How to format the output of a date field?

How To
1

I’m rendering a dynamic data output for an event CPT provided by Modern Event Calendar plugin.
by default, the metakey: {cf_mec_start_date} displays the event start date in this format: 2023-01-04
But I would like a more human friendly format like January 4, 2023.
From my research so far, I think its possible to create a function that modifies the output format. any help would be appreciated.

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2

Hello,

Did you find a solution ?

Regards,

Nicolas.

3

@nickwe - the easiest way is to use a php function… for example:
{echo:my_function({custom_field})}

And in functions.php
function my_function($thedate) {
$returndate = date_format($thedate,“Y/m/d H:i:s”);
return $returndate;
}

You can format the date however you need.

2 Likes
4

Thank you so much for pointing me into the right direction.

For an unknown reason, I had to add a line with date_create before the date_format like this to make it work:

function my_function($thedate) {
$date=date_create($thedate);
$returndate = date_format($date,"Y/m/d H:i:s");
return $returndate;
}

And then use the CustomField from Eventin inside a text element like this:

{echo:my_function({cf_etn_start_date})}

Edit: To make it work with locale, we need to use strftime:

function my_function($thedate) {
setlocale(LC_TIME, "fr_FR");
$date=date_create($thedate);
$formatted_time = strftime("%d %B %Y", $date->getTimestamp());
return $formatted_time;
}

Regards.

2 Likes
5

Code is basically hope and witchcraft where everyone’s borrowing each-others spells!
Glad you got it working.

2 Likes
6

Used this in combination with @nickwe 's date_create addition, and it worked for me.

I’ve been scouring the facebook group and several different tutorials. This is the only one that worked for me.

7

None of those examples worked for me when trying to simply return a simple number format for post dates. Here’s what worked for me inside query loops:

// Add into Bricks text fields like: {echo:digit_date()}
function digit_date() {
    $formatted_date = get_the_date('n/d/y');
    return $formatted_date;
}