Instant::toISOString() and ZonedDateTime::toISOString() emitted a compact time that dropped zero seconds (e.g. 2023-11-14T22:14Z), which is valid ISO 8601 but not valid RFC 3339. Section 5.6 of RFC 3339 requires the full HH:MM:SS time even when the seconds are zero. These types are meant for interoperability, so they must always emit RFC 3339 compliant output. Build the time part of ZonedDateTime::toISOString() explicitly with a mandatory seconds component instead of delegating to LocalTime's compact formatter. Instant delegates to ZonedDateTime, so it is fixed transitively; jsonSerialize() and __toString() route through toISOString(). LocalTime's documented compact format is intentional and left unchanged. This changes the serialized string representation and is therefore a BC break; fixtures that pinned the compact output are updated accordingly.
4.0 KiB
fix: emit full seconds in Instant and ZonedDateTime toISOString (RFC 3339)
Fixes #110
Problem
Instant::toISOString() (and therefore Instant::jsonSerialize() / (string)) and
ZonedDateTime::toISOString() emit a compact time format that omits the seconds when they
are zero, e.g.:
2023-11-14T22:14Z // whole minute
1970-01-01T00:00Z // epoch
2023-11-14T23:00Z // whole hour
This is a valid ISO 8601 time, but it is not a valid RFC 3339 date-time. RFC 3339
section 5.6 defines full-time as partial-time time-offset where
partial-time = time-hour ":" time-minute ":" time-second [time-secfrac] — the seconds
component is mandatory, even when it is 00. Instant and ZonedDateTime are the types
meant for interoperability (JSON serialization, wire formats), so they should always emit a
value other systems can parse as RFC 3339. Producing 2023-11-14T22:14Z breaks strict
RFC 3339 parsers.
Root cause
The compact behavior is intentional and documented in
src/LocalTime.php:639 (toISOString() — "the shortest that outputs the full value of the
time"). That is correct for LocalTime and is left untouched.
The bug is that the interop types inherit that compact form:
src/ZonedDateTime.php:740toISOString()built the string from$this->localDateTime, whose__toString()delegates toLocalTime::toISOString()(the compact formatter).src/Instant.php:362toISOString()returns(string) ZonedDateTime::ofInstant(...), so it inherited the same compact time.jsonSerialize()and__toString()both route throughtoISOString().
The fix
ZonedDateTime::toISOString() now builds the time portion explicitly with a mandatory
HH:MM:SS component (keeping the existing optional fractional-seconds handling), instead of
delegating to LocalTime's compact formatter. Instant::toISOString() is fixed
transitively because it delegates to ZonedDateTime; its PHPDoc now documents the RFC 3339
guarantee. LocalTime is deliberately not changed.
Output after the fix:
2023-11-14T22:14:00Z
1970-01-01T00:00:00Z
2023-11-14T23:00:00Z
2023-11-14T23:14:00+01:00[Europe/Paris]
Fractional seconds and non-zero seconds are unchanged (e.g.
1970-01-01T00:00:00.000123456Z, 1969-12-31T23:59:59Z).
Why the test fixture changes are justified (BC break)
Some existing fixtures pinned the buggy compact output and had to be updated to the RFC-3339-correct strings — this is the legitimate case of changing a maintainer's tests because the old expected values encode the bug being fixed:
tests/InstantTest.phpproviderToString:[0, 0, '1970-01-01T00:00Z']->'1970-01-01T00:00:00Z'.tests/ZonedDateTimeTest.php: the DST plus/minus and interval result strings that landed on whole minutes/hours (e.g.2025-03-30T01:00+01:00[Europe/Prague]->2025-03-30T01:00:00+01:00[Europe/Prague]).tests/IntervalTest.php: one exception-message fixture (1970-01-04T11:20Z->1970-01-04T11:20:00Z).
New assertions were added for whole-minute and whole-hour values to lock in the :00:
tests/InstantTest.php:[1700000040, 0, '2023-11-14T22:14:00Z']and[1700002800, 0, '2023-11-14T23:00:00Z'].tests/ZonedDateTimeTest.php:['2000-01-20T12:34', '-07:00', '2000-01-20T12:34:00-07:00']and['2000-01-20T12:00', 'America/Los_Angeles', '2000-01-20T12:00:00-08:00[America/Los_Angeles]'].
Because the serialized string representation changes, this is technically a backward compatibility break, matching the maintainer's note on issue #110: "this will target version 0.8.0 as this is technically a BC break." Parsing is unaffected — the parser still accepts the compact input form, so round-tripping and existing stored values keep working.
Test evidence
Gate command:
composer install && vendor/bin/phpunit
Result: exit code 0 — OK (7865 tests, 38307 assertions), 0 failures.
Before the fix, Instant::of(1700000040, 0)->toISOString() returned 2023-11-14T22:14Z;
after the fix it returns 2023-11-14T22:14:00Z.