format_date

• Drupal 4.6
• Drupal 4.7
• Drupal 5
• Drupal 6
• Drupal 7

Versions

4.6 – 5

format_date($timestamp, $type = 'medium', $format = '', $timezone = NULL)

6 – 7

format_date($timestamp, $type = 'medium', $format = '', $timezone = NULL, $langcode = NULL)

Format a date with the given configured format or a custom format string.

Drupal allows administrators to select formatting strings for 'short', 'medium' and 'long' date formats. This function can handle these formats, as well as any custom format.

Parameters

$timestamp The exact date to format, as a UNIX timestamp.

$type The format to use. Can be "short", "medium" or "long" for the preconfigured date formats. If "custom" is specified, then $format is required as well.

$format A PHP date format string as required by date(). A backslash should be used before a character to avoid interpreting the character as part of a date format.

$timezone Time zone identifier; if omitted, the user's time zone is used.

$langcode Optional language code to translate to a language other than what is used to display the page.

Return value

A translated date string in the requested format.

Related topics

Formatting

Functions to format numbers, strings, dates, etc.

Code

includes/common.inc, line 2276

<?php
function format_date($timestamp, $type = 'medium', $format = '', $timezone = NULL, $langcode = NULL) {
  // Use the advanced drupal_static() pattern, since this is called very often.
  static $drupal_static = array();
  isset($drupal_static[__FUNCTION__]) || ($drupal_static[__FUNCTION__] = &drupal_static(__FUNCTION__));
  $timezones = &$drupal_static[__FUNCTION__];

  if (!isset($timezone)) {
    global $user;
    if (variable_get('configurable_timezones', 1) && $user->uid && $user->timezone) {
      $timezone = $user->timezone;
    }
    else {
      $timezone = variable_get('date_default_timezone', 'UTC');
    }
  }
  // Store DateTimeZone objects in an array rather than repeatedly
  // contructing identical objects over the life of a request.
  if (!isset($timezones[$timezone])) {
    $timezones[$timezone] = timezone_open($timezone);
  }

  // Use the default langcode if none is set.
  global $language;
  if (empty($langcode)) {
    $langcode = isset($language->language) ? $language->language : 'en';
  }

  switch ($type) {
    case 'short':
      $format = variable_get('date_format_short', 'm/d/Y - H:i');
      break;
    case 'long':
      $format = variable_get('date_format_long', 'l, F j, Y - H:i');
      break;
    case 'custom':
      // No change to format.
      break;
    case 'medium':
    default:
      $format = variable_get('date_format_medium', 'D, m/d/Y - H:i');
  }

  // Create a DateTime object from the timestamp.
  $date_time = date_create('@' . $timestamp);
  // Set the time zone for the DateTime object.
  date_timezone_set($date_time, $timezones[$timezone]);

  // Encode markers that should be translated. 'A' becomes '\xEF\AA\xFF'.
  // xEF and xFF are invalid UTF-8 sequences, and we assume they are not in the
  // input string.
  // Paired backslashes are isolated to prevent errors in read-ahead evaluation.
  // The read-ahead expression ensures that A matches, but not \A.
  $format = preg_replace(array('/\\\\\\\\/', '/(?<!\\\\)([AaeDlMTF])/'), array("\xEF\\\\\\\\\xFF", "\xEF\\\\\$1\$1\xFF"), $format);

  // Call date_format().
  $format = date_format($date_time, $format);

  // Pass the langcode to _format_date_callback().
  _format_date_callback(NULL, $langcode);

  // Translate the marked sequences.
  return preg_replace_callback('/\xEF([AaeDlMTF]?)(.*?)\xFF/', '_format_date_callback', $format);
}
?>

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