Working with date parameters

Several WunderAutomation parameter returns a date. You can change how the date is returned in two ways. Using the format modifier to define how the date is represented in text, and the add parameter to change the actual date returned.

As with all parameters the easiest way to write the parameter placeholder is to use the parameter editor:

Date format #

The date format is determined as follows:

• If the parameter placeholder has a format modifier, it will be used.
• If not, the default date format in WunderAutomation settings will be used
• If no default date format is set, the WordPress default date format from Settings >> General Settings will be used

The format is defined using a standard PHP date formatting string. The format follow the PHP date() function. For example the sting Y-m-d would produce a date formated like this: 2020-05-12

Some common date and time formats:

Format string	Description	Example
l jS	Simple text representation without month	Monday 12th
F j, Y	WordPress default date	May 12, 2020
g:i a	WordPress default time	4:59 pm
F j, Y g:i a	Date and time combined (WordPress default)	May 12, 2020 4:59 pm
Y-m-d H:i:s	Date and time using ISO 8601	2020-05-20 16:59

See the date format reference section below for details on what each letter in the date string represents.

Some common date formatting tricks #

Assuming the parameter would have returned May 12, 2020. The following special formatting strings would return:

Format string	Description	Result
F 1, Y	First day of the month	May 1 2020
F t, Y	Last day of the month	May 31, 2020

Adding or subtracting time #

Using the add modifier, it’s possible to manipulate the returned date by adding or subtracting from it. This follows the syntax of the PHP strtotime() function. Some examples assuming that the original date returned from the parameter is 10:00 AM May 12th 2020.

Modifier	Description	Return
+1 day	Adds one day. Note that both “day” and “days” work	May 13, 2020
1 day	Adds one day (the default is to add)	May 13, 2020
-2 weeks	Subtract 2 weeks. Note that both “week” and “weeks” works.	April 28, 2020
-12 hours	Subtract 12 hours. Note that both “hour” and “hours” work.	May 11, 2020
last tuesday	Calculates last Tuesday based on today being May 12, 2020 (also a Tuesday)	May 5, 2020
next tuesday	Calculates next Tuesday based on today being May 12, 2020 (also a Tuesday)	May 19, 2020

Date format reference #

Letter / code	Description	Example
d	Day of month. Always 2 digits with leading zeros if needed	01 to 31
D	A three letter text representation of the weekday	Mon, Tue, Sun
j	Day of the month, without leading zeros	1, 5, 31
l	(lowercase ‘L’) Full text representation of the weeday	Monday, Sunday
N	ISO-8601 numeric representation of the weekday.	1 (Monday) to 7 (Sunday)
S	English ordinal suffix for the day of the month, 2 characters	st, nd, rd or th
w	Numeric representation of weekday	0 (Sunday) to 6 (Saturday)
z	The day of the year. Jan 1st is zero	0 to 365
W	ISO-8601 week number of year, weeks starting on Monday	1, 10 52
F	A full textual representation of a month, such as January or March	January, March
m	Numeric representation of a month, with leading zeros	01 (January), 11 (November)
M	A short textual representation of a month, three letters	Jan, Feb, Dec
n	Numeric representation of a month, without leading zeros	1 to 12
t	Number of days in the given month	28 to 31
L	Leap year or not.	1 for a leap year, 0 for non leap year
o	ISO-8601 week-numbering year. This has the same value as Y, except that if the ISO week number (W) belongs to the previous or next year, that year is used instead. (added in PHP 5.1.0)	1999 or 2020
Y	A full numeric representation of a year, 4 digits	2018
y	A two digit representation of the year	09
a	Lowercase Ante meridiem and Post meridiem	am or pm
A	Uppercase Ante meridiem and Post meridiem	AM or PM
B	Swatch Internet time	000 to 999
g	12-hour format of an hour without leading zeros	1 to 12
G	24-hour format of an hour without leading zeros	0 to 23
h	12-hour format of an hour with leading zeros	01 to 12
H	24-hour format of an hour with leading zeros	01 to 23
i	Minutes with leading zeros	0 to 59
s	Seconds with leading zeros	0 to 59
e	Timezone identifier	UTC, GMT, Atlantic/Azores
I	(capital i) Whether or not the date is in daylight saving time	1 for DST, 0 for standard time
O	Difference to Greenwich time (GMT) without colon between hours and minutes	+0200
P	Difference to Greenwich time (GMT) with colon between hours and minutes	+02:00
T	Timezone abbreviation	EST
Z	Timezone offset in seconds. The offset for timezones west of UTC is always negative, and for those east of UTC is always positive.	-43200 to 50400