How to find the last day of the month from date?

Question

How can I get the last day of the month in PHP?

Given:

$a_date = "2009-11-23"

I want 2009-11-30; and given

$a_date = "2009-12-23"

I want 2009-12-31.

Naomanaomi

Answer 1

t returns the number of days in the month of a given date (see the docs for date):

$a_date = "2009-11-23";
echo date("Y-m-t", strtotime($a_date));

Biosynthesis

@Mugunth If you are working with dates 24 years in the future you may run into problems sooner than 2038, however, servers are already moving over to 64-bit architecture which will give us about 292 billion years to correct the problem. – Whippersnapper

in procedural -> $date1 = $year.'-'.$month; $d = date_create_from_format('Y-m',$date1); $last_day = date_format($d, 't'); – Perilous

With DateTime you can do something like this: (new DateTime('2009-11-23'))->modify('last day of') – Darelldarelle

If you're using Carbon PHP you can use daysInMonth getter – Katz

it is not working if we put echo date("Y-m-t", strtotime(date('2019-02-29')));, it should be output 28. but showing 03-31 – Demetrademetre

@Mugunth I am working on a project on RPi3 while dates are beyond 2040 and everything working perfectly. – Millsap

@J.Money good software is software which can run on the same machine regardless of what date it is. – Graces

@victor you should bump your comment as answer for the sole reason that it results in readable and understandable code. Clearly using Y-m-t would work as well but who without looking at the docs would know what "t" is? – Theisen

@Demetrademetre why are you passing on a non-existent date? – Cranford

Answer 2

I know this is a little bit late but i think there is a more elegant way of doing this with PHP 5.3+ by using the DateTime class :

$date = new DateTime('now');
$date->modify('last day of this month');
echo $date->format('Y-m-d');

Dominations

In one line: $date = new DateTime('last day of this month'); – Barmy

You might want to add $date->modify('last day of this month')->setTime(23,59,59); if you would like to use this dateTime for comparison where time matters. (This gives you the last second of the month) – Beaune

This works: $date = new DateTime('last day of 2020-2'); – Capias

NO!! This only works for the current month and not a specified month as requested by the OP. Please update your post and I'll remove my down-vote which I'm using as a bookmark to avoid using this code as-is if I need to determine this again in the future and come across this page. – Disarray

@Disarray you are wrong. the last day is calculated using the $date object and not the system date. Try it by changing the first line with this : $date = DateTime::createFromFormat('m/d/Y', '1/10/2014'); – Dominations

Look at your post: last day of this month. – Disarray

If you were to think or at least try what I asked you to do you would see that this month means the value of the month in the DateTime object not the system's date. If you can't type/run php code this might help : sandbox.onlinephpfunctions.com/code/… – Dominations

@HannounYassir, this answer is elegant and I have tested it all the way to 2050 including leap years calculations for Feb last day of month, and the results are correct. I am a beginner on PHP, and this has helped tremendously. There is some good magic happening on the background and was wondering, if you could point me to the feature where the modify function recognizes the string 'last day of this month'. – Bandsman

@Bandsman It is something called "Relative Formats". You can read more about it here : php.net/manual/en/datetime.formats.relative.php – Dominations

Other option with time: $date->modify('first day of next month midnight'); changes "2038-05-25 14:44:44" to "2038-06-01 00:00:00" for example. – Renovate

@Disarray just change the now to date anything you want – Firepower

The Reason to recommend this answer is that now DateTime interface has more capabilities than before. – Oleary

Answer 3

If you're using a 32-bit system, then the strtotime() code will fail after the year 2038 due to the Year 2038 problem.

For example, on a 32-bit system, this code will echo 1970-01-31:

$a_date = "2040-11-23";
echo date("Y-m-t", strtotime($a_date));

If you need your code to support 32-bit systems, then you should instead use the DateTime function:

$d = new DateTime('2040-11-23'); 
echo $d->format('Y-m-t');

That code will correctly output 2040-11-30 on both a 32-bit or 64-bit system.

