Title: Date format Last modified: March 7, 2018 --- # Date format * Resolved [mehmeh](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mehmeh/) * (@mehmeh) * [8 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/date-format-139/) * Hello, * Thanks for this plugin. I was wondering if it’d be possible to format the time as; “X minutes ago, X hours ago, X days ago” and so on, instead of the formal PHP time format. If someone left a comment 2 minutes ago, writing i.e. 2 minutes ago, is much better than writing 8 Mar 2018, 22:34. * I’d think this would be fairly easy to implement for a dev, no? * Thank you Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) * [Andy Keith](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andykeith/) * (@andykeith) * [8 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/date-format-139/#post-10104721) * Hi, * Sorry for the slow reply. You could do this but you would need to implement a‘ relative date/time’ function as there aren’t any natively in PHP. This forum thread gives some examples: [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2690504/php-producing-relative-date-time-from-timestamps](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2690504/php-producing-relative-date-time-from-timestamps) * In our plugin you would then need to override the call to `get_comment_date()` function in `Better_Recent_Comments_Util::get_recent_comments()`, either directly, or using the ‘get_comment_date’ filter. * Andy * [ejm](https://wordpress.org/support/users/llizard/) * (@llizard) * [7 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/date-format-139/#post-10374468) * I would like to do something a little simpler than changing to relative time. Alas, I only know enough about coding to get myself in trouble. I tried adding the following to my theme’s functions file, but (aside from the fact that it’s quite unwieldy) it didn’t work at all. * ``` /*............... Changing date format from 'M j, H:i' to 'l, j F Y' on Better_Recent_Comments_Util ...............*/ function new_default_shortcode_args() { return array( 'number' => 5, 'format' => self::get_comment_format(), 'date_format' => 'l, j F Y', 'avatar_size' => 50, 'post_status' => 'publish', 'excerpts' => true ); } add_filter('default_shortcode_args', 'new_default_shortcode_args'); ``` * The description of the plugin implies that the date format can be changed in the shortcode * > Options available with the shortcode: > […] date_format – the PHP date format > to use. Defaults to ‘M j, H:i’. See this cheat sheet for a full list of date > and time options. * Rather than imposing an arbitrary date format, please explain how to change the coding to use the date format that is in the WP settings: `date(get_option('date_format'))` * If I knew how to do this, I would…. Thank you for any help that can be offered on this. * E Morris * [Andy Keith](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andykeith/) * (@andykeith) * [7 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/date-format-139/#post-10374492) * Hi, * It’s not possible currently to default to the WordPress date format setting. However you could pass the same date format you have set there into the shortcode, by setting the `date_format` option. For example: * `[better_recent_comments date_format="l, j F Y"]` * Andy * [ejm](https://wordpress.org/support/users/llizard/) * (@llizard) * [7 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/date-format-139/#post-10375207) * Thank you, Andy. Because I’m using the sidebar widget, I had hoped it could be incorporated into the coding itself, but at least this is a solution. I’ll keep staring at the coding to see where to put the shortcode. I wonder if I can do this in my theme’s functions file with a conditional. Something along the lines of “if better-recent-comments is there… then date_format=”l, j F Y” (Again, having attended the University of the Internet, I only know enough about coding to get myself in trouble.) * Do you think that setting the default to the WP date format setting might be an option in a future version? I hope so…. * E Morris * _A little knowledge is a dangerous thing_ * [Andy Keith](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andykeith/) * (@andykeith) * [7 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/date-format-139/#post-10375515) * Hi, * I don’t think you need to add any code. If you add a new text widget under Appearance- > Widgets, then paste the shortcode I included earlier, that should do it… * All being well 🙂 * [ejm](https://wordpress.org/support/users/llizard/) * (@llizard) * [7 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/date-format-139/#post-10375677) * Ohhhh! I hadn’t thought of that option. But, alas, it didn’t work. The date format remained in the `M j, H:i` form. Also, there was no way to make the comments themselves invisible. I only want the commenter’s name, post link and comment date to show on the sidebar. * Also, the text version was shifted over to the right (I confess that I didn’t look at the rendered coding to see what was causing it (an extra `