PHP Date Exercises : Convert seconds into days, hours, minutes and seconds

Last update on June 03 2025 12:56:01 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

21. Convert Seconds into Days, Hours, Minutes, Seconds

Write a PHP script to convert seconds into days, hours, minutes and seconds.

Sample seconds : 200000

Sample Solution:

PHP Code:

<?php
// Define a function to convert seconds into a human-readable format
function convert_seconds($seconds) 
 {
  // Create DateTime objects representing the start and end timestamps
  $dt1 = new DateTime("@0");
  $dt2 = new DateTime("@$seconds");
  
  // Calculate the difference between the two timestamps
  $diff = $dt1->diff($dt2);
  
  // Format the difference to display days, hours, minutes, and seconds
  return $diff->format('%a days, %h hours, %i minutes and %s seconds');
 }

// Call the function and echo the result
echo convert_seconds(200000)."\n";
?>

Output:

2 days, 7 hours, 33 minutes and 20 seconds

Explanation:

In the exercise above,

function convert_seconds($seconds): Defines a function named convert_seconds that takes a number of seconds as input.
$dt1 = new DateTime("@0");: Creates a DateTime object representing the start timestamp (epoch time).
$dt2 = new DateTime("@$seconds");: Creates a DateTime object representing the end timestamp, calculated based on the provided number of seconds.
$diff = $dt1->diff($dt2);: Calculates the difference between the two timestamps.
return $diff->format('%a days, %h hours, %i minutes and %s seconds');: Formats the difference to display the number of days, hours, minutes, and seconds.
echo convert_seconds(200000)."\n";: Calls the "convert_seconds()" function with 200000 seconds as input and echoes the result.

Flowchart :

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

Write a PHP script to convert a given number of seconds into a formatted string displaying days, hours, minutes, and seconds.
Write a PHP function that takes an integer number of seconds and returns an associative array with keys for days, hours, minutes, and seconds.
Write a PHP program to convert seconds to time units and then output the result with proper pluralization of words.
Write a PHP script to compute the time breakdown from seconds and format the output in a human-readable sentence.

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PHP Code Editor:

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