Template:Start date/doc

This is the Documentation subpage of Template:Start date This page's sole purpose is to explain how the Template should be used. Do not use it for other purposes.

This purpose of the start date template is to return the date (or date-time) that an event or entity started or was created. It also includes duplicate, machine-readable date (or date-time) in the ISO date format (which is hidden by CSS), for use inside other templates (or table rows) which 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".
• dates outside the range given under "Limitation", below.
• other, secondary dates
• outside microformat-emitting templates - if in doubt, see the parent template's documentation
• more than one date in any parent template

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)

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|||+01:00}} → "February 24, 1993 (+01:00) (1993-02-24T08+01:00)"
• {{start date|1993|02|24|08|||-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)"

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 using DMY format for dates.

Examples

• {{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)"

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

Parameters

Date that an event or entity started or was created

Template parameters

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
YYYY	1	start year	Number	optional
MM	2	start month	Number	optional
DD	3	start day of month	Number	optional
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 date before the month name Default false	Line	optional

See also

• start-date, an alternative to this template.
• film date, a similar template for use with Infobox film.
• start date and age
• start date and years ago
• end date
• end-date
• WikiProject Microformats
• Wikipedia:Microformats