"is_new_day()" alternative for years?

Question

I don't believe there's a is_new_year() function in WordPress, as an alternative for is_new_day(). I'm trying to display the year only once for each set of posts, what would be the best way to do this?

Should I just check the date manually with PHP in the loop or are there any better ways?

Answer 1

You could create a helper function that returns a year number only once per year:

function get_unique_year( $post_id = 0 )
{
    static $last = 0;

    $post_id || $post_id = get_the_ID();

    $year = get_the_time( 'Y', $post_id );

    if ( $year === $last )
        return;

    $last = $year;

    return $last;
}

Then fetch your posts and use that helper:

$posts = wp_get_recent_posts(); // or any other function returning posts

foreach ( $posts as $post )
    if ( $year = get_unique_year( $post->ID ) )
        print "Year: $year<br>";