Getting a date in number form

["Rick Dahl" <dmbserver@hotmail.com>]

I need to get the month in a number format; July =7.  Right now it is returning the string: July.

This is what I am doing.

$today = getdate(); 
$month = $today['month']; 
$mday = $today['mday']; 
$year = $today['year']; 

What can I do to get the number instead of the word?

- Rick