Locale operators #

Dates, times, numbers and money are formatted for a locale, not with PHP's date(). The 7 operators on this page are registered by eZTemplateLocaleOperator (lib/eztemplate/classes/eztemplatelocaleoperator.php) through lib/eztemplate/classes/eztemplateautoload.php, and do their work with eZLocale (lib/ezlocale/classes/ezlocale.php) and the locale files in share/locale/.

All examples use fixed timestamps made with maketime, so they do not change from day to day. Formats without a locale code use the locale of the siteaccess (on the site siteaccess: US English formats, as the output shows).

Contents #

1. l10n
2. datetime
3. maketime, makedate and gettime
4. currentdate
5. locale
6. Related pages

l10n #

l10n #

Formats the piped value with one of the formatting functions of eZLocale (its $functionMap):

An unknown type logs "Unknown locale type".

Returns a string. Generated reference: l10n.

{def $t = maketime( 14, 5, 0, 10, 19, 2026 )}
time          {$t|l10n( 'time' )}
shorttime     {$t|l10n( 'shorttime' )}
date          {$t|l10n( 'date' )}
shortdate     {$t|l10n( 'shortdate' )}
datetime      {$t|l10n( 'datetime' )}
shortdatetime {$t|l10n( 'shortdatetime' )}
number        {1234567.891|l10n( 'number' )}
currency      {1234.5|l10n( 'currency' )}
clean_currency {1234.5|l10n( 'clean_currency' )}

Output:

time          02:05:00 pm
shorttime     02:05 pm
date          Monday October 19 2026
shortdate     10/19/2026
datetime      Monday October 19 2026 02:05:00 pm
shortdatetime 10/19/2026 02:05 pm
number        1,234,567.89
currency      $1,234.50
clean_currency 1,234.50

The same values for another locale, and a currency symbol of your own:

{def $t = maketime( 14, 5, 0, 10, 19, 2026 )}
ger-DE date     {$t|l10n( 'date', 'ger-DE' )}
ger-DE number   {1234567.891|l10n( 'number', 'ger-DE' )}
ger-DE currency {1234.5|l10n( 'currency', 'ger-DE' )}
currency with symbol 'EUR' {1234.5|l10n( 'currency', 'eng-GB', 'EUR' )}

Output:

ger-DE date     Montag, 19. Oktober 2026
ger-DE number   1.234.567,89
ger-DE currency € 1.234,50
currency with symbol 'EUR' EUR 1,234.50

datetime #

datetime #

Formats a timestamp with a named class from settings/datetime.ini [ClassSettings] Formats[], or with a format of your own when the class is custom. eZLocale::formatDateTimeType() turns the format into one for PHP's date(): the letters are PHP's date letters with a % in front (%Y year, %m month with zero, %n month without zero, %d and %j day, %H and %h hours, %i minutes, %s seconds), and other letters are kept as text. The names %D, %l (day), %M, %F (month) and %a, %A (am/pm) are filled in by the locale, in its language.

The classes on a development installation (kernel datetime.ini; ezfind adds solr, but ezfind is not active here):

Add a class in your extension's settings/datetime.ini.append.php under [ClassSettings] and use it everywhere. Returns a string. Generated reference: datetime.

{def $t = maketime( 14, 5, 0, 10, 19, 2026 )}
short_date      {$t|datetime( 'short_date' )}
long_date       {$t|datetime( 'long_date' )}
short_date_usa  {$t|datetime( 'short_date_usa' )}
time_12         {$t|datetime( 'time_12' )}
time_24         {$t|datetime( 'time_24' )}
custom ISO 8601 {$t|datetime( 'custom', '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%i:%s' )}
custom words    {$t|datetime( 'custom', '%l %j %F %Y' )}

Output:

short_date      19.10.2026
long_date       19 October 2026
short_date_usa  10/19/2026
time_12         02:05:00 pm
time_24         14:05:00
custom ISO 8601 2026-10-19T14:05:00
custom words    Monday 19 October 2026

A class that does not exist logs an error and leaves the timestamp as it was:

[{maketime( 14, 5, 0, 10, 19, 2026 )|datetime( 'no_such_class' )}]

Output:

[1792443900]

Logged by the template engine:

ERROR datetime: DateTime class 'no_such_class' is not defined

maketime, makedate and gettime #

maketime #

PHP mktime() with the parameters given, in mktime's order. Parameters left out are not passed, so PHP uses the current value for them; with none at all it returns time(). Returns a Unix timestamp.

