Title: Dynamic date?
Last modified: August 20, 2016

---

# Dynamic date?

 *  Resolved [ousmanemariko](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ousmanemariko/)
 * (@ousmanemariko)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/)
 * I’m trying to get the date to show like it does on here: loopinsight.com. Basically
   the site shows the current date at the top of the page and if you scroll down,
   the date is shows when the posts were published on a previous date until another
   day shows up.
 * I know I need a date-container in my style.css file. I know how to do that, but
   I don’t know how to do it in the php file.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 24 total)

1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/page/2/?output_format=md)
[→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/page/2/?output_format=md)

 *  [Jacob Chappell](https://wordpress.org/support/users/master-jake/)
 * (@master-jake)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/#post-2499425)
 * The dates that are displayed with each post are saved when the posts are saved(
   as in they’re static). As far as the *current date* goes, that’s pretty simple
   with PHP’s [date()](http://php.net/manual/en/function.date.php) function. Read
   that page to get the formatting that you want. Here’s the formatting that the
   loopinsight.com site you linked to uses:
 *     ```
       <?php echo date( 'F d, Y' ); ?>
       ```
   
 * You could force that captalization of the month name with either CSS’s text-transform
   property or directly in PHP with [strtoupper()](http://us3.php.net/manual/en/function.strtoupper.php).
 *  Thread Starter [ousmanemariko](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ousmanemariko/)
 * (@ousmanemariko)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/#post-2499434)
 * I got that part, but what I’m stuck on is getting it to show not just at the 
   top, but as the days change as I scroll down the page. So it’s something like
   this
 * January 10, 2011
    post post post post January 9, 2011 post post post January 
   6, 2011 post post
 * That date only shows as the post date changes.
 *  [Jacob Chappell](https://wordpress.org/support/users/master-jake/)
 * (@master-jake)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/#post-2499445)
 * Ahhh, I get it. Just thinking off the top of my head, here’s a solution that 
   could work. What you need to do is use WP_Query and order your posts by their
   date descending (in other words newest posts come first). Now right before the
   loop, create a variable to keep track of date/time information. On each iteration
   of the loop, check to see if the date/time of the current post is different than
   that of the saved date/time. If it is, output the new date/time and reset the
   variable to be this new value. Otherwise do nothing.
 * Hope this logic doesn’t sound too confusing the way I’m presenting it. Here’s
   sort of an (untested) example of what I mean:
 *     ```
       // Variable to store date/time
       $datetime = null;
   
       // WordPress Loop
       if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
   
       	// If datetime is null, set it to the current datetime.
       	// Otherwise, perform the output check.
       	if ( $datetime === null ) {
       		$datetime = (int) get_the_time( 'Ymd' );
       	} else if ( (int) get_the_time( 'Ymd' ) > $datetime ) {
       		// This post was made on a new day, so output that day:
       		the_time( 'F d, Y' );
       	}
   
       	// Normal wordpress posts output like title and content.
       	// These will be ran on every iteration of the loop (as usual)
       	// but the datetime will only be printed when a new day
       	// is reached.
       	the_title();
       	the_content();
       	// etc..
   
