Work with date. PHP5.2

In PHP5.2, the DateTime and DateTimeZone classes have appeared for working with date / time. At first, I didn’t pay attention to them, because I was used to using date (), etc. functions. But then I decided to still see what opportunities new classes are implementing.

Datetime

Class constructor

DateTime DateTime :: __ construct ([string $ time [, DateTimeZone $ timezone]])

The constructor takes two parameters:
1. A string in the format accepted by strtotime () , by default - “now”.
2. The zone for which we will consider time.

Format method

string DateTime :: format (string $ format)

Returns the date according to the specified format.
Same as date () function

Modify method

void DateTime :: modify (string $ modify)

Function to change the current time.
Takes one parameter - a string in the format accepted by strtotime ()
For example, you need to get a date that will be in a week:

$ date = new DateTime ();
echo $ date-> format ("Ymd"); // 2008-07-16
$ date-> modify ('+1 week');
echo $ date-> format ("Ymd"); // 2008-07-23

A php4 implementation would be like this:

echo date ('Ymd'); // 2008-07-16
echo date ('Ym-d', time () + (7 * 24 * 3600)); // 2008-07-23

Agree, more convenient ...
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GetOffset method

int DateTime :: getOffset (void)

Returns the difference in seconds between UTC and the current time zone.

$ tz = new DateTimeZone ("Etc / GMT + 2");
$ time = new DateTime ();
$ time-> setTimezone ($ tz);
echo $ time-> getOffset (); // 7200

GetTimezone method

DateTimeZone DateTime :: getTimezone (void)

Returns a DateTimeZone related to DateTime, or false if unsuccessful

SetTimezone method

void DateTime :: setTimezone (DateTimeZone $ timezone)

Set DateTimeZone

SetTime method

void DateTime :: setTime (int $ hour, int $ minute [, int $ second])
Set the current time

SetDate method

void DateTime :: setDate (int $ year, int $ month, int $ day)

Set the current date

SetISODate method

void DateTime :: setISODate (int $ year, int $ week [, int $ day])

Set the current iso date

Instead of conclusion

My opinion DateTime class in the form in which it is now, does not make life much easier for developers,
but it can serve as a good springboard for writing child classes for specific needs.
As for the choice of what to use - this is an individual case of the developer.

PS: I hope this topic was useful ...