PHP 8.1: strftime() is deprecated

Question

When upgrading to PHP 8.1, I got an error regarding "strftime". How do I correct the code to correctly display the full month name in any language?

 $date = strftime("%e %B %Y", strtotime('2010-01-08'))

Answer 1

I've chosen to use php81_bc/strftime composer package as a replacement.

Here the documentation.

Pay attention that the output could be different from native strftime 'cause php81_bc/strftime uses a different library for locale aware formatting (ICU).

Note that output can be slightly different between libc sprintf and this function as it is using ICU.

Answer 2

The strftime is obsolete and DateTime::format() provide a quick replacement and IntlDateFormatter::format() provied a more sophisticated slution.

this links will be help you:

https://github.com/modxcms/revolution/issues/15864

https://github.com/php/php-src/blob/1cf4fb739f7a4fa8404a4c0958f13d04eae519d4/UPGRADING#L379-L381

https://www.php.net/manual/en/datetime.format.php

Answer 3

To my dear and late strftime()... I found a way to adapt with IntlDateFormatter::formatObject and here is the link for the references to the schemas:

https://unicode-org.github.io/icu/userguide/format_parse/datetime/#date-field-symbol-table

... For those who want to format the date more precisely

// "date_default_timezone_set" may be required by your server
date_default_timezone_set( 'Europe/Paris' );

// make a DateTime object 
// the "now" parameter is for get the current date, 
// but that work with a date recived from a database 
// ex. replace "now" by '2022-04-04 05:05:05'
$dateTimeObj = new DateTime('now', new DateTimeZone('Europe/Paris'));

// format the date according to your preferences
// the 3 params are [ DateTime object, ICU date scheme, string locale ]
$dateFormatted = 
IntlDateFormatter::formatObject( 
  $dateTimeObj, 
  'eee d MMMM y à HH:mm', 
  'fr' 
);

// test :
echo ucwords($dateFormatted);

// output : Jeu. 7 Avril 2022 à 04:56

Answer 4

Hey I have also experienced this issue as well so after some research on PHP's official documentation here what I found! https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.strftime.php
They are saying that it is depricated and use setlocale() function this also work same as strftime().
For more information please visit official PHP docs of setlocale() https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.setlocale.php

Answer 5

You can use the IntlDateFormatter class. The class works independently of the locales settings. With a function like this

function formatLanguage(DateTime $dt,string $format,string $language = 'en') : string {
    $curTz = $dt->getTimezone();
    if($curTz->getName() === 'Z'){
      //INTL don't know Z
      $curTz = new DateTimeZone('UTC');
    }

    $formatPattern = strtr($format,array(
        'D' => '{#1}',
        'l' => '{#2}',
        'M' => '{#3}',
        'F' => '{#4}',
      ));
      $strDate = $dt->format($formatPattern);
      $regEx = '~\{#\d\}~';
      while(preg_match($regEx,$strDate,$match)) {
        $IntlFormat = strtr($match[0],array(
          '{#1}' => 'E',
          '{#2}' => 'EEEE',
          '{#3}' => 'MMM',
          '{#4}' => 'MMMM',
        ));
        $fmt = datefmt_create( $language ,IntlDateFormatter::FULL, IntlDateFormatter::FULL,
        $curTz, IntlDateFormatter::GREGORIAN, $IntlFormat);
        $replace = $fmt ? datefmt_format( $fmt ,$dt) : "???";
        $strDate = str_replace($match[0], $replace, $strDate);
      }

    return $strDate;
}

you can use format parameters like for datetime.

$dt = date_create('2022-01-31');
echo formatLanguage($dt, 'd F Y','pl');  //31 stycznia 2022

There are extension classes for DateTime that have such functions integrated as methods.

echo dt::create('2022-01-31')->formatL('d F Y','pl');

Answer 6

A quick and simple replacement for the deprecated function strftime can be following.

Instead of using (taking the sample from the question)

$date = strftime("%e %B %Y", strtotime('2010-01-08'))

convert that to:

$date = date('d M Y', strtotime('2010-01-08')