Daynum

Immutable, zero-runtime-dependency, multi-calendar PHP library.

Daynum is a clean, single-package replacement for the 3–4 libraries PHP developers currently glue together to get Gregorian + Jalali (Shamsi) + Hijri support. It targets PHP 8.1+, requires no ext-intl at runtime, pulls no transitive dependencies, and is differentially tested against ICU on ~220,000 dates per calendar per CI build.

v1 ships Gregorian, Jalali, and Hijri (Saudi Umm al-Qura + tabular civil), with English, Persian, and Arabic locales.

What Daynum is (and isn't)

Daynum IS: multi-calendar date conversion + formatting, immutable arithmetic, locale-aware formatting with PHP date() tokens, a zero-dependency ICU-tested replacement for morilog/jalali.

Daynum is NOT: a timezone library (use toDateTimeImmutable() for DST math), a relative-date parser ("next Monday"), a Carbon replacement (Carbon covers Gregorian + timezones; Daynum covers multi-calendar + correctness), or a framework bridge.

Naming caveat: Instant is civil, not UTC. Unlike java.time.Instant, Daynum's Instant is a calendar-neutral civil datetime: (JDN, time-of-day, timezone label). Two instants with the same JDN and time but different tzLabels represent different physical moments. See docs/en/concepts.md.

Feature	Daynum	Carbon	morilog/jalali	ext-intl
Jalali	Birashk 33-year	No	Birashk (same)	Borkowski
Hijri UAQ	Bundled table	No	No	Runtime ICU
Hijri Civil	Yes	No	No	Yes
Runtime deps	Zero	symfony/*	nesbot/carbon	ext-intl
Immutable	Yes	Optional	No	N/A
Testing	ICU differential	Unit tests	Unit tests	IS the oracle

Install

composer require eram/daynum:^1.0@beta

Quick start

use Eram\Daynum\Instant;
use Eram\Daynum\Calendar\Jalali\JalaliView;

// Construction — one calendar to pick from, three calendars to read back
$d = Instant::fromGregorian(2026, 4, 8, 14, 30, 0, 'Asia/Tehran');

$d->gregorian()->format('Y-m-d');                   // "2026-04-08"
$d->jalali()->format('Y/m/d');                      // "1405/01/19"
$d->hijri()->format('j F Y');                       // "21 Shawwal 1447"

// Persian locale + Persian digits
$d->jalali()->withLocale('fa')->withDigits('persian')->format('l j F Y');
// "چهارشنبه ۱۹ فروردین ۱۴۰۵"

// Immutable arithmetic — returns Instant, re-enter a view to format
$next = $d->jalali()->addMonths(1);                 // Instant
$next->jalali()->format('Y/m/d');                   // "1405/02/19"

// Strict parsing — digits in any script are normalized
JalaliView::parseExact('۱۴۰۵/۰۱/۱۹', 'Y/m/d');     // Instant
JalaliView::tryParseExact('nope', 'Y/m/d');         // null

// JSON round-trip contract
json_encode($d);
// {"jdn":2461139,"secondsOfDay":52200,"tzLabel":"Asia/Tehran"}
Instant::fromArray(json_decode(json_encode($d), true))->equals($d);   // true

// Escape hatch to native PHP for real timezone math
$d->toDateTimeImmutable();

Documentation

Learn

• Getting Started — install, first example, 5-minute tour
• Concepts — civil vs. UTC, Instant vs. view, JDN, immutability
• Cookbook — 10+ task-indexed recipes
• FAQ — surprising-but-intentional design decisions

Calendars

• Gregorian · Jalali · Hijri (Umm al-Qura) · Hijri (civil)

Reference

• API Reference — every type and method
• Formatting · Parsing · Arithmetic
• Localization · Timezones · Exceptions · Serialization

Migration & attribution

• Migrating from morilog/jalali
• Algorithms and attribution

Contributing

Bug reports, docs fixes, new locales, and new calendar systems are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for testing, fixture regeneration, and the "how to add a new calendar" checklist.

Links

• CHANGELOG.md — release notes
• LICENSE — MIT
• Issue tracker

License

MIT. See LICENSE.