How to get a year list of entries in ExpressionEngine?

expressionengine

Solution

This addon for EE1 or EE2 will get you what you need: http://devot-ee.com/add-ons/yearlist

{exp:yearlist channel="yourchannel"}
         <a href="{path=archive}/{year}">{year}</a>
{/exp:yearlist}

Then in your template limit the entries with the year="" parameter:

{exp:channel:entries channel="news" year="{segment_2}"}
    <h1>{title}</h1>
    {body}
{/exp:channel:entries}

Problem

I need to get list of years of all entries for use in dropdown. Basically I need to group entry date by year and output grouped year in a list. something like this: https://dzwonsemrish7.cloudfront.net/items/2G161x0v1U0d2U0k133a/2012-10-23_19-50-41.jpeg?v=9c5b44e8

Original source