This article will tell you how to change the standard date output in templates files (*.tpl.php) of a theme.

Solutions:

Select one of the standard date & time formats on the “Date and time” settings page.

• Drupal 6: admin/settings/date-time
• Drupal 5: admin/settings/date-time

Use format_date() function

You can use format_date() Drupal function to set the date format. This function takes account of time zone settings of your site and allows you to set one of the standard formats or create a new one.:

// use ‘medium’ standard Drupal date format
format_date($timestamp);

// use other drupal date format, for example ‘small’ or ‘large’
format_date($timestamp, ‘small’);
format_date($timestamp, ‘large’);

// use optional date format
format_date($timestamp, ‘custom’, ‘D, j M, Y \a\\t G:i’ );

Optional format has the same arguments as PHP function date() has. You can change the standard formats through administer (/admin/settings)