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Codex Resources

Template Tags/the date

Description

Displays or returns the date of a post, or a set of posts if published on the same day.

This tag must be used within The Loop.

Usage

 <?php the_date('format', 'before', 'after', echo); ?> 

Examples

Default Usage

Displays the date using defaults.

<p>Date posted: <?php the_date(); ?></p>

Date as Year, Month, Date in Heading

Displays the date using the '2007-07-23' format (ex: 2004-11-30), inside an <h2> tag.

<?php the_date('Y-m-d', '<h2>', '</h2>'); ?>

Date in Heading Using $my_date Variable

Returns the date in the default format inside an <h2> tag and assigns it to the $my_date variable. The variable's value is then displayed with the PHP echo command.

<?php $my_date = the_date('', '', '', FALSE); echo $my_date; ?>

Parameters

format 

(string) The format for the date. Defaults to the date format configured in your WordPress options. See Formatting Date and Time.

before 

(string) Text to place before the date. There is no default.

after 

(string) Text to place after the date. There is no default.

echo 

(boolean) Display the date (TRUE), or return the date to be used in PHP (FALSE). Defaults to TRUE.

Related

the_date_xml, the_date, the_time, the_modified_date, the_modified_time, get_the_time, single_month_title, get_calendar, the_weekday, the_weekday_date