When handling timestamps with milliseconds in PHP, you need to pay attention to parsing, formatting, and Unix timestamp conversion. 1. Use DateTime::createFromFormat() and specify the format 'Ymd\TH:i:s.uO' to parse ISO8601 format timestamps, but PHP 7.2 supports .u; 2. Use format('Ymd H:i:s.v') to display milliseconds (3 bits) when output, and u represents microseconds (6 bits); 3. When processing milliseconds Unix timestamps, you need to divide by 1000 to get the number of seconds, and use modify(" X milliseconds") or setTimestamp() (PHP 7.1) to coordinate adjustment; 4. Pay attention to the differences in support of u/v and how JS timestamps are handled in different versions.
It is not too difficult to handle timestamps with milliseconds in PHP, but many people may ignore the processing of the milliseconds part at the beginning. PHP's DateTime
class does not support direct parsing of time strings containing milliseconds by default, so it needs to be processed manually.

1. Parsing timestamps with milliseconds
If you get a timestamp in ISO8601 format, such as "2025-04-05T12:34:56.789Z"
, where .789
is the millisecond part. At this time, using DateTime::createFromFormat()
method will be more flexible:

$dateStr = "2025-04-05T12:34:56.789Z"; $date = DateTime::createFromFormat('Ymd\TH:i:s.uO', $dateStr);
Note that .u
is used here to match the milliseconds part. However, it should be noted that not all PHP versions fully support .u
, and it is generally recommended to use PHP 7.2 and above.
2. Format output milliseconds
If you already have a DateTime
object and want to format the output with milliseconds, you can use format()
method to add v
or u
:

echo $date->format('Ymd H:i:s.v'); // The output is similar to 2025-04-05 12:34:56.789
-
v
is milliseconds (3 digits) -
u
is microseconds (6 bits), but usually only up to milliseconds when processing JSON timestamps
3. Process milliseconds in Unix timestamps
Sometimes you get a Unix timestamp in milliseconds, such as 1717353296789
. At this time, you need to use division to convert it into seconds to pass it to DateTime
:
$timestampMs = 1717353296789; $seconds = floor($timestampMs / 1000); $milliseconds = $timestampMs % 1000; $date = new DateTime("@$seconds"); $date->modify(" {$milliseconds} millionseconds");
Or you can also use DateTime::setTimestamp()
(PHP 7.1) to adjust in milliseconds:
$date = new DateTime(); $date->setTimestamp($seconds); $date->modify(" {$milliseconds} millionseconds");
4. Frequently Asked Questions and Precautions
- Different PHP versions have slightly different support for milliseconds, especially the processing of
u
andv
- When using
DateTime::createFromFormat()
, the time string must match the format strictly. - If you get the timestamp from JS (such as
new Date().getTime()
), it is in milliseconds, remember to divide it by 1000 and then process it with PHP
Basically that's it. Although it is not complicated to handle, if you don't pay attention to the format or version differences, it is easy to miss the millisecond part.
The above is the detailed content of php format timestamp with milliseconds. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

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