Template:Start date/doc

Usage

These templates ({{Start date}} and {{End date}}) return a date, or date-time. They also include the same date (and time) duplicated in a hidden (by CSS) ISO date format, for use in microformats. This hidden date degrades gracefully when CSS is not available.

Syntax

{{Start date|year|month|day}}

{{Start date|year|month|day|HH|MM|SS|TimeZone}} (MM and SS are optional; TimeZone may be a numerical value, or "Z" for UTC; see examples)

or

{{End date|year|month|day}}

Examples:

{{Start date|1993}} returns "1993 (1993)"

{{Start date|1993|2}} returns "February 1993 (1993-02)"

{{Start date|1993|2|24}} returns "February 24, 1993 (1993-02-24)"

{{Start date|1993|2|24|08|30}} returns "08:30, February 24, 1993 (1993-02-24T08:30)"

{{Start date|1993|2|24|08|||+01:00}} returns "February 24, 1993 (+01:00) (1993-02-24T08+01:00)"

{{Start date|1993|2|24|08|||-07:00}} returns "February 24, 1993 (-07:00) (1993-02-24T08-07:00)"

{{Start date|1993|2|24|08|30|23}} returns "08:30:23, February 24, 1993 (1993-02-24T08:30:23)"

{{Start date|1993|2|24|08|30|23|Z}} returns "08:30:23, February 24, 1993 (UTC) (1993-02-24T08:30:23Z)"

{{Start date|1993|2|24|08|30|23|+01:00}} returns "08:30:23, February 24, 1993 (+01:00) (1993-02-24T08:30:23+01:00)"

{{Start date|1993|2|24|08|30|23|-07:00}} returns "08:30:23, February 24, 1993 (-07:00) (1993-02-24T08:30:23-07:00)"

{{End date|1993|2|24}} returns "Template:End date"

{{End date|1993|2|24|08|30}} returns "Template:End date"

An optional parameter, df, can be set to "y" or "yes" (or indeed any value) to display the day before the month. This is primarily used in articles about events in parts of the world where the day precedes the month in a date.

Examples:

{{Start date|1993|2|24|df=y}} returns "24 February 1993 (1993-02-24)"

{{Start date|1993|2|24|08|30|df=yes}} returns "08:30, 24 February 1993 (1993-02-24T08:30)"

{{End date|1993|2|24|df=yes}} returns "Template:End date"

Note: The template will appear broken when the parameters are left blank (as seen above).

Use in microformats

{{Start date}} also returns the date, hidden by CSS, in the ISO 8601 format needed by hAtom (class="updated"), hCalendar (class="dtstart") and hCard (class="bday") microformats - usually, but not always, within infobox or similar templates, or tables.

Its use in hCard is for organisations, venues and similar; use {{Birth date}} or {{Birth date and age}} for people.

Similarly, {{End date}} returns the date as hCalendar's (class="dtend"). For example:

(<span class="dtstart updated">1993-02-24</span>) and (<span class="dtstart updated">1993-02-24T08:30</span>)

and:

(<span class="dtend">1993-02-24T08:30</span>)

(disable CSS or view source to see the hidden ISO-formatted output).

Note: due to the requirement exclusive "dtend" in hCalendar, and the accessibility problems that presents when a date is rendered (as seen without CSS) as 28 March 1999 (1999-03-29) or even 28 February 1999 (1999-03-01) or 31 December 1999 (2000-01-01), the Date end template should not be used for whole-day dates and should have a time of 23:59:59.

See the microformats project for further details.

Limitation

This template has no provision to deal with a date in a non-Gregorian calendar. Also, ISO 8601 requires mutual agreement among those exchanging information before using years outside the range 1583–9999 CE. Therefore, use of this template for non-Gregorian dates or dates outside that range constitutes a false claim of conformance to the ISO 8601 standard.

Any editor encountering such usage should change the date to plain text with no template; or if not confident in doing so, raise the matter on this template's talk page.