Working with dates

There are 3 Twig functions for working with dates:

date() function , which is used to get the current date, or convert a string into a date.
date() filter , which is used to format a date.
date_modify() filter , which is used to modify a date.

date() utilizes the formatting parameters found here: http://php.net/manual/en/function.date.php

You could use the date filter to format a date in a variable:

{% set first_action = '2012-12-13 12:22:33' %}
{{ first_action |   date("F j, Y") }}
{#Results in: December 13, 2012 #}

Using date() as a function without passing it arguments results the current date, which can be similarly formatted:

{{ date() |   date("F j, Y") }}

If you wanted to have a date that is 7 days from now:

{{  date() | date_modify("+7 day") |  date("m/d/Y") }}

You could also localize a date according to timezone.

To check what timezone your server dates are in in the first place, run:

{{ date() | date("e") }}

This will likely be either UTC or US/Eastern.

If you wanted to localize a date (say, some_date_string to be in Parisian time, you could do:

{{ some_date_string | date("Y-m-d h:m:s", "Europe/Paris") }}