20seconds

// Static conversion functions
$s1 = \Inane\Datetime\Timespan::dur2ts('1hr 30min');    // 10800
echo("1hr 30min == $s1");

$d1 = \Inane\Datetime\Timespan::ts2dur(10800);          // 1hr 30min
echo("10800 == $d1");
// OR
echo "$s1 == $d1";                                      // 10800 == 1hr 30min

.5. Timestamp

The Timestamp class is a truly simple wrapper for an epoch timestamp. It’s mainly useful when used in combination with a Timespan to do chained date calculations and then displaying the formatted result. Essentially it saves typing a few lines of code here and there and I think it looks a tad neater too. The original bit of code was primarily used as a convenience class to easily switch between various date and time structures.

Nuff said, here comes it’s breakdown.

.5.1. Properties

There are three properties added by TimeTrait:

trait properties

public private(set) int $seconds
public private(set) int $milliseconds
public private(set) int $microseconds

Only $microseconds actually stores a value while the $milliseconds and $seconds calculate their value from it.

.5.2. Methods

There are three interface methods shared by Datetime` classes:

interface methods

public function getSeconds(): int
public function format(string $format = 'Y-m-d H:i:s'): string
public function absoluteCopy(): Timestamp

And six class methods.

class methods

public function __construct(?int $timestamp = null)
public static function createFromFormat(string $format, string $datetime): static|false
public static function now(): int
public function getDateTime(bool $immutable = false): DateTime|DateTimeImmutable
public function adjust(int|Timespan $timespan): self
public function diff(int|Timestamp $timestamp): Timespan

Create / New

In addition to instantiating a Timestamp using new the static method createFromFormat can also be used to create a Timestamp instance. The constructor only takes a unix timestamp, for all other values the create method is used.

Creating Timestamps: default and custom values.

$now = new Timestamp(); // (1)
$then = Timestamp::createFromFormat('g:ia \o\n l jS F Y', '12:00am on Wednesday 6th July 1977');

creating a new Timestamp without any parameters uses the current unix time

Get / Show

Once you have a Timestamp it’s easy to retrieve the date as various types that best suite the situation.

datetime types

string
int
DateTime/DateTimeImmutable

Getting values to work with or display.

$user->setAnniversary($then->getSeconds()); // (1)
echo "The time between $now and $then.", PHP_EOL; (2)
$tokyoTime = $now->getDateTime()->setTimezone($timeZone); // (3)

Add to entity as int to store in database
as a string to show on screen
and as a DateTime to work with a DateTimeZone

Calculate

A Timestamp can also work directly on DateTime to do calculations. When getting the difference between two Timestamps the result will be positive when the end Timestamp is greater then the source/initial Timestamp. Using $now→diff($then), we can read it as; how much time needs to be added to $now to get to $then. If $now is today and $then is yesterday, we need to add a negative day; -1. But if $then were tomorrow, it would be the same distance 1, but this time positive.

If the it’s the just size of the gap between Timestamps that’s needed the absoluteCopy method can be used on the result or use the format method and ignore sign format symbol.

Time Manipulating

$between = $now->diff($then); (1)
echo $between, PHP_EOL; // (2)
echo $between->format('Formatted time between: %r%y years and %m months'), PHP_EOL; // (3)

using the variables we created before
when this document was drafted, the result was: - 45yrs 3months 3weeks 6hrs 14mins 29secs
Formatted time between: -45 years and 3 months

Comparing Timestamps

Figuring out what came first, the chicken or the egg, might be an unending debate. But with a Timestamp is just as easy as a timestamp, simply use the usual great (>), less (<) or equals (==) comparators.

What came first, chicken or egg?

$chicken = new \Inane\Datetime\Timestamp(-27106883520);
$egg = \Inane\Datetime\Timestamp::createFromFormat('d F Y g:i:s', '01 January 1111 00:00:00');

if ($chicken < $egg) echo "The chicken preceded the egg!", PHP_EOL; // (1)
else if ($egg < $chicken) echo "The egg preceded the chicken!", PHP_EOL; // (1)
else if ($egg == $chicken) echo "Apparently the chicken and the egg arrived together!", PHP_EOL; // (2)
else echo "Something impossible has happened!!!", PHP_EOL;

greater or less than works as normal, using the seconds for comparison
same goes for equality

.5.3. That’s it for now

Easy isn’t it.

1. moment: exact point in time. 2. timestamp: a.k.a. unix time, epoch time, posix time and various combinations there of.

inanepain / datetime

Maintainers

Details

README

Install

Datetime

.1. TimeWrapper

.1.1. Interface Methods

getSeconds: int

format: string

absoluteCopy: TimeWrapper

.1.2. Format

.2. Timetrait

.2.1. Properties

$seconds (int)

$milliseconds (int)

$microseconds (int)

.3. Timescale

.3.1. Cases

.3.2. Methods

.4. Timespan

.4.1. Moments and Durations

Time Durations

Moments in Time

.4.2. Examples

.5. Timestamp

.5.1. Properties

.5.2. Methods

Create / New

Get / Show

Calculate

Comparing Timestamps

.5.3. That’s it for now