Bendicta

I will be 71 and retired by then, so not a problem for me! j/k But seriously folks -- heed this warning! – Meacham

This assumes you are running a 32-bit version of PHP. – Whippersnapper

why is this alarming fact about strtotime not mentioned in the php docu php.net/manual/de/function.strtotime.php ? – Langan

@Langan It is now, not sure if it was when you checked. php.net/manual/de/… – Feu

As of 2018, the strtotime code gives me this result: 2040-11-30 – Eyeglasses

Please note that the format function will return a string value, not a DateTime object. If you need the formatted date to be a DateTime object you must create a new instance of DateTime and pass it the string returned from the format function: $d = new DateTime( '2040-11-23' ); $dateString = $d->format( 'Y-m-t' ); $formattedDateTime = new DateTime( $dateString ); – Cookie

Answer 4

There is also the built in PHP function cal_days_in_month()?

"This function will return the number of days in the month of year for the specified calendar." http://php.net/manual/en/function.cal-days-in-month.

echo cal_days_in_month(CAL_GREGORIAN, 11, 2009); 
// = 30

Bitternut

This answer is much simpler and appropriate than the use of strtoTime. I don't see any downsides. To the top you go. – Kristopherkristos

Answer 5

This should work:

$week_start = strtotime('last Sunday', time());
$week_end = strtotime('next Sunday', time());

$month_start = strtotime('first day of this month', time());
$month_end = strtotime('last day of this month', time());

$year_start = strtotime('first day of January', time());
$year_end = strtotime('last day of December', time());

echo date('D, M jS Y', $week_start).'<br/>';
echo date('D, M jS Y', $week_end).'<br/>';

echo date('D, M jS Y', $month_start).'<br/>';
echo date('D, M jS Y', $month_end).'<br/>';

echo date('D, M jS Y', $year_start).'<br/>';
echo date('D, M jS Y', $year_end).'<br/>';

Bluish

Answer 6

The most elegant for me is using DateTime

I wonder I do not see DateTime::createFromFormat, one-liner

$lastDay = \DateTime::createFromFormat("Y-m-d", "2009-11-23")->format("Y-m-t");

Benne

I agree. This solution (DateTime class) is much better than using the old datetime functions. – Perfidy

I had to look in php documentation to understand why it works, but yes, is the most elegant solution – Ingenerate

Answer 7

Try this , if you are using PHP 5.3+,

$a_date = "2009-11-23";
$date = new DateTime($a_date);
$date->modify('last day of this month');
echo $date->format('Y-m-d');

For finding next month last date, modify as follows,

 $date->modify('last day of 1 month');
 echo $date->format('Y-m-d');

and so on..

Yep

This is the correct answer. Just to complement your answer, you can also use it like this $date = new DateTime('last day of 2022-06');. – Styrene

Answer 8

You could create a date for the first of the next month, and then use strtotime("-1 day", $firstOfNextMonth)

Profligate

an alternative method using the same approach is to give mktime the 0th day of the next month mktime(0, 0, 0, $month+1, 0, $year); – Remarkable

As to me, usage of strtotime() and mktime() is discouraged bec. of known bugs like date determination on the edge of the months and leap year calaculations. Since DateTime is available, you should use this class to avoid any problems in future. Like said many times before me, both these function strtotime() and mktime() will fail after 2038. That's why I downvoted ... – Nicolas

@PaulT.Rawkeen This answer is more than 4 years old. As with anything on the internet, age should be a factor when gauging relevance and usefulness. Further more, IMHO, the halving time for anything related to technology is particularly short. – Profligate

@Profligate I agree, especially regarding time of life for all technical solutions and ways of solving problems. In this particular case, answer has relatively good number of upvotes and probably, someone (junior programmer) will consider this answer as acceptable solution bec. it is short and elegant :) and he will probably get the expected result, but as time goes by, this way of solving such kind of problems becomes tricky and we should warn about such facts when its possible. Kind regards. – Nicolas

Answer 9

You can find last day of the month several ways. But simply you can do this using PHP strtotime() and date() function.I'd imagine your final code would look something like this:

$a_date = "2009-11-23";
echo date('Y-m-t',strtotime($a_date));

Live Demo

But If you are using PHP >= 5.2 I strongly suggest you use the new DateTime object. For example like below:

$a_date = "2009-11-23";
$date = new DateTime($a_date);
$date->modify('last day of this month');
echo $date->format('Y-m-d');

