Getting Dates and Date Parts

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Several methods support retrieving values related to a Zend_Date instance.

Table 49. Date Output Methods

Method	Explanation
`toString()`	`toString($format = null, $locale = null)` Invoke directly or via the magic method `__toString()`. The `toString()` method automatically formats the date object's value according to the conventions of the object's locale, or an optionally specified `$locale`. For a list of supported format codes, see Self-Defined OUTPUT Formats with ISO.
`toArray()`	`toArray()` Returns an array representation of the selected date according to the conventions of the object's locale. The returned array is equivalent to PHP's getdate() function and includes: Number of day as 'day' (`Zend_Date::DAY_SHORT`) Number of month as 'month' (`Zend_Date::MONTH_SHORT`) Year as 'year' (`Zend_Date::YEAR`) Hour as 'hour' (`Zend_Date::HOUR_SHORT`) Minute as 'minute' (`Zend_Date::MINUTE_SHORT`) Second as 'second' (`Zend_Date::SECOND_SHORT`) Abbreviated timezone as 'timezone' (`Zend_Date::TIMEZONE`) Unix timestamp as 'timestamp' (`Zend_Date::TIMESTAMP`) Number of weekday as 'weekday' (`Zend_Date::WEEKDAY_DIGIT`) Day of year as 'dayofyear' (`Zend_Date::DAY_OF_YEAR`) Week as 'week' (`Zend_Date::WEEK`) Delay of timezone to GMT as 'gmtsecs' (`Zend_Date::GMT_SECS`)
`toValue()`	`toValue($part = null)` Returns an integer representation of the selected date `$part` according to the conventions of the object's locale. Returns `FALSE` when `$part` selects a non-numeric value, such as `Zend_Date::MONTH_NAME_SHORT`. Limitation of toValue() This method calls `get()` and casts the result to a PHP integer, which will give unpredictable results, if `get()` returns a numeric string containing a number too large for a PHP integer on your system. Use `get()` instead.
get()	`get($part = null, $locale = null)` This method returns the `$part` of object's date localized to `$locale` as a formatted string or integer. See get() for more information.
`now()`	`now($locale = null)` This convenience function is equivalent to new Zend_Date(). It returns the current date as a `Zend_Date` object, having `$locale`

Getting Dates and Date Parts

Limitation of toValue()

Zend Framework