How do I make the output of field X look like Y?
I usually solve this type of problem by implementing a custom field formatter, which is what controls how a field is rendered.

Below is sample code to implement a basic single delta field formatter. It is used on normal "text" fields, and will simple output todays date, with a single setting for in what format to output the date.

Since this particular example does not actually use the field data, it's important to know that you need the field to have some value, or Drupal will ignore it.

// Declare a new field formatter.
function hook_field_formatter_info() {
  return array(
    'custom_current_date' =&gt; array(
      'label' =&gt; t('Current date'),
      'field types' =&gt; array('text'),
      'settings' =&gt; array('date_configuration' =&gt; 'm'),
    ),
  );
}

// Form API callback for the formatters settings form
function hook_field_formatter_settings_form($field, $instance, $view_mode, $form, &amp;$form_state) {
  $display = $instance['display'][$view_mode];
  $settings = $display['settings'];

  $element = array(
    'date_configuration' =&gt; array(
      '#type' =&gt; 'textfield',
      '#title' =&gt; t('Date configuration'),
      '#default_value' =&gt; $settings['date_configuration']
    ),
  );

  return $element;
}

// Output a message showing what the current field settings are.
function hook_field_formatter_settings_summary($field, $instance, $view_mode) {
  $display = $instance['display'][$view_mode];
  $settings = $display['settings'];

  return 'Date config is ' . $settings['date_configuration'];
}

// Actual field output goes under the #markup key. Add a loop instead of the
// leading 0 to support multi-value fields.
function hook_field_formatter_view($entity_type, $entity, $field, $instance, $langcode, $items, $display) {
  $settings = $display['settings'];

  return array(0 =&gt; array('#markup' =&gt; date($settings['date_configuration'])));
}