Template:Start date

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This template is used on approximately 527,000 pages.
To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

This template should not be used in citation templates such as Citation Style 1 and Citation Style 2, because it includes markup that will pollute the COinS metadata they produce; see Wikipedia:COinS.

This template uses Lua:

{{Start date}} 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; required parameter), 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, when set to |df=yes or |df=y displays 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 (1993-02-24T08:30:00)
{{Start date|1993|02|24|08|7=+01:00}} → 08:00, February 24, 1993 (+01:00) (1993-02-24T08:00:00+01:00)
{{Start date|1993|02|24|08|7=−07:00}} → 08:00, February 24, 1993 (−07:00) (1993-02-24T08:00:00−07:00)
{{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 (1993-02-24T08:30:00)

Notes

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

c. {{Start date|1900}} → c. 1900 (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`	Set to 'yes' to show the day before the month name Suggested values `yes` `y`	Line	optional

Use in microformats

This template also returns the date, hidden by CSS, in the ISO 8601 format needed by one or more of the following microformats:

hAtom (class="updated")
hAudio (class="published")
hCalendar (class="dtstart")
hCard (class="bday")

usually, but not always, within infobox or similar templates, or tables.

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

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

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.

Examples with hidden output

{{Start date|2016|12|31}} → December 31, 2016

December&nbsp;31,&nbsp;2016<span style="display: none;">&nbsp;(<span class="bday dtstart published updated itvstart">2016-12-31</span>)</span>

{{Start date|2016|12|31|08|30|23|+01:00}} → 08:30:23, December 31, 2016 (+01:00)

08:30:23,&#32;December&nbsp;31,&nbsp;2016&#32;(+01:00)<span style="display: none;">&nbsp;(<span class="bday dtstart published updated itvstart">2016-12-31T08:30:23+01:00</span>)</span>