Live Demo

Also, you can solve this using your own function like below:

/**
 * Last date of a month of a year
 *
 * @param[in] $date - Integer. Default = Current Month
 *
 * @return Last date of the month and year in yyyy-mm-dd format
 */
function last_day_of_the_month($date = '')
{
    $month  = date('m', strtotime($date));
    $year   = date('Y', strtotime($date));
    $result = strtotime("{$year}-{$month}-01");
    $result = strtotime('-1 second', strtotime('+1 month', $result));

    return date('Y-m-d', $result);
}

$a_date = "2009-11-23";
echo last_day_of_the_month($a_date);

Cayuse

FYI, the live demo links do not work anymore. – Grus

Answer 10

Your solution is here..

$lastday = date('t',strtotime('today'));

Belongings

this gives 31 for September which as you know that's not correct. – Peshitta

Answer 11

Nowadays DateTime does this quite conveniently if you have month and year you can

$date = new DateTime('last day of '.$year.'-'.$month);

From another DateTime object that would be

$date = new DateTime('last day of '.$otherdate->format('Y-m'));

Valdovinos

Answer 12

If you use the Carbon API extension for PHP DateTime, you can get the last day of the month with:

$date = Carbon::now();
$date->addMonth();
$date->day = 0;
echo $date->toDateString(); // use toDateTimeString() to get date and time 

Boeschen

Actually, if you set day to -1 it will get the last but one. So you must set day to 0 in order to get the last day. $date->day = 0; – Juba

thank you @GiovanneAfonso that is correct. I set the day to 0 and tested the answer. – Boeschen

If you are using Carbon, a one-liner approach is to use: Carbon::Now()->endOfMonth(). However, endOfMonth() is a modifier, so use "clone" if you have an existing variable holding a Carbon date (or the date will be modified). – Possible

Answer 13

Carbon API extension for PHP DateTime

Carbon::parse("2009-11-23")->lastOfMonth()->day;

or

Carbon::createFromDate(2009, 11, 23)->lastOfMonth()->day;

will return

30

Heteroousian

Thanks for suggesting Carbon library. – Meditation

Answer 14

You can also use it with datetime

$date = new \DateTime();
$nbrDay = $date->format('t');
$lastDay = $date->format('Y-m-t');

Allhallowmas

Answer 15

$date1 = $year.'-'.$month; 
$d = date_create_from_format('Y-m',$date1); 
$last_day = date_format($d, 't');

Perilous

Answer 16

If you have a month wise get the last date of the month then,

public function getLastDateOfMonth($month)
    {
        $date = date('Y').'-'.$month.'-01';  //make date of month 
        return date('t', strtotime($date)); 
    }

$this->getLastDateOfMonth(01); //31

Wollis

Answer 17

2 lines code and you are done:

$oDate = new DateTime("2019-11-23");

// now your date object has been updated with last day of month    
$oDate->setDate($oDate->format("Y"),$oDate->format("m"),$oDate->format("t"));

// or to just echo you can skip the above line using this
echo $oDate->format("Y-m-t");

Catalysis

Answer 18

Using Zend_Date it's pretty easy:

$date->setDay($date->get(Zend_Date::MONTH_DAYS));

Perloff

Answer 19

An other way using mktime and not date('t') :

$dateStart= date("Y-m-d", mktime(0, 0, 0, 10, 1, 2016)); //2016-10-01
$dateEnd = date("Y-m-d", mktime(0, 0, 0, 11, 0, 2016)); //This will return the last day of october, 2016-10-31 :)

So this way it calculates either if it is 31,30 or 29

Uprear

Answer 20

I am using strtotime with cal_days_in_month as following:

$date_at_last_of_month=date('Y-m-d', strtotime('2020-4-1
+'.(cal_days_in_month(CAL_GREGORIAN,4,2020)-1).' day'));

Wnw

Answer 21

Here is a complete function:

public function get_number_of_days_in_month($month, $year) {
    // Using first day of the month, it doesn't really matter
    $date = $year."-".$month."-1";
    return date("t", strtotime($date));
}

This would output following:

echo get_number_of_days_in_month(2,2014);

Output: 28

Greybeard

Answer 22

There are ways to get last day of month.

