Now you know how to create timestamps from time/date values and strings. You can also go the other way, and convert a timestamp to its corresponding date and time components.
getdate() accepts a timestamp and returns an associative array of date/time values corresponding to the supplied timestamp. The array contains the following keys:
| Array Key | Description | Possible Values |
| seconds | This Key describes the seconds component | 0 to 59 |
| minutes | This Key describes the minutes component | 0 to 59 |
| hours | This Key describes the hours component, in 24 – hour format | 0 to 23 |
| mday | This Key describes the day of the month | 1 to 31 |
| wday | This Key describes the day of the week as a number | 0 (Sunday) to 6 (Saturday) |
| Mon | This Key describes the month component as a number | 1 to 12 |
| Year | This Key describes the year component as a four – digit number | Typically 1970 to 2038 |
| Yday | This Key describes the day of the year | 0 to 365 |
| weekday | This Key describes the day of the week as a string | Sunday to Saturday |
| Month | This Key describes the month component as a string | January to December |
| 0 (zero) | This Key describes the timestamp | Typically – 2147483648 to 2147483647 |
If you just want to extract a single date or time component from a timestamp, you can use idate() . This function accepts two parameters: a format string and an optional timestamp. The single – character format string dictates the component to return, and the format in which to return it, as follows:
| Format String | Description |
| B | This Format string describes the Swatch Internet Time — a time – zone – free, decimal time measure. |
| D | This Format string describes the Day of the month. |
| H | This Format string describes the Hours (in 12 – hour format). |
| H | This Format string describes the Hours (in 24 – hour format). |
| I | This Format string describes the Minutes. |
| I | This Format string describes the “1” if DST (Daylight Saving Time) is in effect, “0” otherwise. |
| L | This Format string describes the “1” if the date is in a leap year, “0” otherwise |
| M | This Format string describes the Month number (1 – 12). |
| S | This Format string describes the Seconds. |
| T | This Format string describes the number of days in the month (28, 29, 30, or 31). |
| U | This Format string describes the timestamp. |
| W | This Format string describes the day of the week, as a number (0 is Sunday). |
| W | This Format string describes the week number within the year (counting from 1). |
| Y | This Format string describes the year as a two – digit number. |
| Y | This Format string describes the year as a four – digit number. |
| Z | This Format string describes the day number within the year (0 is January 1). |
| Z | This Format string describes the offset of the computer’s time zone from UTC (in seconds). |