I wanted to test an interval was being respected which required me to add a seconds-based interval value to a Carbon date object.
For example, if a record is created now, a new one can only be created in say 10 seconds. Here’s how I did it thanks to this comment:
<?php
use Carbon\Carbon;
$interval = new DateInterval('PT10S');
$now = Carbon::now();
$nextValidCreationDate = $now->rawAdd($interval);
echo $now->toDateTimeString();
// "2020-09-30 12:42:41"
echo $nextValidCreationDate->toDateTimeString();
// "2020-09-30 12:42:51"
?>
Notice 10 seconds was added to $now. Also, notice the use of PT10S when created the DateInterval, instead of P10S which results in an error. It seems when creating time-only DateInterval objects, we have to use T too, instead of just P. When using the ISO 8601 duration format, T is the time designator that precedes the time components as explained here.
- P is the duration designator (referred to as “period”), and is always placed at the beginning of the duration.
- Y is the year designator that follows the value for the number of years.
- M is the month designator that follows the value for the number of months.
- W is the week designator that follows the value for the number of weeks.
- D is the day designator that follows the value for the number of days.
- T is the time designator that precedes the time components.
- H is the hour designator that follows the value for the number of hours.
- M is the minute designator that follows the value for the number of minutes.
- S is the second designator that follows the value for the number of seconds.
For example:
P3Y6M4DT12H30M5S
Represents a duration of three years, six months, four days, twelve hours, thirty minutes, and five seconds.
In conclusion, all date-only interval formats must start with P, e.g. P3Y, P6M, P4D, P3Y6M4D, and all time-only interval formats must start with P and T, e.g. PT12H, PT30M, PT5S, PT12H30M5S.