Multiple the_date() Functions Return Empty Date
Inside the loop, if you use the function the_date() to display the date the post was published, you may run into trouble. Specifically, if there are two posts published on the same day, the second one will return nothing for a date.
To fix this, use the_time() instead. There is quirk though, as the_time() ouputs, by default, literally a time like “6:02 pm”. You can pass date parameters into it though, and make it output a date instead like the_time(m/d/Y). This means that the date formatting is controlled by your theme though, instead of the Admin area. To get the control back, use this instead:
the_time(get_option('date_format'));About the author
Chris Coyier is a real-world web designer who has been reaching for WordPress to power client sites for many years. He subscribes to the theory that not only is WordPress capable of powering any website it is almost always the right choice. His other projects include CodePen and Quotes on Design.
5 responses
-
This just happened to me, and I couldn’t figure out why. I’m not super thrilled with the formatting it gives but it will have to work. I’d rather have “2009-10-05” like i did before. Is this still possible?
Thanks for posting this
-
Chris Coyier Post AuthorThat’s the whole point, you can control the formatting from Settings > General.
-
-
Another option, if you did just want to use the_date()’s output multiple times would be to do this right at the start of The Loop:
$the_date = the_date('', '', '', FALSE);And then wherever you want it, just do:
echo $the_date; -
Jeff WaughThe same-date-disappearing thing is an amusing sense-of-taste Mattism in the WordPress code. You can turn this off (should you want a date to appear next to every post rather than using separate date headings) by doing the following within a template:
global $previousday; $previousday = -1;Then you can just use the usual template functions. Done. :-)
-
Joel G GoodmanChris, I saw your tweet about that last week and thought “well yeah, that’s on purpose”. :) I’ve used it a few times.
It’s sort of like old livejournal style – visually group today’s posts under today’s date.
