Manual:WfTimestamp

Overview

wfTimestamp() (part of GlobalFunctions.php) provides functionality to convert between common timestamp formats, including MediaWiki timestamps, UNIX timestamps, MySQL DATETIME format, RFC 2822 format and more. See formats below for a full list.

Timestamps will be output without a timezone or in the GMT timezone, as specified by the particular format.

Never use wfTimestamp() when inserting a timestamp into the database. This will break in Postgres and possibly other non-MySQL databases. Instead use $dbw->timestamp()

Usage

wfTimestamp( $output_format, $timestamp )

• Returns a timestamp of type string in the format specified by the $output_format argument.
• Throws MWException if an incorrect formats is passed via the $output_format argument.
• Returns false if an invalid or unrecognized timestamp is passed via the $timestamp argument.

Argument	Default	Notes
$output_format	TS_UNIX	Must be one of the constants listed in the formats table.
$timestamp	The current time	Should be a literal timestamp (e.g. 2010-12-03 22:07:25). Any format listed in the formats table can be used.

Call with no arguments to return the current time in UNIX time format.

echo wfTimestamp(); // 1787445207

Call with one argument to return the current time in the specified format.

echo wfTimestamp( TS_ISO_8601 ); // 2026-08-23T00:33:27Z

Call with two arguments to return an arbitrary timestamp in the specified format.

Note that the timestamp can be in any format that wfTimestamp() can output.

$timestamp = 20260827003327; echo wfTimestamp( TS_ISO_8601, $timestamp ); // 2026-08-23T00:33:27Z $timestamp = '2026-08-23T00:33:27Z'; echo wfTimestamp( TS_RFC2822, $timestamp ); // Sun, 23 Aug 2026 00:33:27 GMT

Formats

Type	Constant	Format	Example	Notes
MySQL DATETIME	TS_DB	Y-m-d H:i:s	2026-08-23 00:33:27
DB2	TS_DB2	Y-m-d H:i:s	2026-08-23 00:33:27	Removed in gerrit:50764 MediaWiki versions: 1.15 – 1.20
Exif	TS_EXIF	Y:m:d H:i:s	2026:08:23 00:33:27	Shouldn't ever be used, but is included for completeness.
ISO 8601 (no timezone)	TS_ISO_8601	Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z	2026-08-23T00:33:27Z	Used by Special:Export and the API
ISO 8601 basic (no timezone)	TS_ISO_8601_BASIC	Ymd\THis\Z	20260823T003327Z	Used by ResourceLoader
MediaWiki	TS_MW	YmdHis	20260823003327
Oracle	TS_ORACLE	d-m-Y H:i:s.000000	23-08-2026 00:33:27.000000	Was 'd-M-y h.i.s A' . ' +00:00' before phab:rSVN51500
PostgreSQL	TS_POSTGRES	Y-m-d H:i:s+00	2026-08-23 00:33:27+00	Was 'Y-m-d H:i:s' . ' GMT' before gerrit:459601
RFC 2822	TS_RFC2822	D, d M Y H:i:s	Sun, 23 Aug 2026 00:33:27 GMT	For email and HTTP headers
UNIX time	TS_UNIX	U	1787445207	Number of seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC

See also

• source docs for wfTimestamp()