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ActiveLibrary[Utility & Helpers](/categories/utility)

fewagency/carbonator
====================

Datetime helpers for timezone handling

v2.0(5y ago)311.9k↓82.9%[1 issues](https://github.com/bjuppa/carbonator/issues)MITPHPPHP >=7.3CI failing

Since Aug 8Pushed 5y ago2 watchersCompare

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Carbonator
==========

[](#carbonator)

[![Build Status](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/ba0d3aaee0245d015d2c55d209d70bfb837bcfa74d6375fdc6e12f5db274eee6/68747470733a2f2f7472617669732d63692e6f72672f626a757070612f636172626f6e61746f722e7376673f6272616e63683d6d6173746572)](https://travis-ci.org/bjuppa/carbonator)

A collection of datetime helpers built on [Carbon](http://carbon.nesbot.com). They help you easily parse or convert `string`s or `DateTime`s between timezones (and format them) with one single call.

A good pattern is to always keep your app working with times in the **UTC** timezone internally and to store any time data in that default timezone. If you're temped to or already use another timezone as default, please read the following article: [Always Use UTC Dates And Times](https://medium.com/@kylekatarnls/always-use-utc-dates-and-times-8a8200ca3164).

This is how `Carbonator` can help you juggle those timezones:

1. Actively convert any times to UTC when user data enters the application. This is the perfect job for `Carbonator::parseToDefaultTz($input, $tz_parse = null)`.
2. If needed, convert to the user's timezone just before display or when populating inputs. `parseToDatetimeLocal($input, $tz_target = null, $tz_parse = null)`is one of the methods that can be used to directly format a string for display.

Examples
--------

[](#examples)

```
// Create DateTime in any timezone and get it in your app's default timezone:
$in_sweden = Carbon::parse('2016-08-07 13:37', 'Europe/Stockholm');
// Stockholm is 2 hours ahead of UTC during daylight savings time
$in_utc = Carbonator::parseToDefaultTz($in_sweden);
echo $in_utc->toCookieString();
// Sunday, 07-Aug-2016 11:37:00 UTC

// Parse directly from a string in a timezone and get it in your app's default timezone:
$in_utc = Carbonator::parseToDefaultTz('2016-08-07 13:37', '-05:00');
echo $in_utc->toCookieString();
// Sunday, 07-Aug-2016 18:37:00 UTC

// Format a time for a user in Namibia
$in_utc = Carbon::parse('2016-08-07 13:37');
// Windhoek is 1 hour ahead of UTC when not on daylight savings time (WAT: West Africa Time)
echo Carbonator::formatInTz($in_utc, 'D, M j, Y H:i T', 'Africa/Windhoek');
// Sun, Aug 7, 2016 14:37 WAT

// Populate a HTML5 datetime-local input for a user in Japan:
$in_utc = Carbon::parse('2016-08-07 13:37');
echo Carbonator::parseToDatetimeLocal($in_utc, 'Asia/Tokyo');
// 2016-08-07 22:37

// Populate a HTML5 datetime attribute
$in_india = Carbon::parse('2016-08-07 13:37', 'Asia/Kolkata');
echo Carbonator::parseToDatetime($in_india);
// 2016-08-07T13:37:00+05:30
```

Installation & Configuration
--------------------------------

[](#installation--configuration)

> composer require fewagency/carbonator

Background
----------

[](#background)

The [Carbon](http://carbon.nesbot.com) package is excellent, but it doesn't support parsing other `DateTime` instances while *keeping their timezone*. That's just the behaviour of the [PHP `DateTime` constructor](http://php.net/manual/en/datetime.construct.php)and not much to do about.

Also, `Carbon` throws exceptions on errors. To be able to parse any user input without having to filter or validate it first, I wanted wrappers that just returns `null` when input can't be parsed.

I think it makes sense putting these opinionated parsing and display methods into a separate helper package instead of having `Carbon` do even more work.

Usage
-----

[](#usage)

### The first parameter - `$input`

[](#the-first-parameter---input)

All of `Carbonator`'s methods take a `string` or [PHP `DateTime`](http://php.net/manual/en/class.datetime.php)instance as the *first* `$input` parameter.