//to get last day of current month
echo date("t", strtotime('now'));

//to get last day from specific date
$date = "2014-07-24";
echo date("t", strtotime($date));

//to get last day from specific date by calendar
$date = "2014-07-24";
$dateArr=explode('-',$date);
echo cal_days_in_month(CAL_GREGORIAN, $dateArr[1], $dateArr[0]); 

Goss

Answer 23

I am late but there are a handful of easy ways to do this as mentioned:

$days = date("t");
$days = cal_days_in_month(CAL_GREGORIAN, date('m'), date('Y'));
$days = date("j",mktime (date("H"),date("i"),date("s"),(date("n")+1),0,date("Y")));

Using mktime() is my go to for complete control over all aspects of time... I.E.

echo "<br> ".date("Y-n-j",mktime (date("H"),date("i"),date("s"),(11+1),0,2009));

Setting the day to 0 and moving your month up 1 will give you the last day of the previous month. 0 and negative numbers have the similar affect in the different arguements. PHP: mktime - Manual

As a few have said strtotime isn't the most solid way to go and little if none are as easily versatile.

Holleran

Answer 24

if you want to go back few months you can do something like this as well.

 $list = [
        0, 1, 2, 3
    ];

    $date = new \Datetime();
    $dates = [];
    foreach($list as $item)
    {

        $set = clone $date;
        $set->modify("-$item month ");
       $dates[] = $set->modify("last day of this month");
       
    }
    return $dates;

Simoneaux

Answer 25

I have wrapped it in my date time helper class here https://github.com/normandqq/Date-Time-Helper using $dateLastDay = Model_DTHpr::getLastDayOfTheMonth();

And it is done

Peirce

Answer 26

    $startDate = '2011-12-01';
    $endDate = date('Y-m');
    while (true) {
        try {
            $startDateTime = new DateTime($startDate);
            $startDateTime->add(new DateInterval('P1M'));
            $startDate = $startDateTime->format('Y-m-d');
            $endTime = $startDateTime->format('Y-m-t');
            echo $startDate . ' => ' . $endTime . PHP_EOL;
            if ($startDateTime->format('Y-m') == $endDate) {
                break;
            }
        } catch (Exception $exception) {
            var_dump($exception->getMessage());
            break;
        }
    }

After testing many solutions, this works best for me.

Rudbeckia

Answer 27

Here's a one liner that may be of interest.'Y-m-j' is the date format for the output and the second string is the date of interest with an offset string:

echo date('Y-m-j', strtotime('2009-12-23 last day of this month'));

Tremble

Answer 28

function first_last_day($string, $first_last, $format) {
    $result = strtotime($string);
    $year = date('Y',$result);
    $month = date('m',$result);
    $result = strtotime("{$year}-{$month}-01");
    if ($first_last == 'last'){$result = strtotime('-1 second', strtotime('+1 month', $result)); }
    if ($format == 'unix'){return $result; }
    if ($format == 'standard'){return date('Y-m-d', $result); }
}

http://zkinformer.com/?p=134

Toothsome

Answer 29

I needed the last day of the next month, maybe someone will need it:

echo date("Y-m-t", strtotime("next month")); //is 2020-08-13, return 2020-09-30

Madeup

Answer 30

This a much more elegant way to get the end of the month:

  $thedate = Date('m/d/Y'); 
  $lastDayOfMOnth = date('d', mktime(0,0,0, date('m', strtotime($thedate))+1, 0, date('Y', strtotime($thedate)))); 

Hefty

Answer 31

You can use "t" in date function to get the number of day in a particular month.

The code will be something like this:

function lastDateOfMonth($Month, $Year=-1) {
    if ($Year < 0) $Year = 0+date("Y");
    $aMonth         = mktime(0, 0, 0, $Month, 1, $Year);
    $NumOfDay       = 0+date("t", $aMonth);
    $LastDayOfMonth = mktime(0, 0, 0, $Month, $NumOfDay, $Year);
    return $LastDayOfMonth;
}

for($Month = 1; $Month <= 12; $Month++)
    echo date("Y-n-j", lastDateOfMonth($Month))."\n";

The code is self-explained. So hope it helps.

Zigzag