get_the_date() – Function | Developer.WordPress.org

Retrieves the date on which the post was written.

Description

Unlike the_date() this function will always return the date.
Modify output with the ‘get_the_date’ filter.

Parameters

$formatstringoptional: PHP date format. Defaults to the 'date_format' option.
Default:''
$postint|WP_Postoptional: Post ID or WP_Post object. Default current post.
Default:null

Return

string|int|false Date the current post was written. False on failure.

Source

function get_the_date( $format = '', $post = null ) {
	$post = get_post( $post );

	if ( ! $post ) {
		return false;
	}

	$_format = ! empty( $format ) ? $format : get_option( 'date_format' );

	$the_date = get_post_time( $_format, false, $post, true );

	/**
	 * Filters the date a post was published.
	 *
	 * @since 3.0.0
	 *
	 * @param string|int  $the_date Formatted date string or Unix timestamp if `$format` is 'U' or 'G'.
	 * @param string      $format   PHP date format.
	 * @param WP_Post     $post     The post object.
	 */
	return apply_filters( 'get_the_date', $the_date, $format, $post );
}

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Hooks

apply_filters( ‘get_the_date’, string|int $the_date, string $format, WP_Post $post ): Filters the date a post was published.

Uses	Description
get_post_time()`wp-includes/general-template.php`	Retrieves the time at which the post was written.
apply_filters()`wp-includes/plugin.php`	Calls the callback functions that have been added to a filter hook.
get_option()`wp-includes/option.php`	Retrieves an option value based on an option name.
get_post()`wp-includes/post.php`	Retrieves post data given a post ID or post object.

Show 2 more Show less

Used by	Description
wp_get_document_title()`wp-includes/general-template.php`	Returns document title for the current page.
get_the_archive_title()`wp-includes/general-template.php`	Retrieves the archive title based on the queried object.
the_date()`wp-includes/general-template.php`	Displays or retrieves the date the current post was written (once per date)
WP_Widget_Recent_Posts::widget()`wp-includes/widgets/class-wp-widget-recent-posts.php`	Outputs the content for the current Recent Posts widget instance.

Changelog

Version	Description
3.0.0	Introduced.

User Contributed Notes

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Chetan Prajapati 8 years ago

You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 12You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note
To get ISO 8601 date for meta, use
```
<time datetime="<?php echo get_the_date('c'); ?>" itemprop="datePublished"><?php echo get_the_date(); ?></time>
```
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Cameron Jones 9 years ago

You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 7You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note

All PHP date formats can be found here: http://php.net/manual/en/function.date.php

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Rose 8 years ago

You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 4You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note
To make the date appear as “Monday January 11, 2017”, for example, use
```
$post_date = get_the_date( 'l F j, Y' ); echo $post_date;
```
To make the date appear as “Wed Jan 9”, for example, use
```
$post_date = get_the_date( 'D M j' ); echo $post_date;
```
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joehamsh 5 years ago

You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 3You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note
Gets the date format in day, day symbol, short month and long year.
E.g. 15th Jan 2020
```
get_the_date( 'dS M Y', $post-&gt;ID )
```
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Codex 9 years ago

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Default Usage
```
<span class="entry-date"><?php echo get_the_date(); ?></span>
```
- For Front End Designers: Use this to simply display the month day, year (April 20, 2020) and then style the date with css using .entry-date.
  
  aryon 5 years ago
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Jonm511 5 years ago

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If you want to display the publish date in Ymd format (ex: 20191231):
```
<?php 
$post_date = get_the_date( 'Ymd' );
echo $post_date;
?>
```
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Nazrul Islam Nayan 5 years ago

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If you want to show the current month’s full name and year then you can use it.
E.g. January 2020

get_the_date( 'F Y', get_the_ID() );
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Tuhin Ahmed 3 years ago

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If you need the modified date for schema purpose in ISO format
```
<?php echo get_the_modified_date( 'c' ); ?>
```
- Shouldn’t this comment be under the page for the get_the_modified_date() instead? Or perhaps you could add a paragraph explaining that this function returns the published date, whereas if one requires the last modified date, then get_the_modified_date() should be called. The formatting for ISO 8601 had already been explained by the note submitted by @chetan200891.
  
  Gwyneth Llewelyn 9 months ago
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get_the_date( string $format = ”, int|WP_Post $post = null ): string|int|false

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