This `$input` will be turned into a `Carbon` instance to process. Remember that `Carbon` extends `DateTime` and can always be used safely as input.

Any empty `$input` or any errors in parsing will make methods return `null`.

### The last parameter - `$tz_parse`

[](#the-last-parameter---tz_parse)

All of `Carbonator`'s methods also take the `$tz_parse` *timezone* as the *last* parameter. The `$tz_parse` timezone will be used as context when parsing an `$input` string, but will be ignored when parsing `DateTime` instances, as they already have a timezone. As per default `DateTime` behaviour, `$tz_parse` will also be ignored whenever there is timezone information supplied *within the string*.

### Timezone parameters

[](#timezone-parameters)

Timezones can be supplied in `string` format (e.g. `'Europe/Stockholm'` or `'+01:00'`) or as a [PHP `DateTimeZone`](http://php.net/manual/en/class.datetimezone.php) instance.

Remember, named timezones like `Europe/Stockholm` takes daylight savings time (summer time) into account, whereas offset timezones like `+01:00` does not. Use named timezones if you can, your users will appreciate it.

If a timezone parameter is left out or `null` when calling a method, the PHP default timezone from [date\_default\_timezone\_get()](http://php.net/manual/en/function.date-default-timezone-get.php)will be used.

Hopefully your default timezone will be `UTC`. Some frameworks, like Laravel, set the timezone explicitly using a config value and you should keep that as `UTC` unless you really know what you're trying to achieve with another setting. Read more below in [Check your setup](#checkyoursetup).

### Methods

[](#methods)

#### `Carbonator::parse($input, $tz_parse = null)`

[](#carbonatorparseinput-tz_parse--null)

Returns a `Carbon` instance. Note that the timezone of the output doesn't always match the supplied context timezone from the 2nd parameter. The output is just guaranteed to be `Carbon` or `null`.

#### `Carbonator::parseToTz($input, $tz_target = null, $tz_parse = null)`

[](#carbonatorparsetotzinput-tz_target--null-tz_parse--null)

Returns a `Carbon` instance, guaranteed to be in the `$tz_target` timezone.

#### `Carbonator::parseToDefaultTz($input, $tz_parse = null)`

[](#carbonatorparsetodefaulttzinput-tz_parse--null)

Returns a `Carbon` instance, guaranteed to be in the PHP default timezone.

#### `Carbonator::formatInTz($input, $format, $tz_target = null, $tz_parse = null)`

[](#carbonatorformatintzinput-format-tz_target--null-tz_parse--null)

Returns a string formatted according to the `$format` - see [docs for PHP's `date()`](http://php.net/manual/en/function.date.php). The string is guaranteed to be in the `$tz_target` timezone.

#### `Carbonator::parseToDatetimeLocal($input, $tz_target = null, $tz_parse = null)`

[](#carbonatorparsetodatetimelocalinput-tz_target--null-tz_parse--null)

Returns a string formatted for a [HTML5 `datetime-local` ` element`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/datetime-local)in the `'Y-m-d H:i'` format (e.g. `'2016-08-07 13:37'`), with no timezone information. Be kind to your users and display the timezone next to your input, perhaps in the ``or in an element referenced through the input's `aria-describedby` attribute.

#### `Carbonator::parseToDatetime($input, $tz_target = null, $tz_parse = null)`

[](#carbonatorparsetodatetimeinput-tz_target--null-tz_parse--null)

Returns a string formatted in the ["W3C" format](https://www.php.net/manual/en/class.datetimeinterface.php#datetime.constants.w3c)`'Y-m-d\TH:i:sP'` (e.g. `'2016-08-07T13:37:00+00:00'`), suitable for a [HTML5 `` element](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/time)'s `datetime` attribute.

Figuring out users' timezones
-----------------------------

[](#figuring-out-users-timezones)

There's no way to know a user's timezone for sure, without asking them. If you want to help your users select a timezone, [PHP's `timezone_identifiers_list()`](http://php.net/manual/en/function.timezone-identifiers-list.php)is a nice tool to find relevant timezones by country or continent.