       endwhile;
       endif;
       ```
   
 * Let me know if anything needs clarification.
 *  [Jacob Chappell](https://wordpress.org/support/users/master-jake/)
 * (@master-jake)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/#post-2499449)
 * Oh, as an early clarification, I’m using `Ymd` as the format for the date/time
   because it will output the year month and day stringed together like this:
 * `20110129 for January 29, 2011`
 * I can then cast that to an integer and perform a check against other integers
   with it. Since we’re only paying attention to the year, month and day (and not
   the time) the check will only return true if a post was made on a separate day(
   rather than separate time which posts naturally will be).
 * In other words, a post on February 1st of 2011 would become this:
 * `20110201`
 * And 20110201 is greater than 20110129 🙂
 *  Thread Starter [ousmanemariko](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ousmanemariko/)
 * (@ousmanemariko)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/#post-2499458)
 * Thanks! I’m going to try it out. I’m still very, very new to editing php files
   so I hope I don’t ruin anything. I’ll check back in a bit!
 *  Thread Starter [ousmanemariko](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ousmanemariko/)
 * (@ousmanemariko)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/#post-2499461)
 * Should I add a <div class=….> for the date?
 * If so, is is the index.php the only place in which I should add it? I think I
   would have to modify the style.css file and add it?
 * Sorry if these are beginner questions.
 *  [Jacob Chappell](https://wordpress.org/support/users/master-jake/)
 * (@master-jake)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/#post-2499464)
 * Hey, no problem.
 * Honestly, you can format the date however you like. A div with a special class
   wouldn’t be bad. You’d need to add the div itself to the index file where the
   date is being outputted. As for the styling, you’d need to either edit style.
   css or create your own stylesheet and put it in there. Might look something like
   this:
 *     ```
       /* style.css */
       .my-post-date {
       	color: #999;
       	margin-bottom: 0.5em;
       	/* whatever other styles you want */
       }
   
       /* index.php */
       <div class="my-post-date">
       	<?php the_time( 'F d, Y' ); ?>
       </div>
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [ousmanemariko](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ousmanemariko/)
 * (@ousmanemariko)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/#post-2499468)
 * Ok, going back to the loop, should that be added to index.php? Here’s what it
   looks like now.
 *     ```
       get_header(); // Loads the header.php template. ?>
   
       	<div id="content" class="hfeed content">
   
       		<?php do_atomic( 'before_content' ); // sboard_before_content ?>
   
       		<?php if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
   
       			<div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" class="<?php sboard_entry_class(); ?>">
   
       				<?php do_atomic( 'before_entry' ); // sboard_before_entry ?>
   
       				<div class="entry-content">
       					<?php the_content( sprintf( __( 'Continue reading %1$s', sboard_get_textdomain() ), the_title( ' "', '"', false ) ) ); ?>
       					<?php wp_link_pages( array( 'before' => '<p class="page-links pages">' . __( 'Pages:', sboard_get_textdomain() ), 'after' => '</p>' ) ); ?>
       				</div><!-- .entry-content -->
   
       				<?php do_atomic( 'after_entry' ); // sboard_after_entry ?>
   
       			</div><!-- .hentry -->
   
       			<?php if ( is_singular() ) { ?>
   
       				<?php do_atomic( 'after_singular' ); // sboard_after_singular ?>
   
       				<?php comments_template( '/comments.php', true ); // Loads the comments.php template ?>
   
       			<?php } ?>
   
       			<?php endwhile; ?>
   
       		<?php else: ?>
   
       			<?php get_template_part( 'loop-error' ); // Loads the loop-error.php template. ?>
   
       		<?php endif; ?>
   
       		<?php do_atomic( 'after_content' ); // sboard_after_content ?>
   
       	</div><!-- .content .hfeed -->
   
       <?php get_footer();
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [ousmanemariko](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ousmanemariko/)
 * (@ousmanemariko)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/#post-2499470)
 * I haven’t added the loop yet.
 *  Thread Starter [ousmanemariko](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ousmanemariko/)
 * (@ousmanemariko)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/#post-2499472)
 * Does this look right? It’s added right after the fourth line of code
    <?php if(
   have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
 *     ```
       <div class="my-post-date">
       	<?php the_time( 'F d, Y' ); ?>
   
       <?php $datetime = null;
       	if ( $datetime === null ) {
       		$datetime = (int) get_the_time( 'Ymd' );
       	}
       	 else if ( (int) get_the_time( 'Ymd' ) > $datetime ) {
       		// This post was made on a new day, so output that day:
       		the_time( 'F d, Y' );
       	} ?>
       </div>
       ```
   
 *  [Jacob Chappell](https://wordpress.org/support/users/master-jake/)
 * (@master-jake)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/#post-2499475)
 * You need to remove that first occurrence of `the_time()`. You only want that 
   to output if the condition is met. Also, you need to initialize `$datetime` *
   before* the loop, otherwise it will just reset to null on every iteration rendering
   it useless.
 *     ```
       <?php
   
       	$datetime = null;
       	if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
   
       	if ( $datetime === null ) {
       		$datetime = (int) get_the_time( 'Ymd' );
       	} else if ( (int) get_the_time( 'Ymd' ) > $datetime ) { ?>
       		<div class="my-post-date">
       			<?php the_time( 'F d, Y' ); ?>
       		</div>
       	<?php }
   
