PHP date_default_timezone_set() function on Localhost

Question

I have a question regarding PHP date_default_timezone_set() function.

I'm trying to use this function to set my own time zone (Africa/Cairo) for my PHP code and it's not working at all.

I'm working on Localhost and I don't know if this note is important or not.

Anyways, This is my code to grab the UNIX timestamp:

$dateTime =  time();

And this is the code for the timezone:

date_default_timezone_set('Africa/Cairo');

Also tried this one and the same not working:

ini_set('date.timezone', 'Africa/Cairo');

And I'm using this code to show the date and time:

$date = new DateTime("@$dateTime");

echo "Date: " . $date->format("Y-m-d") . "<br> Time: " . $date->format("h:i:s A");

This always giving me wrong time, The date is fine.

Kindly I need your advice if this code is the right way to do this or there are another advanced and accurate code for this operation.

Thanks Guys

Answer 1

Use DateTime without any parameters...

$date = new DateTime();

If you pass a unix timestamp you will get the time in UTC as that is what a unix timestamp is relative to.

Answer 2

Clearly there are many people suffering from timezone problems.

Finally I found these functions date_add() and date_sub() which add or subtract any value on your date or time.

Example:

date_add($date , date_interval_create_from_date_string("7 Hours"));

This will simply add 7 hours to your time. Check out full date_add() and date_sub() references on php.net.

These functions is like a saver sometimes but sure it's better to find your own timezone.