The list is quite long though, so you could do IP-location on the server side to suggest a timezone to the user. For Laravel there's a package called [Laravel Geoip](http://lyften.com/projects/laravel-geoip/) doing just that by connecting to different services.

In the browser you could run some javascript, for example [jstimezonedetect](https://www.npmjs.com/package/jstimezonedetect)to guess the *named timezone* of your user from the *timezone offset* reported by their operating system. Or you could use the browser's [Geolocation API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Geolocation_API), but that could be seen as a bit intrusive by the user, with permissions and everything.

In Laravel, there's a handy [validation rule for timezone identifiers](https://laravel.com/docs/validation#rule-timezone).

Check your setup
----------------

[](#check-your-setup)

This console command will check your Linux system timezone:

> date +%Z

Hopefully it's `UTC`.

This query can be run by MySQL to check which timezones your database is using:

```
SELECT @@global.time_zone, @@session.time_zone
```

Hopefully both display as `SYSTEM` or `UTC`.

From within PHP you can use [date\_default\_timezone\_get()](http://php.net/manual/en/function.date-default-timezone-get.php)to check what default timezone is used. If it's not `UTC`, find out where it's set by either:

- [`date.timezone` `php.ini` option](http://php.net/manual/en/datetime.configuration.php#ini.date.timezone)
- [date\_default\_timezone\_set('UTC')](http://php.net/manual/en/function.date-default-timezone-set.php)

### In Laravel

[](#in-laravel)

If you're using Laravel, you set your app's default timezone in your app's `config/app.php`.

You can easily check a database-connection's timezone using the `artisan tinker` command from the terminal:

> php artisan tinker

Then run:

```
DB::select('SELECT @@global.time_zone, @@session.time_zone');
```

Again, hopefully both are reported as `SYSTEM` or `UTC`. If the session timezone is wrong, an optional `'timezone'` parameter can be set on MySQL connections in your app's `config/databases.php`. Don’t set it manually unless you need to, in which case it should be the same as the Laravel config, i.e `'UTC'`. Actually, pulling in `config('app.timezone')` in the database config file works too!

Other methods
-------------

[](#other-methods)

Here's a good read on [Getting MySQL To Do It](https://www.mettle.io/blog/post/mysql-php-timezone/) when it comes to timezones and PHP.

Authors
-------

[](#authors)

I, Björn Nilsved, created this package while working at [FEW](http://fewagency.se).

###  Health Score

31

—

LowBetter than 66% of packages

Maintenance13

Infrequent updates — may be unmaintained

Popularity28

Limited adoption so far

Community8

Small or concentrated contributor base

Maturity61

Established project with proven stability

 Bus Factor1

Top contributor holds 100% of commits — single point of failure

How is this calculated?**Maintenance (25%)** — Last commit recency, latest release date, and issue-to-star ratio. Uses a 2-year decay window.

**Popularity (30%)** — Total and monthly downloads, GitHub stars, and forks. Logarithmic scaling prevents top-heavy scores.

**Community (15%)** — Contributors, dependents, forks, watchers, and maintainers. Measures real ecosystem engagement.

**Maturity (30%)** — Project age, version count, PHP version support, and release stability.

###  Release Activity

Cadence

Every ~518 days

Total

4

Last Release

2060d ago

Major Versions

v1.1.1 → v2.02020-11-11

PHP version history (3 changes)v1.0PHP >=5.5.9

v1.1PHP >=7.1

v2.0PHP >=7.3

### Community

Maintainers

![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/c7d75e38113b7a075f11d2d715ab47987cb6f37d6758d111d65858aaf44fe4a5?d=identicon)[bjuppa](/maintainers/bjuppa)

---

Top Contributors

[![bjuppa](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/5339269?v=4)](https://github.com/bjuppa "bjuppa (84 commits)")

---

Tags

datetime-formatinghacktoberfesttimezone-conversionhelperdatetimecarbontimezonedatetime-local

###  Code Quality

TestsPHPUnit

### Embed Badge

![Health badge](/badges/fewagency-carbonator/health.svg)

```
[![Health](https://phpackages.com/badges/fewagency-carbonator/health.svg)](https://phpackages.com/packages/fewagency-carbonator)
```

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