Template:Start date

Template documentation[view] [edit] [history] [purge]

returns the date (or date and time) that an event or entity started or was created, in a standard format. It also includes a hidden (by CSS) duplicate, machine-readable date (or date and time) in the ISO date format, for use inside templates or table rows that emit microformats. It should be used only once in each such template and never used outside such templates. The hidden date degrades gracefully when CSS is not available.

When not to use this template

Do not use this template for:

• Dates that are uncertain, e.g., "before 4 April 1933", "around 18 November 1939", "19??".
• Date ranges, e.g. "c. 1690–1712"
• Dates outside the range given under "Limitation", below.
• Other, secondary dates
• Outside microformat-emitting templates or table rows; if in doubt, see the parent template's documentation
• More than one date
• Dates displayed using AM/PM format; this template only outputs 24-hour times
• Dates that are not calendar dates, e.g. "12th century" or "present" or "TBA"

In the above situations, omit the template entirely, using untemplated text.

Usage

• {{Start date|YYYY}} (year only)
• {{Start date|YYYY|MM}} (month and year)
• {{Start date|YYYY|MM|DD}} (year, month, and day)
• {{Start date|YYYY|MM|DD|HH|MM|SS|Time zone}} (date, time, and time zone)

Parameters

• The unnamed parameters, in order, represent the year (four digits), month (one or two digits), day (one or two digits), hour in 24-hour time (one or two digits), minutes (one or two digits), seconds (one or two digits), and the time zone (see below).
• When specifying time of day, MM (minutes), SS (seconds), and the time zone are optional
• Time zone may be a numerical value, or Z for UTC (see examples)
• |df=yes, an optional parameter, can be set to display the day before the month (e.g. "7 November 2004" instead of the default "November 7, 2004"). The order of parameters does not change (it remains YMD). This is primarily used in articles using DMY format for dates.

Examples

• {{Start date|1993}} → 1993 (1993)
• {{Start date|1993|02}} → February 1993 (1993-02)
• {{Start date|1993|02|24}} → February 24, 1993 (1993-02-24)
• {{Start date|1993|02|24|08|30}} → 08:30, February 24, 1993 (1993-02-24T08:30)
• {{Start date|1993|02|24|08|7=+01:00}} → February 24, 1993 (+01:00) (1993-02-24T08+01:00)
• {{Start date|1993|02|24|08|7=−07:00}} → February 24, 1993 (−07:00) (1993-02-24T08−07:00)
• {{Start date|1993|02|24|08|30|23}} → 08:30:23, February 24, 1993 (1993-02-24T08:30:23)
• {{Start date|1993|02|24|08|30|23|Z}} → 08:30:23, February 24, 1993 (UTC) (1993-02-24T08:30:23Z)
• {{Start date|1993|02|24|08|30|23|+01:00}} → 08:30:23, February 24, 1993 (+01:00) (1993-02-24T08:30:23+01:00)
• {{Start date|1993|02|24|08|30|23|−07:00}} → 08:30:23, February 24, 1993 (−07:00) (1993-02-24T08:30:23−07:00)
• {{Start date|1993|02|24|df=y}} → 24 February 1993 (1993-02-24)
• {{Start date|1993|02|24|08|30|df=yes}} → 08:30, 24 February 1993 (1993-02-24T08:30)

Notes

Place any additional non-numeric text outside of the template: D

• c. {{Start date|1900}} → c. {{start date|1900}}
• {{Start date|1993|02|24}}, no later than 15:00 UTC → February 24, 1993 (1993-02-24), no later than 15:00 UTC

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Start date in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Start date

Date that an event or entity started or was created

Template parameters[Edit template data]

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
YYYY	1	Start year	Number	required
MM	2	Start month	Number	suggested
DD	3	Start day of month	Number	suggested
HH	4	Start hours	Number	optional
MM	5	Start minutes Default 0	Number	optional
SS	6	Start seconds Default 0	Number	optional
TZ	7	Time zone offset, "+02:00", "-06:00" or "Z" for UTC	Line	optional
day first	df	Boolean parameter to put the day before the month name Default false	Boolean	optional

Tracking categories

• Category:Pages using start date with invalid values (0)
• Category:Pages using start date with unknown parameters (0)

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Start date/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (edit | diff) and testcases (edit) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.