How to generate random date between two dates using php?

Question

I am coding an application where i need to assign random date between two fixed timestamps

how i can achieve this using php i've searched first but only found the answer for Java not php

for example :

$string = randomdate(1262055681,1262055681);

Prolong

Is it me, or the limits are the same? :) – Spoondrift

as of 2016 @Capriccioso s answer should be the accepted one since we all should move to DateTime instead of using date-functions. – Hegarty

-1: The two imputed time stamps are equal? You wont get any random! +1 because its a good question. – Mouldy

Answer 1

PHP has the rand() function:

$int= rand(1262055681,1262055681);

It also has mt_rand(), which is generally purported to have better randomness in the results:

$int= mt_rand(1262055681,1262055681);

To turn a timestamp into a string, you can use date(), ie:

$string = date("Y-m-d H:i:s",$int);

Sunstone

To add to that, once your random number comes out, treat it as a new timestamp and construct a date from it. – Aphrodite

@Sudhir - definitely. @NetCaster - You can use the date() function to create a date string out of a timestamp very easily. – Sunstone

See @Capriccioso s answer for an up-to-date solution using DateTime – Hegarty

Answer 2

If given dates are in date time format then use this easiest way of doing this is to convert both numbers to timestamps, then set these as the minimum and maximum bounds on a random number generator.

A quick PHP example would be:

// Find a randomDate between $start_date and $end_date
function randomDate($start_date, $end_date)
{
    // Convert to timetamps
    $min = strtotime($start_date);
    $max = strtotime($end_date);

    // Generate random number using above bounds
    $val = rand($min, $max);

    // Convert back to desired date format
    return date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $val);
}

This function makes use of strtotime() as suggested by zombat to convert a datetime description into a Unix timestamp, and date() to make a valid date out of the random timestamp which has been generated.

Cosec

Answer 3

Another solution using PHP DateTime

$start and $end are DateTime objects and we convert into Timestamp. Then we use mt_rand method to get a random Timestamp between them. Finally we recreate a DateTime object.

function randomDateInRange(DateTime $start, DateTime $end) {
    $randomTimestamp = mt_rand($start->getTimestamp(), $end->getTimestamp());
    $randomDate = new DateTime();
    $randomDate->setTimestamp($randomTimestamp);
    return $randomDate;
}

Capriccioso

We should all move to DateTime instead of date()-functions. That being said, this is the best solution. – Hegarty

great solution love the \DateTime usage – Jinnah

Answer 4

You can just use a random number to determine a random date. Get a random number between 0 and number of days between the dates. Then just add that number to the first date.

For example, to get a date a random numbers days between now and 30 days out.

echo date('Y-m-d', strtotime( '+'.mt_rand(0,30).' days'));

Barbaraanne

Answer 5

Here's another example:

$datestart = strtotime('2009-12-10');//you can change it to your timestamp;
$dateend = strtotime('2009-12-31');//you can change it to your timestamp;

$daystep = 86400;

$datebetween = abs(($dateend - $datestart) / $daystep);

$randomday = rand(0, $datebetween);

echo "\$randomday: $randomday\n";

echo date("Y-m-d", $datestart + ($randomday * $daystep)) . "\n";

Hare

Answer 6

The best way :

$timestamp = rand( strtotime("Jan 01 2015"), strtotime("Nov 01 2016") );
$random_Date = date("d.m.Y", $timestamp );

Failing

Very elegant solution. Thanks. – Philter

Good. mt_rand vs rand https://mcmap.net/q/275379/-difference-between-mt_rand-and-rand – Laniary

Answer 7

By using carbon and php rand between two dates

$startDate = Carbon::now();
$endDate   = Carbon::now()->subDays(7);

$randomDate = Carbon::createFromTimestamp(rand($endDate->timestamp, $startDate->timestamp))->format('Y-m-d');

OR

$randomDate = Carbon::now()->subDays(rand(0, 7))->format('Y-m-d');

Truscott

Answer 8

An other solution where we can use date_format :

 /**
 * Method to generate random date between two dates
 * @param $sStartDate
 * @param $sEndDate
 * @param string $sFormat
 * @return bool|string
 */

function randomDate($sStartDate, $sEndDate, $sFormat = 'Y-m-d H:i:s') {
    // Convert the supplied date to timestamp
    $fMin = strtotime($sStartDate);
    $fMax = strtotime($sEndDate);
    // Generate a random number from the start and end dates
    $fVal = mt_rand($fMin, $fMax);
    // Convert back to the specified date format
    return date($sFormat, $fVal);
}

Source : https://gist.github.com/samcrosoft/6550473

You could use for example :

$date_random = randomDate('2018-07-09 00:00:00','2018-08-27 00:00:00');

Claver

Answer 9

The amount of strtotime in here is WAY too high.
For anyone whose interests span before 1971 and after 2038, here's a modern, flexible solution:

function random_date_in_range( $date1, $date2 ){
    if (!is_a($date1, 'DateTime')) {
        $date1 = new DateTime( (ctype_digit((string)$date1) ? '@' : '') . $date1);
        $date2 = new DateTime( (ctype_digit((string)$date2) ? '@' : '') . $date2);
    }
    $random_u = random_int($date1->format('U'), $date2->format('U'));
    $random_date = new DateTime();
    $random_date->setTimestamp($random_u);
    return $random_date->format('Y-m-d') .'<br>';
}

Call it any number of ways ...

