Wrong format of post views count in wordpress - php

Question

I print a line consisted of the post date and the number of views (use the plugin wp-PostViews). However, I get 26 [icon] 2016-01-09 [icon] views, instead of [icon] 2016-01-09 [icon] 26 views (wrong position of the number of views) as shown below:
Here are the source codes:
$time_string_published = '<time class="entry-date published" datetime="%1$s">%2$s</time>';
$time_string_published = sprintf( $time_string_published,
esc_attr( get_the_date( 'c' ) ),
esc_html( get_the_date( 'Y-m-d' ) )
);
printf( '<span class="posted-on">%1$s</span><span class="views-link">%2$s</span>',
sprintf( '%2$s',
esc_url( get_permalink() ),
$time_string_published
),
sprintf('%1$s views', the_views())
);
The related css settings are:
.entry-meta .views-link:before {
display: inline-block;
-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
-moz-osx-font-smoothing: grayscale;
font: normal 22px/1 'Genericons';
vertical-align: top;
}
.entry-meta .views-link:before { content: '\f403'; }
BTW, the following codes work correctly, displaying as [icon] 26 (the right position).
<span class="views-link">
<?php if(function_exists('the_views')) { echo the_views(); } ?>
</span>
Is it possiable that the plugin wp-PostViews (contains the function the_views()) is loaded after excuting the above codes?

Answer 1

I'm not sure about anyone else - but this seems a bit like overkill on trying to do this. Why not try:
$url = esc_url( get_permalink() );
$time = $time_string_published;
$views = the_views();
$out = <<<EOD
<span class="posted-on"><a href="$url"
rel="bookmark">$time</a></span><span class="views-link">$views</span>
EOD;
printf( "%s", $out );
The above does the same thing but is a bit clearer. Sorry! Thought I had it but I got it wrong originally. I've now corrected the generated code. So NOW I say - have you checked what $time_string_published is giving you?
BTW: If your echo of the_views() is giving you "ico 26 views" why not just do this:
$views = substr( the_views(), 4 );
To get the "26 views" part. It would then automatically have the "views" stuck on the end of it. Just an idea.
Update : 8:57pm
Here is the reworked code. It works for me.
<?php
$time_string_published = '<time class="entry-date published" datetime="%1$s">%2$s</time>';
$time_string_published = sprintf( $time_string_published,
date( 'c', time() ),
date( 'Y-m-d', time() )
);
printf( '<span class="posted-on">%1$s</span><span class="views-link">%2$s</span>',
sprintf( '%2$s',
( get_permalink() ),
$time_string_published
),
sprintf('%1$s views', the_views())
);
$date1 = date('c', time() );
$date2 = date('Y-m-d', time() );
$time_string_published = "<time class='entry-date published' datetime='$date1'>$date2</time>";
$url = get_permalink();
$view = the_views();
$s = "<a href='$url' rel='bookmark'>$time_string_published</a>";
echo "<p><span class='posted-on'>$s</span> <span class='views-link'>$view views</span>";
function get_permalink()
{
return "http://www.google.com";
}
function the_views()
{
return 26;
}
?>
The output is:
2016-01-1226 views
2016-01-12 26 views
And the page source code is:
<span class="posted-on"><time class="entry-date published" datetime="2016-01-12T02:55:41+00:00">2016-01-12</time></span><span class="views-link">26 views</span><p><span class='posted-on'><a href='http://www.google.com' rel='bookmark'><time class='entry-date published' datetime='2016-01-12T02:55:41+00:00'>2016-01-12</time></a></span> <span class='views-link'>26 views</span>
Note that the second line has a space between the first SPAN and the second one. If you don't get the same output then there is something going on with either WordPress or some other part of the overall program. About all the help I can provide. :-)

Answer 2

Finally, I tracked it. The reason is that the function the_views() prints something directly, instead return a variable. Here is the source code:
### Function: Display The Post Views
function the_views($display = true, $prefix = '', $postfix = '', $always = false) {
$post_views = intval( get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'views', true ) );
$views_options = get_option('views_options');
if ($always || should_views_be_displayed($views_options)) {
$output = $prefix.str_replace( array( '%VIEW_COUNT%', '%VIEW_COUNT_ROUNDED%' ), array( number_format_i18n( $post_views ), postviews_round_number( $post_views) ), stripslashes( $views_options['template'] ) ).$postfix;
if($display) {
echo apply_filters('the_views', $output);
} else {
return apply_filters('the_views', $output);
}
}
elseif (!$display) {
return '';
}
}
To solve it, pass the parameter false to the_views to return as a variable, i.e., the_views(false).
printf( '<span class="posted-on">%1$s</span><span class="views-link">%2$s</span>',
sprintf( '%2$s',
esc_url( get_permalink() ),
$time_string_published
),
sprintf('%1$s views', the_views(false))
);