Date Variable Formatting

NOTE: Please note that these examples are to show how the date formatting codes are used in the format parameter that is used in a number of different ExpressionEngine variables.

Many of the tags you'll use in your templates contain variables designed to display dates and times. These variables can be formatted so that the date appears in a manner you wish. Here is an example of a typical "date type" tag:

{date format="%F %d %Y"}

The "format" parameter enables you to format the date using the Date Formatting Codes listed below. Each code letter is always preceded by a percent sign. The example above would be rendered like this:

January 15 2006

You are allowed to use any character you want within the format parameter, except a percent sign. For example, this:

{current_time format="%D, %F %d, %Y - %g:%i:%s"}

Would be rendered like this:

Mon, January 15, 2006 - 10:23:45

Date Formatting Codes

Available date formatting codes:

%a - "am" or "pm"
%A - "AM" or "PM"
%B - Swatch Internet time
%d - day of the month, 2 digits with leading zeros ("01" to "31")
%D - day of the week, textual, 3 letters ("Fri")
%g - hour, 12-hour format without leading zeros ("1" to "12")
%G - hour, 24-hour format without leading zeros ("0" to "23")
%h - hour, 12-hour format ("01" to "12")
%H - hour, 24-hour format ("00" to "23")
%i - minutes ("00" to "59")
%I (capital i) - "1" if Daylight Saving Time, "0" otherwise.
%j - day of the month without leading zeros ("1" to "31")
%l (lowercase 'L') - day of the week, textual, long ("Friday")
%L - boolean for whether it is a leap year ("0" or "1")
%m - month ("01" to "12")
%M - month, textual, 3 letters ("Jan")
%F - month, textual, long ("January")
%n - month without leading zeros ("1" to "12")
%Q - local server time zone offset, in hours and seconds, against GMT (e.g. "+06:00")
%r - RFC 822 formatting ("Thu, 21 Dec 2000 16:01:07 +0200")
%s - seconds ("00" to "59")
%S - English ordinal suffix, 2 characters; ("th", "nd")
%t - number of days in the given month ("28" to "31")
%T - Time zone setting of this machine ("MDT")
%U - seconds since the epoch
%w - day of the week, numeric - "0" (Sunday) to "6" (Saturday)
%W - ISO-8601 week number of year, weeks starting on Monday ("42": the 42nd week in the year)
%y - year, 2 digits ("99")
%Y - year, 4 digits ("1999")
%z - day of the year ("0" to "365")
%Z - time zone offset in seconds ("-43200" to "43200"). The offset for time zones west of UTC is always negative, and for those east of UTC is always positive.

Date Formatting Constants

You may also use the pre-defined Date Formatting Constants listed below for easy access to some standard format strings. For example, this:

{current_time format="{DATE_ATOM}"}

Would be rendered like this:

2006-01-15T20:23:45-06:00

Available pre-defined formatting strings are described in the table below.

Date Formatting Constants
Variable	Equivalent	Sample Rendering
{DATE_ATOM}	%Y-%m-%dT%H:%i:%s%Q	2006-10-16T08:19:39-06:00
{DATE_COOKIE}	%l, %d-%M-%y %H:%i:%s UTC	Monday, 16-Oct-06 08:19:39 UTC
{DATE_ISO8601}	%Y-%m-%dT%H:%i:%s%O	2006-10-16T08:19:39-0500
{DATE_RFC822}	%D, %d %M %y %H:%i:%s %O	Mon, 16 Oct 06 08:19:39 -0500
{DATE_RFC850}	%l, %d-%M-%y %H:%m:%i UTC	Monday, 16-Oct-06 08:10:19 UTC
{DATE_RFC1036}	%D, %d %M %y %H:%i:%s %O	Mon, 16 Oct 06 08:19:39 -0500
{DATE_RFC1123}	%D, %d %M %Y %H:%i:%s %O	Mon, 16 Oct 2006 08:19:39 -0500
{DATE_RFC2822}	%D, %d %M %Y %H:%i:%s %O	Mon, 16 Oct 2006 08:19:39 -0500
{DATE_RSS}	%D, %d %M %Y %H:%i:%s %O	Mon, 16 Oct 2006 08:19:39 -0500
{DATE_W3C}	%Y-%m-%dT%H:%i:%s%Q	2006-10-16T08:19:39-06:00

[ Permalink ] Posted by: MediaGirl Inc. on 27 July 2007 6:57pm
	TIP: To keep my copyright date current in my footers, I use {current_time format=”%Y”} to show the current year.
[ Permalink ] Posted by: georges on 15 July 2007 6:14pm
	This formatting works on custom datetime fields, not just the built in datetime variables that are available through EE.

Date Variable Formatting

Date Formatting Codes

Date Formatting Constants

User Contributed Notes