Convert DateTime to String PHP

Question

I have already researched a lot of site on how can I convert PHP DateTime object to String. I always see "String to DateTime" and not "DateTime to String"

PHP DateTime can be echoed, but what i want to process my DateTime with PHP string functions.

My question is how can I make PHP dateTime Object to a string starting from this kind of code:

$dts = new DateTime(); //this returns the current date time
echo strlen($dts);

Answer 1

You can use the format method of the DateTime class:

$date = new DateTime('2000-01-01');
$result = $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

If format fails for some reason, it will return FALSE. In some applications, it might make sense to handle the failing case:

if ($result) {
  echo $result;
} else { // format failed
  echo "Unknown Time";
}