Woocommerce order date-time in customer processing order email notification

Question

Is there a way to get the exact order date and time to show up in woocommerce emails? So far I am using this to get the order date:

<?php printf( '<time datetime="%s">%s</time>', $order->get_date_created()->format( 'c' ), wc_format_datetime( $order->get_date_created() ) ); ?>

I get the correct date however no timestamp when the order was placed. How do I add the exact time stamp?

Something like this:

Order NO. XXXX (placed on February 25, 2018 10:06PM EST)

Answer 1

There is 4 different date cases when an order is placed (where $order is an instance of the WC_order Object) depending on order status, on the payment method used and on Woocommerce regarding behavior:

• The creation date: $order->get_date_created()
• The modification date: $order->get_date_modified()
• The paid date: $order->get_date_paid()
• The completed date: $order->get_date_completed()

All this 4 orders different dates are WC_DateTime objects (instances) where you can use available WC_DateTime methods.

To get the correct format to have something like:
Order NO. XXXX (placed on February 25, 2018 10:06PM EST)
… you will use the for example the following:

$date_modified = $order->get_date_modified();
echo sprintf( '<p>Order NO. %s (placed on <time>%s</time>)</p>', 
    $order->get_order_number( ), 
    $date_modified->date("F j, Y, g:i:s A T")
);

If you want to use get_date_paid() or get_date_completed() methods you should need to do it carefully, testing that the WC_DateTime object exist before trying to display it…

$date_paid = $order->get_date_paid();
if( ! empty( $date_paid) ){
    echo sprintf( '<p>Order NO. %s (placed on <time>%s</time>)</p>', 
        $order->get_order_number( ), 
        $date_paid->date("F j, Y, g:i:s A T")
    );
}

As you don't specify where exactly specifically you want this to be displayed for customer processing order email notification, I will give you an example of hooked function that you can use:

add_action( 'woocommerce_email_order_details', 'custom_processing_order_notification', 1, 4 );
function custom_processing_order_notification( $order, $sent_to_admin, $plain_text, $email ) {
    // Only for processing email notifications to customer
    if( ! 'customer_processing_order' == $email->id ) return;

    $date_modified = $order->get_date_modified();
    $date_paid = $order->get_date_paid();

    $date =  empty( $date_paid ) ? $date_modified : $date_paid;

    echo sprintf( '<p>Order NO. %s (placed on <time>%s</time>)</p>',
        $order->get_order_number( ),
        $date->date("F j, Y, g:i:s A T")
    );
}

Code goes in function.php file of your active child theme (or theme).

Tested and works.