How to Use “cal_days_in_month()” Function in PHP

In PHP, developers have access to a variety of strong predefined techniques that provide them the ability to manipulate and deal with date and time. For that particular purpose, the “cal_days_in_month()” function is one of them that lets developers figure out how many days are in a given month of a particular year.

In this guide, we will explain the “cal_days_in_month()” function, its syntax, and parameters in PHP.

What is the “cal_days_in_month()” Function in PHP?

The “cal_days_in_month()” function in the PHP programming language is very useful for finding out how many days there are in a particular month of a specific year. It is the component of PHP’s calendar extension that offers a method for handling date-related statistics and manipulations.

Syntax

The syntax of the above-discussed function is:

cal_days_in_month(int $calendar, int $month, int $year)

Parameters

There are three parameters that the “cal_days_in_month()” function accepts, and they are as follows:

“$calendar” refers to the name of the calendar that will be used. The following constants are replaced with it according to the user’s requirements:

CAL_GREGORIAN: Default Gregorian calendar.
CAL_JULIAN: Julian-calendar
CAL_JEWISH: Jewish-calendar
CAL_FRENCH: It is the French Revolutionary calendar

“$month” indicates the month for which users are trying to calculate the days. The value has to range from 1 to 12.

The year where the month falls is specified by the “$year” parameter.

Return Value

In accordance with the provided month, year, and calendar, it will return the total number of days. It will give a false value if the calendar is not valid.

Example 1: Find the Number of Days of a Given Month and Year Using the “cal_days_in_month()” Function in PHP

In the following code, first, we initialized two integer type variables “$month” and “$year” with values of “4” and “2023” respectively. Then, invoked the “cal_days_in_month()” function that takes “CAL_GREGORIAN”, “$month1”, and “$year” as parameters. This built-in PHP function finds the total days in the given month and year using the Gregorian calendar. To store the result, the “$total_days” variable is defined. After this, use the “echo” statement to display the output as a string. It combines the fixed phrase “Total days in April 2023 is: ” with the value of the “$total_days” variable:

<?php

$month1 = 4;

$year = 2023;

$total_days = cal_days_in_month(CAL_GREGORIAN, $month1, $year);

echo "Total days in April 2023 is: ". $total_days;

?>

The resultant output of the above-executed code has been shown in the following image:

Example 2: Verify the Leap Year Using the “cal_days_in_month()” Function in PHP

First, initialize the “$my_month” variable with the value “2” which refers to the month of February. Next, initialize the “$year” variable with the value of “2023”, which shows the year in which we want to determine how many days are in February. Next, invoked the “cal_days_in_month()” function that accepts three arguments, such as “$my_month”, “$year”, and “CAL_GREGORIAN” based on the Gregorian calendar. Then, the variable “$all_days” is used to save the result. Finally, we used the “echo” statement for displaying the resultant value:

<?php

$my_month = 2; // February

$year = 2023; // Leap year

$all_days = cal_days_in_month(CAL_GREGORIAN, $my_month, $year);

echo "Leap Year of 2023 is: ". $all_days;

?>

Output

We have briefly described the “cal_days_in_month()” function in PHP.

Conclusion

In PHP, the “cal_days_in_month()” function is used to calculate the total days in a certain month of a given year. It is a useful resource for any task, such as requiring the creation of dynamic calendars, the verification of dates, or computations that depend on the total days present in a month. In this guide, we have stated the usage of the “cal_days_in_month()” function in PHP.