[RFC] New procedural function intl_date_format() for PHP 8.7 View as Markdown

Hi everyone,

I hope you're all doing well.

I would like to propose a new RFC: intl_date_format().

The main idea behind this is to simplify date formatting across different calendars (like Persian, Islamic, etc.) without having to go through the verbose setup of IntlDateFormatter every single time. It's meant to be a simple, procedural wrapper that makes handling non-Gregorian calendars much more accessible for everyday tasks.

You can check out the full RFC here:
https://wiki.php.net/rfc/intl_date_format

I’ve ensured the implementation remains consistent with our existing intl error handling patterns (using E_WARNING and returning false on failure).

I’m really looking forward to hearing your thoughts, feedback, and any suggestions you might have to improve this. Thanks for your time and for all the great work you do!

No.

The procedural API is ill defined and should NOT be expanded.
Constructing an object is also not that difficult.

It would be a good idea for you to step back from the mailing list and stop proposing RFCs every 2 days as you are frankly spamming the mailing lists with proposals that have no value and waste everyone's time.
I can understand the desire to contribute back to PHP, but shotgunning proposals in the hope that one will stick is not an approach that will net you any sympathy, as you have clearly used up any sympathy people have had for you over the last few weeks.

Or put more plainly, I will personally take the time to write a formal RFC to ban you from the project if you continue spamming the mailing list.
I'll allow a single reply to this email before taking action.

Sincerely,
Gina P. Banyard

Hi Sepehr

Can you please explain the advantage you see in using
your proposed API instead of:

$formatter = new IntlDateFormatter(
    'fa_IR@calendar=persian',
    IntlDateFormatter::NONE,
    IntlDateFormatter::NONE,
    'UTC',
    IntlDateFormatter::TRADITIONAL,
    'yyyy/MM/dd',
);
echo $formatter->format(strtotime('2026-09-27 UTC')); // ۱۴۰۵/۰۷/۰۵

To justify the addition into the extension?

BR,
Weilin Du

...

Hello dear Sepher.

I may personally understand that you really want to be considered as a PHP internal contributor. It can be considered as a very high distinction in any academic or career pursuit.

However, your emails and proposal sounds like AI generated content to quickly enter in the circle of "elite" programmers without even considering that your proposal doesn't bring any new value on the table.

I, personally, developed in WordPress for so long that, on a very busy day, I understood that using procedural function approach was just not a good idea. And if you have read the proposal from PHP8.5, you can observe new features added on PHP object oriented programming and function oriented programming with the "|>", which simply are better solution for coding in general compared to procedural function (unless you code in C, which is the default coding style).

Please, stop messaging the PHP internal group. First get your idea approved by a real community of PHP developers that struggle with the kind of problems your RFC proposals are dealing with. Else you are slowly, but greatly, demonstrating a lack of commitment to quality improvement of PHP internals, either due to lack of knowledge or lack of desire to do so but still keep pushing what seems like AI generated content for the sake of being popular.

In this group, from what I understand, serious business to get PHP greater is in place. And the group is very kind enough to repeatedly expose your misconception, without banning since day 1 (and to answer to my personal questions about PHP internals, thanks to anyone for that, I appreciate it a lot).

Kind regards,
David Maye.

El 27/09/2026 21:17 سپهر محمودی sepehrphpr@gmail.com escribió:

Hi everyone,

I hope you're all doing well.

I would like to propose a new RFC: intl_date_format().

The main idea behind this is to simplify date formatting across different calendars (like Persian, Islamic, etc.) without having to go through the verbose setup of IntlDateFormatter every single time. It's meant to be a simple, procedural wrapper that makes handling non-Gregorian calendars much more accessible for everyday tasks.

You can check out the full RFC here:
https://wiki.php.net/rfc/intl_date_format

I’ve ensured the implementation remains consistent with our existing intl error handling patterns (using E_WARNING and returning false on failure).

I’m really looking forward to hearing your thoughts, feedback, and any suggestions you might have to improve this. Thanks for your time and for all the great work you do!

Best regards,

Sepehr Mahmoudi