You're not wasting our time... Believe me, you aren't the first person to post on here wherein you are referred to the manual several times, so don't take it personally... In fact, if you search these forums for date(), you'd find a lot of topics dealing with the same issue you are asking about...
It is more of a waste of your own time, than ours... We already have the answer, and you are the one waiting around for it. In the time it takes us to respond, you'd most likely find the answer yourself...
Also, a tip for you... If you make some of your own code, and have problems with it... post it here for debugging. You'd get a warmer reception than if you just come here and ask "How do I do......"