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# Dates

As a rule of thumb, always pass dates to Smarty as timestamps. This allows template designers to use the `date_format` modifier for full control over date formatting, and also makes it easy to compare dates if necessary.

Example 18-4. Using date_format
    {$startDate|date_format}
This will output:
    Jan 4, 2009
    {$startDate|date_format:"%Y/%m/%d"}
This will output:
    2009/01/04
Dates can be compared in the template by timestamps with:
    {if $order_date < $invoice_date}
       ...do something..
    {/if}

When using `{html_select_date}` in a template, the programmer will most likely want to convert the output from the form back into timestamp format. Here is a function to help you with that.

Example 18-5. Converting form date elements back to a timestamp
`<?php // this assumes your form elements are named // startDate_Day, startDate_Month, startDate_Year $startDate = makeTimeStamp($startDate_Year, $startDate_Month, $startDate_Day); function makeTimeStamp($year='', $month='', $day='') { if(empty($year)) { $year = strftime('%Y'); } if(empty($month)) { $month = strftime('%m'); } if(empty($day)) { $day = strftime('%d'); } return mktime(0, 0, 0, $month, $day, $year); } ?>`

See also `{html_select_date}`, `{html_select_time}`, `date_format` and `$smarty.now`,

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