--- title: [RFC] Duration class | daily.dev description: A PHP internals RFC discussion proposing a new `Time\Duration` class for PHP 8.6, targeting 'stopwatch' or 'egg-timer' style durations to improve developer... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/rfc-duration-class-uugjcn8ds twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: [RFC] Duration class | daily.dev og:description: A PHP internals RFC discussion proposing a new `Time\Duration` class for PHP 8.6, targeting 'stopwatch' or 'egg-timer' style durations to improve developer... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/rfc-duration-class-uugjcn8ds og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/UUgJcn8ds.png og:image:alt: [RFC] Duration class og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # [RFC] Duration class **[externals.io](https://daily.dev/sources/externals)** · 145 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A PHP internals RFC discussion proposing a new `Time\Duration` class for PHP 8.6, targeting 'stopwatch' or 'egg-timer' style durations to improve developer experience for timeout APIs. The class uses a seconds+nanoseconds internal representation (similar to Rust's and Java's Duration), supports construction from hours down, and parses ISO-8601 period strings starting with 'PT'. The RFC is intentionally minimal to meet the PHP 8.6 feature freeze deadline and serve as the foundation for a broader modernized date/time API. Discussion covers design decisions including omitting floating-point conversion methods, namespace choice (`Time` vs `DateTime`), ISO-8601 string serialization, and whether to use `add`/`sub` vs a variadic `sum` method. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: --- Tags: [#architecture](https://daily.dev/tags/architecture), [#php](https://daily.dev/tags/php) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/rfc-duration-class-uugjcn8ds) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"[RFC] Duration class","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/rfc-duration-class-uugjcn8ds","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/rfc-duration-class-uugjcn8ds"},"datePublished":"2026-07-08T00:56:31.949Z","dateModified":"2026-07-08T00:56:57.770Z","description":"A PHP internals RFC discussion proposing a new `Time\\Duration` class for PHP 8.6, targeting 'stopwatch' or 'egg-timer' style durations to improve developer...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--0_ODbtD2--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2008","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--0_ODbtD2--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2008","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"externals.io","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"externals.io","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--9i0zxASK--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780213616/logos/externals?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/externals"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/rfc-duration-class-uugjcn8ds","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"architecture,php","timeRequired":"PT145M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"externals.io","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/externals"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"[RFC] Duration class"}]} ```