// timestamps
echo random_date_in_range(157766400,1489686923);

// any date string
echo random_date_in_range('1492-01-01','2050-01-01');

// English textual parsing
echo random_date_in_range('last Sunday','now');

// DateTime object
$date1 = new DateTime('1000 years ago');
$date2 = new DateTime('now + 10 months');
echo random_date_in_range($date1, $date2);

As is, the function requires date1 <= date2.

Aggie

Answer 10

i had a same situation before and none of the above answers fix my problem so i

Came with new function

function randomDate($startDate, $endDate, $count = 1 ,$dateFormat = 'Y-m-d H:i:s')
{
   //inspired by
    // https://gist.github.com/samcrosoft/6550473

    // Convert the supplied date to timestamp
    $minDateString = strtotime($startDate);
    $maxDateString = strtotime($endDate);

    if ($minDateString > $maxDateString) 
    {
        throw new Exception("From Date must be lesser than to date", 1);

    }

    for ($ctrlVarb = 1; $ctrlVarb <= $count; $ctrlVarb++) 
    { 
       $randomDate[] = mt_rand($minDateString, $maxDateString); 
    }
    if (sizeof($randomDate) == 1) 
    {
        $randomDate = date($dateFormat, $randomDate[0]);
        return $randomDate;
    }elseif (sizeof($randomDate) > 1) 
    {
        foreach ($randomDate as $randomDateKey => $randomDateValue) 
        {
           $randomDatearray[] =  date($dateFormat, $randomDateValue);
        }
        //return $randomDatearray;
        return array_values(array_unique($randomDatearray));
    }
}

Now the testing Part(Data may change while testing )

$fromDate = '2012-04-02';
$toDate = '2018-07-02';

print_r(randomDate($fromDate,$toDate,1));

result will be

2016-01-25 11:43:22

print_r(randomDate($fromDate,$toDate,1));

array:10 [▼
  0 => "2015-08-24 18:38:26"
  1 => "2018-01-13 21:12:59"
  2 => "2018-06-22 00:18:40"
  3 => "2016-09-14 02:38:04"
  4 => "2016-03-29 17:51:30"
  5 => "2018-03-30 07:28:48"
  6 => "2018-06-13 17:57:47"
  7 => "2017-09-24 16:00:40"
  8 => "2016-12-29 17:32:33"
  9 => "2013-09-05 02:56:14"
]

But after the few tests i was thinking about what if the inputs be like

$fromDate ='2018-07-02 09:20:39';
$toDate = '2018-07-02 10:20:39';

So the duplicates may occur while generating the large number of dates such as 10,000

so i have added array_unique and this will return only the non duplicates

Pandanus

Answer 11

if you use laravel then it's for you.

\Carbon\Carbon::now()->subDays(rand(0, 90))->format('Y-m-d');

Erasmoerasmus

Answer 12

Simplest of all, this small function works for me I wrote it in a helper class datetime as a static method

/**
 * Return date between two dates
 *
 * @param String $startDate
 * @param String $endDate
 * @return String
 *
 * @author Kuldeep Dangi <[email protected]>
 */
public static function getRandomDateTime($startDate, $endDate)
{
    $randomTime = mt_rand(strtotime($startDate), strtotime($endDate));
    return date(self::DATETIME_FORMAT_MYSQL, $randomTime);

}

Yesterday

Answer 13

Pretty good question; needed to generate some random sample data for an app.

You could use the following function with optional arguments to generate random dates:

function randomDate($startDate, $endDate, $format = "Y-M-d H:i:s", $timezone = "gmt", $mode = "debug")
{
    return $result;
}

sample input:

echo 'UTC: ' . randomDate("1942-01-19", "2016-06-03", "Y-M-d H:i:s", "utc") . '<br>';
//1942-Jan-19 07:00:00

echo 'GMT: ' . randomDate("1942-01-19", "2016-06-03", "Y/M/d H:i A", "gmt") . '<br>'; 
//1942/Jan/19 00:00 AM

echo 'France: ' . randomDate("1942-01-19", "2016-06-03", "Y F", "Europe/Paris") . '<br>';
//1942 January

echo 'UTC - 4 offset time only: ' . randomDate("1942-01-19", "2016-06-03", "H:i:s", -4) . '<br>';
//20:00:00

echo 'GMT +2 offset: ' . randomDate("1942-01-19", "2016-06-03", "Y-M-d H:i:s", 2) . '<br>';
//1942-Jan-19 02:00:00

echo 'No Options: ' . randomDate("1942-01-19", "2016-06-03") . '<br>';
//1942-Jan-19 00:00:00

readers requirements could vary from app to another, in general hope this function is a handy tool where you need to generate some random dates/ sample data for your application.

Please note that the function initially in debug mode, so change it to $mood="" other than debug in production .

The function accepts:

1. start date
2. end date
3. format: any php accepted format for date or time
4. timezone: name or offset number
5. mode: debug, epoch, verbose epoch or verbose

the output in not debug mode is random number according to optional specifications.

tested with PHP 7.x

Mouldy

Answer 14

// Find a randomDate between $startDate and $endDate
function randomDate($startDate, $endDate)
{
    // Convert to timetamps
    $min = strtotime($startDate);
    $max = strtotime($endDate);

    // Generate random number using above bounds
    $val = rand($min, $max);

    // Convert back to date
    return Carbon::createFromTimestamp($val);
}

dd($this->randomDate('2014-12-10', Carbon::now()->toString()));

Using carbon

Phlogistic

Answer 15

$yeni_tarih = date('Y-m-d', strtotime( '+'.mt_rand(-90,0).' days'))." ".date('H', strtotime( '+'.mt_rand(0,24).' hours')).":".rand(1,59).":".rand(1,59);

Full random date and time

Ramonramona