PHP date() and strtotime() return wrong months on 31st

Question

I'm using date()and strtotime() functions to display the next 3 months in a dropdown list.

PHP Code:

   echo date("m/Y",strtotime("+0 months")); 
   echo date("m/Y",strtotime("+1 months"));
   echo date("m/Y",strtotime("+2 months"));

However, if the script is running when the server date is on 30th or 31st, the next month, which is Feburary, will be displayed as March instead. i.e. the script above is supposed to return

01/2012
02/2012
03/2012

But, instead of that, it actually displays

01/2012
03/2012
03/2012

that is because Feburary doesn't have 30th or 31st, so the script translates "31/02" into "01/03".

I have read the strtotime() page on php.net, this problem has been raised, but there has not been any useful solutions. So can anyone please help me to find a simple way to solve this problem? Thanks in advance!

possible duplicate of [strtotime returns incorrect timestamp for '-1 month'](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5481949/strtotime-returns-incorrect-timestamp-for-1-month) and [PHP Strtotime -1month -2month](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1211824/php-strtotime-1month-2month) and [How many days does 1 month represent in PHP?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5464221/how-many-days-does-1-month-represent-in-php) and [strtotime 'next month' not acting as expected (today that is)](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6182925/strtotime-next-month-not-acting-as-expected-today-that-is) — animuson, Jan 30 '12 at 02:16

score 31 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

31

As mentioned within the documentation, you should pass the date for the first day of the current month as the second parameter to the strtotime() function:

$base = strtotime(date('Y-m',time()) . '-01 00:00:01');
echo date('m/Y',strtotime('+0 month', $base));
echo date('m/Y',strtotime('+1 month', $base));
echo date('m/Y',strtotime('+2 month', $base));

See that it works: http://ideone.com/eXis9

01/2012

02/2012

03/2012

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

1
1

answered Jan 30 '12 at 01:57

Tadeck

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Considering `$base = strtotime('2016-12-31' . '-01 00:00:01');` the solution sill prints February 2 times for `+2 month` and `+3 month` – Fakhruddin Ujjainwala Jan 18 '17 at 05:31

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered May 31 '12 at 16:43

12

Try using "first day of" in your strtotime, like this:

strtotime("first day of +1 month");

This will fix dates ( in the event today was Jan 30th ) such as 02-30 (Yields march 2nd) by converting it to 02-01 (Feb 1st) which then gives you the correct month. It's a little cleaner than other methods, and easier to remember.

answered May 31 '12 at 16:43

SeanDowney

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Very elegant solution. – David Neto Oct 31 '16 at 11:29
Doesn't work with `FIRST DAY OF -2 MONTHS` on the 31st. `base` is important – Onimusha May 31 '18 at 04:06
*Shrugg* - Today on 2018-05-31, `echo date('Y-m-d', strtotime('FIRST DAY OF -2 MONTH'));` yields -> `2018-03-01`. 5-2 = 3. Seems to work, what example did you have that did not? – SeanDowney May 31 '18 at 22:27

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 30 '12 at 01:57

5

echo date('m/Y', strtotime(date('Y-m') . '-01 +2 months'));

Just hard-code it to be the first of the month.

answered Jan 30 '12 at 01:57

Brad

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 28 '13 at 09:23

Don't use strtotime() for getting offset date by month(s). It works properly only in PHP 5.3+. The best way to solve such problem is using mktime(). Below is a sample code:

function getOffsetByMonths($nMonths, $nNow = 0) {
    if ($nNow)
        return mktime(0, 0, 0, date('n', $nNow)+ $nMonths, 1, date('Y', $nNow));
    else
        return mktime(0, 0, 0, date('n')+ $nMonths);
}
$nNow = mktime(0, 0, 0, 1, 31, 2013);
echo "Now: ". date("Y-m-d", $nNow).
"<br>(Now - 1 month): ". date("Y-m", getOffsetByMonths(-1, $nNow)). "-xx".
"<br>(Now - 2 month): ". date("Y-m", getOffsetByMonths(-2, $nNow)). "-xx".
"<br>(Now - 3 month): ". date("Y-m", getOffsetByMonths(-3, $nNow)). "-xx";

PHP date() and strtotime() return wrong months on 31st

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