DateTime Arithmetic
The following examples show some pitfalls of DateTime arithmetic with regard to DST transitions and months having different numbers of days.
Example #1 DateTime::add/sub add intervals which cover elapsed time
Adding PT24H over a DST transition will appear to add 23/25 hours (for most timezones).
<?php
$dt = new DateTime("2015-11-01 00:00:00", new DateTimeZone("America/New_York"));
echo "Start: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
$dt->add(new DateInterval("PT3H"));
echo "End: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
?>
The above example will output:
Start: 2015-11-01 00:00:00 -04:00 End: 2015-11-01 02:00:00 -05:00
Example #2 DateTime::modify and strtotime increment or decrement individual component values
Adding +24 hours over a DST transition will add exactly 24 hours as seen in the date/time string (unless the start or end time is on a transition point).
<?php
$dt = new DateTime("2015-11-01 00:00:00", new DateTimeZone("America/New_York"));
echo "Start: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
$dt->modify("+24 hours");
echo "End: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
?>
The above example will output:
Start: 2015-11-01 00:00:00 -04:00 End: 2015-11-02 00:00:00 -05:00
Example #3 Adding or subtracting times can over- or underflow dates
Like where January 31st + 1 month will result in March 2nd (leap year) or 3rd (normal year).
<?php
echo "Normal year:\n"; // February has 28 days
$dt = new DateTime("2015-01-31 00:00:00", new DateTimeZone("America/New_York"));
echo "Start: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
$dt->modify("+1 month");
echo "End: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
echo "Leap year:\n"; // February has 29 days
$dt = new DateTime("2016-01-31 00:00:00", new DateTimeZone("America/New_York"));
echo "Start: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
$dt->modify("+1 month");
echo "End: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
?>
The above example will output:
Normal year: Start: 2015-01-31 00:00:00 -05:00 End: 2015-03-03 00:00:00 -05:00 Leap year: Start: 2016-01-31 00:00:00 -05:00 End: 2016-03-02 00:00:00 -05:00
To get the last day of the next month (i.e. to prevent the overflow), the last day of format is available as of PHP 5.3.0.
<?php
echo "Normal year:\n"; // February has 28 days
$dt = new DateTime("2015-01-31 00:00:00", new DateTimeZone("America/New_York"));
echo "Start: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
$dt->modify("last day of next month");
echo "End: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
echo "Leap year:\n"; // February has 29 days
$dt = new DateTime("2016-01-31 00:00:00", new DateTimeZone("America/New_York"));
echo "Start: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
$dt->modify("last day of next month");
echo "End: ", $dt->format("Y-m-d H:i:s P"), PHP_EOL;
?>
The above example will output:
Normal year: Start: 2015-01-31 00:00:00 -05:00 End: 2015-02-28 00:00:00 -05:00 Leap year: Start: 2016-01-31 00:00:00 -05:00 End: 2016-02-29 00:00:00 -05:00
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Document created the 30/01/2003, last modified the 26/10/2018
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References
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