TutorialRelative Date Merge Tag Modifier Gravity Forms

Do you want to display or use a Gravity Forms Date Field value as another relative date, for example tomorrow or week later, the first day of next month or a certain amount of days ago? With the GravityWP – Advanced Merge Tags Add-on for Gravity Forms you get a Merge Tag Modifier to easily do that.

Get Advanced Merge Tags

Modifier gwp_date_format

You can use the gwp_date_format Modifier to accomplish modifying the Merge Tag value (output) of a Date Field (and even a Text Field which contains a correctly formatted date). See for example the code below, where the Modifier takes the filled in value in the form and modifies the output to the first day of next month and shows the result in the format m/d/Y:

{Date Field:5:gwp_date_format modify="first day of next month" format="m/d/Y"}

Configuring relative date formats

Check out the documentation on Relative Formats on php.net. We’ll give you a brief ‘How To’ here.

To configure the relative date, you have to fill something after ‘modify=’ in the Merge Tag Modifier. You can make your own combination using the tools below:

daynamesunday | monday | tuesday | wednesday | thursday | friday | saturday | sun | mon | tue | wed | thu | fri | sat
ordinalfirst | second | third | fourth | fifth | sixth | seventh | eighth | ninth | tenth | eleventh | twelfth | next | last | previous | this
unitsec | second | min | minute | hour | day | fortnight | forthnight | month | year | weeks | daytext

Make combinations

modify="+1 month"Date + 1 month
modify="last day of +1 month'"Date + 1 month > last day of that month
modify="+2 weeks"Date + 2 weeks
modify="-2 weeks"Date minus (-) 2 weeks (two weeks ago)
modify="2 weeks ago"Date minus (-) 2 weeks (two weeks ago)
modify="+3 weekdays"Date + 3 weekdays (skips the weekend)
Examples of relative dates possible.

Skip the weekend using weekdays

You can also use ‘weekday’ or ‘weekdays’ in the Merge Tag Modifier. In that case it will skip Saturday and Sunday (skip the weekend). For example if you use a date that is on Friday and you use in the Merge Tag Modifier ‘+1 weekday’, it will give you the date of Monday. If you use the same relative date on Monday, it will return Tuesday. 

{Date Field:1:gwp_date_format modify="+1 weekday" format="m/d/Y"}
{Date Field:1:gwp_date_format modify="+3 weekdays" format="m/d/Y"}

Change the output date format

You can use the gwp_date_format Modifier in combination with other settings, like output format. We’ve included that in the examples before. 

{Date Field:1:gwp_date_format modify="+3 weekdays" format="Y-m-d H:i:s"}

Change the timezone

You can also directly change the timezone of the output. Use it in combination with the timezone setting: 

{Date Field:1:gwp_date_format modify="+3 weekdays" format="Y-m-d H:i:s" timezone="Europe/Amsterdam"}

Read more about changing timezones in our tutorial: Modifying Timezone Gravity Forms Date Field.

Date Created

You can also use the modify settings on the date the Gravity Forms entry was created. Use for that the gwp_date_created Merge Tag (no need to add an id, because this is meta data in the Entry): 

{gwp_date_created modify="+3 weekdays" format="d-m-Y"}

Date Updated

You can also use the modify settings on the date the Gravity Forms entry was last updated. Use for that the gwp_date_updated Merge Tag (no need to add an id, because this is meta data in the Entry): 

{gwp_date_updated modify="+3 weekdays" format="d-m-Y"}

FAQ relative dates

Does the gwp_date_format Merge Tag Modifier changes the value of the field in the Gravity Forms Entry?

No, the Merge Tag only displays the changed date (the relative date) on the place you use the Merge Tag Modifier. You can use the Merge Tag Modifier inside a Gravity Flow Update Fields or Edit Entry step to capture the output.

Can I also change the Merge Tag ouput of the Date Created of the Gravity Forms Entry?

Yes, you can use the gwp_date_created Merge Tag to modify the output of the date an Entry was created.

Can I change the Merge output of the date the Gravity Forms Entry was last updated?

Yes, for that you can use the gwp_date_updated Merge Tag.

Why do I have to fill in the Field ID in the gwp_date_field Merge Tag?

The Field ID points to the field which contains the filled in (or selected) Date you want to modify.

Can I use any relative date functionality to modify the Date?

Yes, for all possibilities of modifying the date, you can check out the documentation on Relative Formats on php.net.

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Author: Erik van Beek

Published: 11-02-2022

Last updated: 25-09-2024

4 minutes
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