Generated reference: maketime.

makedate #

mktime( 0, 0, 0, month, day, year ): midnight of a date.

Generated reference: makedate.

gettime #

Splits a timestamp into a hash with the keys seconds, minutes, hours, day, month, year, weeknumber (ISO 8601, weeks starting on Monday), weekday (0 is Sunday), yearday (0 is January 1) and epoch. Without a timestamp it uses the current time.

Generated reference: gettime.

{def $t = maketime( 14, 5, 0, 10, 19, 2026 )
     $d = makedate( 12, 25, 2026 )
     $info = gettime( $t )}
maketime( 14, 5, 0, 10, 19, 2026 ) = {$t}
makedate( 12, 25, 2026 ) = {$d} ({$d|datetime( 'custom', '%l %j %F %Y, %H:%i' )})
gettime( $t ): {foreach $info as $key => $value}{$key}={$value} {/foreach}

gettime( $d ).weekday = {gettime( $d ).weekday}

Output:

maketime( 14, 5, 0, 10, 19, 2026 ) = 1792443900
makedate( 12, 25, 2026 ) = 1798185600 (Friday 25 December 2026, 00:00)
gettime( $t ): seconds=0 minutes=5 hours=14 day=19 month=10 year=2026 weeknumber=43 weekday=1 yearday=291 epoch=1792443900 
gettime( $d ).weekday = 5

Pass the timestamp as a parameter. The interpreter also takes it from the piped input:

{def $t = maketime( 14, 5, 0, 10, 19, 2026 )}
$t|gettime.hours = {$t|gettime.hours}

Output:

$t|gettime.hours = 14

but the compiled code (getTimeTransformation()) looks only at the parameters, so compiled on a development installation the same line used the current time and printed the current hour instead of 14. gettime( $t ) gives the same answer in both.

Output with the template compiler (compiled into a scratch folder):

$t|gettime.hours = 2

currentdate #

currentdate #

The current Unix timestamp (time()). No parameters, no input. Inside a cache-block or a view-cached page the value is the time the cache was made. Generated reference: currentdate.

The example tests the value instead of printing it, so the page does not change every day; it also computes an age in days from the publishing date of the Privacy Policy article on a development installation (node 90):

{def $now = currentdate()}
currentdate() is a Unix timestamp: {$now|is_integer|choose( 'no', 'yes' )}, after 2026-01-01: {$now|gt( makedate( 1, 1, 2026 ) )|choose( 'no', 'yes' )}
Published age of the Privacy Policy article in whole days is a number: {div( sub( $now, fetch( 'content', 'node', hash( 'node_id', 90 ) ).object.published ), 86400 )|floor|is_numeric|choose( 'no', 'yes' )}

Output:

currentdate() is a Unix timestamp: yes, after 2026-01-01: yes
Published age of the Privacy Policy article in whole days is a number: yes

locale #

locale #

Returns the eZLocale object for a locale code, given piped or as the parameter. Its attributes include locale_code, language_name, country_name, currency_symbol, currency_name and the formats. Without a code it reports the missing parameter localestring; the current locale is reached through the formatting operators instead.

Returns an object. Generated reference: locale.

{def $de = locale( 'ger-DE' )
     $no = 'nor-NO'|locale}
locale( 'ger-DE' ): {$de.locale_code}, {$de.language_name}, currency {$de.currency_symbol}
'nor-NO'|locale: {$no.locale_code}, {$no.language_name}

Output:

locale( 'ger-DE' ): ger-DE, Deutsch (Deutschland), currency €
'nor-NO'|locale: nor-NO, Norsk (Bokmål)

Related pages #

• Dates, numbers and localization for designers
• Arithmetic operators: computing with timestamps
• PHP string functions: encode and format: number_format, sprintf
• All template operators (generated)
• Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.