# 
## What is the `strtotime()` function?

The **`strtotime()` function** is a built-in function in PHP that converts a date or time-related strings into real `date/time` objects. This function is so powerful that it can parse virtually any datetime related English text to Unix timestamp.

> The **Unix timestamp** is the number of seconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC. 


This function will format a time string into a Unix timestamp relative to the provided `baseTimeStamp` argument.

## Syntax

``` 
strtotime($datetime,$baseTimeStamp)

```
## Parameters

* **`dateTime`**: This parameter is any valid English string in the `date/time` format.
* **`baseTimeStamp`** This parameter will be used as the timestamp to calculate the relative date. This parameter can be omitted and, if omitted, will be assumed to be the current time.





## Code
Different English time/date strings are parsed and converted to Unix timestamp they represent using the `strtotime()` function in the code below.

<?php
echo(strtotime("now") . " ");
echo(strtotime("9 October 2021") . " ");
echo(strtotime("+2 hours") . " ");
echo(strtotime("+4 week") . " ");
echo(strtotime("+5 week 10 days 5 hours 30 seconds") . " ");
echo(strtotime("next Tuesday") . " ");
echo(strtotime("last Friday")). " ";
echo(strtotime("tomorrow"));
?>

It may be challenging to make sense of the output above. The code below presents the formatted date strings in a more understandable manner.

<?php
//declare a datetime string
$str = 'tomorrow';
$timestamp = strtotime($str);
// This will check for wrong datetime string
if ($timestamp === false) {
 echo "The string ($str) is vague";
} else {
 echo "$str is: " . date('l dS \o\f F Y h:i:s A', $timestamp);
}
?>

What is the strtotime() function in PHP?

PHP's strtotime() function converts date/time strings to Unix timestamps, parsing nearly any English datetime text.

What is the strtotime() function in PHP?

What is the strtotime() function?

Syntax

Parameters

Code

What is the `strtotime()` function?