How to display $date in node.tpl.php using a preprocess function in template.php

Question

I want to check if the node is not a static page, and display $date in "node.tpl.php" within this <div>:

<div id="postDateArea"></div>

I currently have this in my node.tpl.php file:

<div id="postDateArea"><?php print $date; ?></div>

I currently have this in my template.php file:

function thebridge_preprocess_node(&$vars) {
  if($vars['type'] != 'static_page') {
  }
}

Answer 1

function thebridge_preprocess_node(&$vars) {
  if($vars['type'] != 'static_page') {
    $vars['date'] = date('Y-m-d');
  }
}

You might want to change the parameters of date(). More information in the Drupal documentation.

Answer 2

You can use the format_date function:

function thebridge_preprocess_node(&$vars) {
  $vars['date'] = format_date($vars['node']->created);
}

There are more parameters to format_date, most important the 'custom' format which allows for a custom PHP date() format.

function thebridge_preprocess_node(&$vars) {
  $vars['date'] = format_date($vars['node']->created, 'custom', 'F j');
}