Template:Start date and age

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This template is used on many pages and changes may be widely noticed. Test changes in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

The {{Start date and age}} template displays the date that an event or entity started or was created. It also includes a duplicate, machine-readable date in the ISO 8601 format (which is hidden by CSS), for use inside other templates which emit microformats. The hidden date degrades gracefully when CSS is not available.

Usage

Common usage: {{Start date and age|yyyy|mm|dd}} to display formatted as:; March 25, 2010; 14 years ago (2010-03-25); {{Start date and age|yyyy|mm|dd|df=yes}} to display formatted as:; 25 March 2010; 14 years ago (2010-03-25)

Full syntax: {{Start date and age|yyyy|mm|dd|df=yes|p=yes|br=yes}} to display formatted as:; 25 March 2010
(14 years ago) (2010-03-25)

Parameters

Parameter	Status	Description
1	required	A four-digit number indicating the year.
2	optional	A number between 1 and 12 indicating the month (leading zeros in the number are ignored). The month may also be specified as a name or abbreviation (e.g. "August" or "Aug").
3	optional	A number between 1 and 31 indicating the day of the month (leading zeros in the number are ignored).
df=	optional	If the parameter df equals yes, y, or 1, the date will be displayed in DMY format: 4 March 2010. When this parameter is not included or set to some other value, the date will be displayed in MDY format: March 4, 2010.
p= paren=	optional	If the parameter p or paren equals yes, y, or 1, the age will be displayed within parentheses. When this parameter is not included or set to some other value, the date and age are separated by a semicolon and a breaking space.
br=	optional	If the parameter br equals yes, y, or 1, a line break will be inserted between the date and the age. When this parameter is not included or set to some other value, a breaking space will be inserted between the date and the age. This does not change the separating characters between the date and age which are either a semicolon (default setting) or parentheses (if p=yes).
end=	optional	This template includes hidden microformat `<span class="bday dtstart published updated">`, similar to Template:Start date. If the parameter end equals yes, y, or 1, the template will instead use `<span class="dtend">`, similar to Template:End date. This parameter is used by Template:End date and age. For more details, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Microformats.

"df" (day first) and "mf" (month first)

The default output of this template is to display the month before the day (MDY). This default may not be appropriate for articles about events or entities in parts of the world where dates are commonly given with the day preceding the month (DMY). To display the day first, assign the df parameter a value of yes, y, or 1 (e.g. df=yes).

If the default format is preferred, the parameter df may be used with value of no, n, or 0 (e.g. df=no). These values can assist bots or other automated processing to detect the intended date format; omitting the df parameter may lead an editor or bot to change the format to an unintended value.

The preference to display the month first may also be indicated via the parameter mf (e.g. mf=yes). While not actually used by the template, this is another method of indicating that the default format is intended. Do not specify both "df" and "mf" parameters in the same use of the template.

Examples

Default separator: semicolon

Syntax	Result
Full date (year, month, day)
`{{Start date and age\|2010\|01\|02}}`	January 2, 2010; 14 years ago (2010-01-02)
`{{Start date and age\|2008\|Jan\|09\|df=no}}`	January 9, 2008; 16 years ago (2008-01-09)
`{{Start date and age\|2003\|January\|05\|mf=yes}}`	January 5, 2003; 21 years ago (2003-01-05)
`{{Start date and age\|2010\|1\|2\|df=yes}}`	2 January 2010; 14 years ago (2010-01-02)
`{{Start date and age\|2008\|Jan\|9\|df=y}}`	9 January 2008; 16 years ago (2008-01-09)
`{{Start date and age\|2003\|January\|5\|df=1}}`	5 January 2003; 21 years ago (2003-01-05)
100 days ago: `{{Start date and age\|2024\|8\|16}}`	August 16, 2024; 3 months ago (2024-08-16)
Yesterday: `{{Start date and age\|2024\|11\|23}}`	November 23, 2024; 1 day ago (2024-11-23)
Today: `{{Start date and age\|2024\|11\|24}}`	November 24, 2024; 0 days ago (2024-11-24)
Year and month
`{{Start date and age\|2001\|9}}`	September 2001; 23 years ago (2001-09)
`{{Start date and age\|2002\|09}}`	September 2002; 22 years ago (2002-09)
`{{Start date and age\|2003\|Sep}}`	September 2003; 21 years ago (2003-09)
`{{Start date and age\|2004\|September}}`	September 2004; 20 years ago (2004-09)
Year only
`{{Start date and age\|2005}}`	2005; 19 years ago (2005)

Optional separator: parentheses

Syntax	Result
Full date (year, month, day)
`{{Start date and age\|2003\|02\|15\|p=yes}}`	February 15, 2003 (21 years ago) (2003-02-15)
`{{Start date and age\|2003\|02\|15\|df=y\|p=y}}`	15 February 2003 (21 years ago) (2003-02-15)
Year and month
`{{Start date and age\|2003\|02\|p=1}}`	February 2003 (21 years ago) (2003-02)
Year only
`{{Start date and age\|2003\|paren=yes}}`	2003 (21 years ago) (2003)

Line break with semicolon

Syntax	Result
Full date (year, month, day)
`{{Start date and age\|2003\|02\|15\|br=yes}}`	February 15, 2003; 21 years ago (2003-02-15)
`{{Start date and age\|2003\|02\|15\|df=y\|br=y}}`	15 February 2003; 21 years ago (2003-02-15)
Year and month
`{{Start date and age\|2003\|02\|br=1}}`	February 2003; 21 years ago (2003-02)
Year only
`{{Start date and age\|2003\|br=yes}}`	2003; 21 years ago (2003)

Line break with parentheses

Syntax	Result
Full date (year, month, day)
`{{Start date and age\|2003\|02\|15\|p=yes\|br=yes}}`	February 15, 2003 (21 years ago) (2003-02-15)
`{{Start date and age\|2003\|02\|15\|df=y\|p=y\|br=y}}`	15 February 2003 (21 years ago) (2003-02-15)
Year and month
`{{Start date and age\|2003\|02\|p=1\|br=1}}`	February 2003 (21 years ago) (2003-02)
Year only
`{{Start date and age\|2003\|paren=yes\|br=yes}}`	2003 (21 years ago) (2003)

Use in microformats

Template:UF-hcal-part

Example

{{Start date and age|2016|12|31}} → December 31, 2016; 7 years ago

December&nbsp;31, 2016<span class="noprint">&#059;&#032;7 years ago</span><span style="display:none">&#160;(<span class="bday dtstart published updated">2016-12-31</span>)</span>

Usage in articles

This template is most often used in infoboxes in articles about buildings or organizations, identifying when they were started/founded/opened or dissolved/ended/closed.

It has also been used for naval ships to indicate their commissioned age, however several Wikipedia editors have reverted such edits. Use of this template in ship articles is therefore not recommended.

Supporting templates

Template:MONTHNAME – display name of month for a given number 1 (January) through 12 (December).
Template:Time ago – display number of days, months, or years ago (for dates given as |yyyy|mm|dd).
Template:Years or months ago – display number of months or years ago (for dates given as |yyyy|mm or |yyyy).
Template:Yesno – allows optional formatting parameters to accept values other than "yes" (such as "y" or "1").

TemplateData

TemplateData documentation used by VisualEditor and other tools

Click here to see a monthly parameter usage report for this template based on this TemplateData.

TemplateData for Start date and age

The Start date and age template displays the date that an event or entity started or was created.

[Edit template data]
Template parameters
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Year	`1`	A four-digit number indicating the year Example 2017	Number	required
Month	`2`	A number between 1 and 12 indicating the month Example 12	Number	suggested
Day	`3`	A number between 1 and 31 indicating the day of the month Example 31	Number	suggested
Display date first	`df`	If the parameter df equals yes, y, or 1, the date will be displayed in DMY format: 4 March 2010. When this parameter is not included or set to some other value, the date will be displayed in MDY format: March 4, 2010. Default no Example no	Boolean	optional
Display with parentheses	`paren` `p`	If the parameter p or paren equals yes, y, or 1, the age will be displayed within parentheses. When this parameter is not included or set to some other value, the date and age are separated by a semicolon and a breaking space. Default no Example yes	Boolean	optional
Line break between date and age	`br`	If the parameter br equals yes, y, or 1, a line break will be inserted between the date and the age. When this parameter is not included or set to some other value, a breaking space will be inserted between the date and the age. This does not change the separating characters between the date and age which are either a semicolon (default setting) or parentheses (if paren=yes). Default no Example yes	Boolean	optional
Use microformat for end date	`end`	This template includes hidden microformat <span class="bday dtstart published updated">, similar to Template:Start date. If the parameter end equals yes, y, or 1, the template will instead use <span class="dtend">, similar to Template:End date. This parameter is used by Template:End date and age. For more details, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Microformats. Default no Example yes	Boolean	optional

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Start date and age/doc.
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