To customize the date format in WordPress, follow these steps:
- Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
- Go to “Settings” > “General.”
- Scroll down to the “Date Format” section.
- Choose one of the predefined formats or create a custom format using PHP date format characters. To create a custom format, select the “Custom” option and enter the desired format string in the text box.
For example:
- “F j, Y” will display the date as “April 3, 2023.”
- “m/d/Y” will display the date as “04/03/2023.”
- “d/m/Y” will display the date as “03/04/2023.”
You can find more PHP date format characters in the PHP documentation: https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php
- After selecting or entering the desired date format, click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page.
Now, the date format you’ve chosen will be applied throughout your WordPress site wherever the default date format is used.
If you want to customize the date format for a specific instance in your theme or plugin, you can use the get_the_date() function. Here’s an example:
<?php echo get_the_date('F j, Y'); ?>
This code will display the date of the current post in the “April 3, 2023” format.
Remember to always backup your files before making any changes, and test your changes on a staging site or local development environment before applying them to your live site.