Check whether the string is a unix timestamp
As a unix timestamp is a integer, use is_int(). However as is_int
() doesn't work on strings, we check if it is numeric and its intergal form is the same as its orignal form. Example:
( is_numeric($stamp) && (int)$stamp == $stamp )
I came across the same question and created the following solution for my self, where I don't have to mess with regular expressions or messy if-clauses:
/**
* @param string $string
* @return bool
*/
public function isTimestamp($string)
{
try {
new DateTime('@' . $string);
} catch(Exception $e) {
return false;
}
return true;
}
Ok, after fiddling with this for some time, I withdraw the solution with date('U')
and suggest to use this one instead:
function isValidTimeStamp($timestamp)
{
return ((string) (int) $timestamp === $timestamp)
&& ($timestamp <= PHP_INT_MAX)
&& ($timestamp >= ~PHP_INT_MAX);
}
This check will only return true if the given $timestamp
is a string and consists solely of digits and an optional minus character. The number also has to be within the bit range of an integer (EDIT: actually unneeded as shown here).
var_dump( isValidTimeStamp(1) ); // false
var_dump( isValidTimeStamp('1') ); // TRUE
var_dump( isValidTimeStamp('1.0') ); // false
var_dump( isValidTimeStamp('1.1') ); // false
var_dump( isValidTimeStamp('0xFF') ); // false
var_dump( isValidTimeStamp('0123') ); // false
var_dump( isValidTimeStamp('01090') ); // false
var_dump( isValidTimeStamp('-1000000') ); // TRUE
var_dump( isValidTimeStamp('+1000000') ); // false
var_dump( isValidTimeStamp('2147483648') ); // false
var_dump( isValidTimeStamp('-2147483649') ); // false
The check for PHP_INT_MAX is to ensure that your string can be used correctly by date
and the likes, e.g. it ensures this doesn't happen*:
echo date('Y-m-d', '2147483648'); // 1901-12-13
echo date('Y-m-d', '-2147483649'); // 2038-01-19
On 64bit systems the integer is of course larger than that and the function will no longer return false for "2147483648" and "-2147483649" but for the corresponding larger numbers.
(*) Note: I'm not 100% sure, the bit range corresponds with what date can use though
this looks like the way to go:
function is_timestamp($timestamp) {
if(strtotime(date('d-m-Y H:i:s',$timestamp)) === (int)$timestamp) {
return $timestamp;
} else return false;
}
you could also add a is_numeric() check and all sort of other checks.
but this should/could be the basics.