Dates are available to the programmer at an accuray of microseconds (miilionths of a sec)
Dates are derived on most servers from a fixed point in history and can be managed to just display time or be used to calculate time for site functions like searches etc
The current time can be displayed in different ways (here the page updates every couple of secs)
| short 12hr | 01:02:38 AM on Sun 26th May 13 |
| long 24hr | 01:02:38 on Sunday 26th May 2013 |
| day of week | 0 |
| day of year | 145 |
| month of year | 5 |
| week of year | 21 |
| days this month | 31 |
| server time zone | BST |
| time zone offset | +0100 |
| daylight savings | YES |
| leap year | NO |
| you have been here | 0 secs |