Custom entry_date function

Question

I want to make a custom entry_date function based on the one found in twenty-thirteen. I just want to have the day, the month and the year in separate <span>s I don't understand why what I want to achieve will not work. The date is printed but not inside the <a href=""> tag.

What am I doing wrong?

My code is:

$date = sprintf( '<span class="date"><a href="%1$s" title="%2$s" rel="bookmark"><time class="entry-date" datetime="%3$s"><span class="date--day">%4$s</span><span class="date--month">%5$s</span><span class="date--year">%6$s</span></time></a></span>',
    esc_url( get_permalink() ),
    esc_attr( sprintf( __( 'Permalink to %s', 'lyod' ), the_title_attribute( 'echo=0' ) ) ),
    esc_attr( get_the_date( 'c' ) ),
    esc_attr( the_time(d)),
    esc_attr( the_time(M)),
    esc_attr( the_time(Y))
);

For the record, here is Twenty-Thirteen function:

$date = sprintf( '<span class="date"><a href="%1$s" title="%2$s" rel="bookmark"><time class="entry-date" datetime="%3$s">%4$s</time></a></span>',
    esc_url( get_permalink() ),
    esc_attr( sprintf( __( 'Permalink to %s', 'twentythirteen' ), the_title_attribute( 'echo=0' ) ) ),
    esc_attr( get_the_date( 'c' ) ),
    esc_html( sprintf( $format_prefix, get_post_format_string( get_post_format() ), get_the_date() ) )
);

Thank you in advance for the help!

Answer 1

You should be using get_the_date, rather than the_time (which will just echo the value). And always quote string arguments.

$date = sprintf( '<span class="date"><a href="%s" title="%s" rel="bookmark"><time class="entry-date" datetime="%s"><span class="date--day">%s</span><span class="date--month">%s</span><span class="date--year">%s</span></time></a></span>',
    esc_url( get_permalink() ),
    esc_attr( sprintf( __( 'Permalink to %s', 'lyod' ), the_title_attribute( 'echo=0' ) ) ),
    esc_attr( get_the_date( 'c' ) ),
    esc_attr( get_the_date( 'd' ) ),
    esc_attr( get_the_date( 'M' ) ),
    esc_attr( get_the_date( 'Y' ) )
);