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$date is a method to display and format the current date and time.
$date
Display the current date and time, for example, Oct 19, 2003 and 9:54:50 PM respectively.
$date.long
Display the current date and time in a long form, for example, October 19, 2003 and 9:54:50 PM. respectively.
$date.full_date
Display the current date in a full form, for example, Sunday, October 19, 2003.
$date.get('format')
Display the current date in a specific format, for example, $date.get('yyyy-M-d H:m:s') is displayed as 2003-10-19 21:54:50.
| Letter | Date or Time Component | Example | 
|---|---|---|
| G | Era designator | AD | 
| y | Year 1996 | 96 | 
| M | Month in year | July; Jul; 07 | 
| w | Week in year | 27 | 
| W | Week in month | 2 | 
| D | Day in year | 189 | 
| d | Day in month | 10 | 
| F | Day of week in month | 2 | 
| E | Day in week | Tuesday; Tue | 
| a | Am/pm marker | PM | 
| H | Hour in day (0-23) | 0 | 
| k | Hour in day (1-24) | 24 | 
| K | Hour in am/pm (0-11) | 0 | 
| h | Hour in am/pm (1-12) | 12 | 
| m | Minute in hour | 30 | 
| s | Second in minute | 55 | 
| S | Millisecond | 978 | 
| z | Time zone | Pacific Standard Time; PST; GMT-08.00 | 
| Z | Time zone | Time zone -0800 | 
Year
- If the number of letters in a pattern letters is four or more, a calendar specific long form is used.
 - Otherwise, a calendar specific short or abbreviated form is used.
 
| Date and Time Pattern | Result | 
|---|---|
| yy | 10 | 
| yyyy | 2010 | 
Month
- If the number of letters in a pattern is less than 3, the number form is used.
 - If the number of letters in a pattern is 3, a short or abbreviated form is used.
 - If the number of letters in a pattern is 4 or more, the full form is used.
 
| Date and Time Pattern | Result | 
|---|---|
| M | 4 | 
| MM | 04 | 
| MMM | Apr | 
| MMMM | April | 
Days
- If the number of letters in a pattern is four or more, the full form is used.
 - Otherwise, a calendar specific short or abbreviated form is used.
 
| Date and Time Pattern | Result | 
|---|---|
| E | Mon | 
| EEEE |