textdate

Displaying dates in textual form

The textdate package provides a simple command to display a numerical date in textual form. It is particularly useful in package documentation, where the release date can be derived automatically from the package date, avoiding the need to maintain both representations manually.

Usage

Load the package and use \textdate with a numerical date:

\usepackage{textdate}

\textdate{2026-08-07}

A date can also be stored in a macro:

\def\mydate{2026-08-07}
\textdate{\mydate}

The command accepts dates in YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY/MM/DD format. Depending on the language, it also accepts DD-MM-YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY.

Languages

The package supports English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese and Russian. English is used by default when no supported language is detected.

The input date format depends on the language. See the package documentation for details.

Installation

Install textdate through your TeX distribution's package manager, or run LaTeX on textdate.ins to obtain the file textdate.sty and place it in a directory searched by LaTeX.

The package documentation is provided in textdate.pdf. The documented source is textdate.dtx.

License

This package is distributed under the LaTeX Project Public License, version 1.3c or later. See http://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt