Question

I know the time zone can be changed by the following methods (and maybe more):

1. Set putenv() with the time zone in every php file.
2. Set date.timezone with the time zone in php.ini.
3. Set php_value date.timezone with the time zone in the root .htaccess file.

My question is, does setting the time zone only affect the date() function, or does it also affect the time() function?

I read the documentation, but I’m still a little confused.. I think the answer is the former, but I need to make sure, so it would be great if someone could confirm this.

Thanks!

Answer 1

time() isn’t affected by timezone. functions like date, convert the resulting date to the timezone without affecting the timestamp.

<?php
var_dump(date_default_timezone_get());

$time1 = time();
var_dump($time1);
var_dump(date("r", $time1));

date_default_timezone_set("America/Los_Angeles");
var_dump(date_default_timezone_get());

$time2 = time();
var_dump($time2);
var_dump(date("r", $time1));

var_dump($time1 === $time2);

Outputs:

string(16) "Europe/Amsterdam"
int(1571676424)
string(31) "Mon, 21 Oct 2019 18:47:04 +0200"
string(19) "America/Los_Angeles"
int(1571676424)
string(31) "Mon, 21 Oct 2019 09:47:04 -0700"
bool(true)

Demo: https://3v4l.org/Cggc3