       	?>
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [ousmanemariko](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ousmanemariko/)
 * (@ousmanemariko)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/#post-2499476)
 * I get an error in the second to last line with
    `<?php}`
 *  [Jacob Chappell](https://wordpress.org/support/users/master-jake/)
 * (@master-jake)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/#post-2499477)
 * Oops, I accidentally posted it with the closing tag after the loop line. Change
   this:
 *     ```
       if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
       ```
   
 * to this:
 *     ```
       if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [ousmanemariko](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ousmanemariko/)
 * (@ousmanemariko)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/#post-2499480)
 * The following is what I have but I’m not getting anything. I don’t think I did
   it right.
 *     ```
       get_header(); // Loads the header.php template. ?>
   
       	<div id="content" class="hfeed content">
   
       		<?php do_atomic( 'before_content' ); // sboard_before_content ?>
   
       <?php
   
       	$datetime = null;
       	if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
   
       	if ( $datetime === null ) {
       		$datetime = (int) get_the_time( 'Ymd' );
       	} else if ( (int) get_the_time( 'Ymd' ) > $datetime ) { ?>
       		<div class="my-post-date">
       			<?php the_time( 'F d, Y' ); ?>
       		</div>
       	<?php }
   
       	?>
   
       			<div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" class="<?php sboard_entry_class(); ?>">
   
       				<?php do_atomic( 'before_entry' ); // sboard_before_entry ?>
   
       				<div class="entry-content">
       					<?php the_content( sprintf( __( 'Continue reading %1$s', sboard_get_textdomain() ), the_title( ' "', '"', false ) ) ); ?>
       					<?php wp_link_pages( array( 'before' => '<p class="page-links pages">' . __( 'Pages:', sboard_get_textdomain() ), 'after' => '</p>' ) ); ?>
       				</div><!-- .entry-content -->
   
       				<?php do_atomic( 'after_entry' ); // sboard_after_entry ?>
   
       			</div><!-- .hentry -->
   
       			<?php if ( is_singular() ) { ?>
   
       				<?php do_atomic( 'after_singular' ); // sboard_after_singular ?>
   
       				<?php comments_template( '/comments.php', true ); // Loads the comments.php template ?>
   
       			<?php } ?>
   
       			<?php endwhile; ?>
   
       		<?php else: ?>
   
       			<?php get_template_part( 'loop-error' ); // Loads the loop-error.php template. ?>
   
       		<?php endif; ?>
   
       		<?php do_atomic( 'after_content' ); // sboard_after_content ?>
   
       	</div><!-- .content .hfeed -->
   
       <?php get_footer();
       ```
   
 *  [Jacob Chappell](https://wordpress.org/support/users/master-jake/)
 * (@master-jake)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/#post-2499536)
 * Sorry again, I see another problem. As I was saying last night, none of this 
   code I’m giving you is tested, it’s just a foundation more or less. But I do 
   see one thing that I forgot to put in there. We’re not actually ever setting 
   the new datetime if it succeeds. Also, we need to actually echo the first datetime
   as well. Change only this part:
 *     ```
       <?php
   
       $datetime = null;
       if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
   
       if ( $datetime === null ) {
       	$datetime = (int) get_the_time( 'Ymd' );
       } else if ( (int) get_the_time( 'Ymd' ) > $datetime ) { ?>
       	<div class="my-post-date">
       		<?php the_time( 'F d, Y' ); ?>
       	</div>
       <?php }
   
       ?>
       ```
   
 * to this:
 *     ```
       <?php
   
       $datetime = null;
       if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
   
       if ( $datetime === null ) {
       	$datetime = (int) get_the_time( 'Ymd' );
       	?>
   
       	<div class="my-post-date">
       		<?php the_time( 'F d, Y' ); ?>
       	</div>
   
       	<?php
       } else if ( (int) get_the_time( 'Ymd' ) > $datetime ) {
       	$datetime = (int) get_the_time( 'Ymd' ); // reseting the datetime
       	?>
   
       	<div class="my-post-date">
       		<?php the_time( 'F d, Y' ); ?>
       	</div>
   
       	<?php
       }
   
       ?>
       ```
   

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 24 total)

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The topic ‘Dynamic date?’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 24 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Jacob Chappell](https://wordpress.org/support/users/master-jake/)
 * Last activity: [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-date/page/2/#post-2499548)
 * Status: resolved

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