Call $created variable in content type node template How can I call the $created variable in my content type node template? I tried the following but it just produces what seems to be a random string of numbers:

        &lt;?php print render($created); ?&gt;
The $created variable is just a number, but it's not random it is a unix timestamp of the node created date.

Since it is not a render array you do not print it using the render() function, you would just print it like this:

&lt;?php print $created; ?&gt;


However that is also probably not what you want because you probably want a human readable date/time, not a unix time stamp.

As you can see in the main variable preprocess function for the node template (template_preprocess_node()), there is also a variable $date, which is a formatted date based on the $created variable.
That will default to using your website's medium date format.

You can use it like this:

&lt;?php print $date; ?&gt;


If that is not the format you want you can also manually use the format_date() function to format it to your requirements like this:

&lt;?php print format_date($created, 'short'); ?&gt;


or like this for something more custom:

&lt;?php print format_date($created, 'custom', 'd/m/Y'); ?&gt;


See the php date() documentation for more information on custom date format options.