Template:Date
25 March 2025
Description
This template converts a date to one of the standard date formats used on the English Wikipedia.
This template should only be used internally in other templates. For formatting dates in articles, see Wikipedia's guidelines for formatting dates or an overview of date formatting guidelines.
If you want sortable dates for a table, use {date table sorting} instead.
Syntax
This template takes up to two parameters, both of which are optional:
{date|<date to be formatted>|<date formatting style>}
- <date to be formatted> is an (optional) date to be formatted.
- If no date is specified, the template emits the current date.
For example,{date}produces 25 March 2025. To avoid emitting the current date if none is input, use Template:fdate. - If a date is provided, but is not recognized as one, the text is just returned as is. Most dates will however be recognized as such, including all the formats typically used on Wikipedia. Numerous variations thereof are also supported, including abbreviated or lower-case month names; ordinal "st", "nd", "rd", "th"; extraneous white space; missing comma, etc.
- Notes:
- Some dates are converted even if they are not real dates, and some dates are not converted even though they are real dates. See known issues below.
- Only dates within the range 1 January 1000 and 31 December 9999 are supported. Dates with two-digit years will have the years from 1970 to 2069. Other dates outside the range 1000–9999 will be treated as if the second parameter were "none".
- when using month numbers in numeric, the valid formats are MM/DD/YYYY, DD-MM-YYYY, DD.MM.YYYY, YYYY/MM/DD, YYYY-MM-DD, MM/DD/YY, YY-MM-DD, DD.MM.YY, the invalid formats are DD/MM/YYYY, MM-DD-YYYY, MM.DD.YY, YYYY.MM.DD, MM.DD.YYYY, DD-MM-YY, YY/MM/DD, DD/MM/YY, YY.MM.DD
- If no date is specified, the template emits the current date.
- <date formatting style> controls the date format in which the result is to be emitted. Recognized values for the second parameter are:
DMYgives d mmmm yyyy (e.g. 31 May 2007). This is the default format.MDYgives mmmm d, yyyy (e.g. May 31, 2007)YMDgives yyyy mmmm d (e.g. 2007 May 31)ISOgives an ISO 8601 style yyyy-mm-dd (e.g. 2007-05-31)noneapplies no formatting whatsoever
- If a date to be formatted is provided but no style is specified, the template emits a date in "d month yyyy" format, as it appears (for example) on discussion pages. When no date is specified, then the current date is emitted with no year, either in "d month" format for formatting style
DMY, or in "month d" format for formatting stylesMDY,YMDandISO. - Notes:
- Only
DMY/lDMYandMDY/lMDYare in accordance with the English language Wikipedia's Manual of Style. The use ofISO/lISO(ISO 8601) format within article prose is expressly discouraged by the Manual of Style; this format should only be used in tables, lists, or references. - Wikipedia caches the current version of pages, and the template may display the date that the page was cached, rather than the current date.
- Only
Examples
With valid input
| Format | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|
| not specified | {date|2006-08-04}
|
4 August 2006 |
{date|Aug 4, 2006}
|
4 August 2006 | |
{date|4 August 2006}
|
4 August 2006 | |
{date|4 August}
|
4 August | |
{date|Aug 4}
|
4 August | |
{date|}
|
25 March (missing year) | |
{date}
|
25 March 2025 | |
{date|2=}
|
25 March 2025 | |
| DMY format | {date|2006-08-04|DMY}
|
4 August 2006 |
{date|Aug 4, 2006|DMY}
|
4 August 2006 | |
{date|4 August 2006|DMY}
|
4 August 2006 | |
{date|4 August|DMY}
|
4 August | |
{date|Aug 4|DMY}
|
4 August | |
{date||DMY}
|
25 March (missing year) | |
{date|2=DMY}
|
25 March 2025 | |
{date|{date}|DMY}
|
25 March 2025 | |
| MDY format | {date|2006-08-04|MDY}
|
August 4, 2006 |
{date|Aug 4, 2006|MDY}
|
August 4, 2006 | |
{date|4 August 2006|MDY}
|
August 4, 2006 | |
{date|4 August|MDY}
|
August 4 | |
{date|Aug 4|MDY}
|
August 4 | |
{date||MDY}
|
March 25 (missing year) | |
{date|2=MDY}
|
March 25, 2025 | |
{date|{date}|MDY}
|
March 25, 2025 | |
| YMD format | {date|2006-08-04|YMD}
|
2006 August 4 |
{date|Aug 4, 2006|YMD}
|
2006 August 4 | |
{date|4 August 2006|YMD}
|
2006 August 4 | |
{date|4 August|YMD}
|
August 4 | |
{date|Aug 4|YMD}
|
August 4 | |
{date||YMD}
|
March 25 (missing year) | |
{date|2=YMD}
|
2025 March 25 | |
{date|{date}|YMD}
|
2025 March 25 | |
| ISO format | {date|2006-08-04|ISO}
|
2006-08-04 |
{date|Aug 4, 2006|ISO}
|
2006-08-04 | |
{date|4 August 2006|ISO}
|
2006-08-04 | |
{date|4 August|ISO}
|
--08-04 | |
{date|Aug 4|ISO}
|
--08-04 | |
{date|{#time: --m-d}|ISO}
|
--03-25 (missing year) | |
{date|2=ISO}
|
2025-03-25 | |
{date|{date}|ISO}
|
2025-03-25 | |
| none format | {date|2006-08-04|none}
|
2006-08-04 |
{date|Aug 4, 2006|none}
|
Aug 4, 2006 | |
{date|4 August 2006|none}
|
4 August 2006 | |
{date|4 August|none}
|
4 August | |
{date|Aug 4|none}
|
Aug 4 | |
{date||none}
|
(blank) | |
{date|2=none}
|
(blank) | |
{date|{date}|none}
|
25 March 2025 |
Other acceptable input
A wide variety of other input formats are handled correctly by the template:
| Input | Output |
|---|---|
{date|1st December 2008} (ordinal 'st')
|
1 December 2008 |
{date|June 24 2006} (missing comma)
|
24 June 2006 |
{date|24 june 2006} (lowercase month name)
|
24 June 2006 |
{date|24 jun} (abbreviated month name)
|
24 June |
{date|June 2006}
|
June 2006 |
{date|2006 June}
|
1 June 2006 |
{date|05/31/2012}
|
31 May 2012 |
{date|31-05-2012}
|
31 May 2012 |
Invalid input
Input strings that the template cannot format are returned unaltered. This includes strings containing characters such as square brackets, so any links will result in unformatted output.
| Input | Output |
|---|---|
{date|23007-031-24}
|
23007-031-24 |
{date|[[1 December]] [[2008]]|YMD}
|
1 December 2008 |
{date|1 December [[2008 in film|2008]]|MDY}
|
1 December 2008 |
{date|2008 December 1|DMY}
|
2008 December 1 (expected: 1 December 2008) |
{date|2008 December 1|MDY}
|
2008 December 1 (expected: December 1, 2008) |
{date|2008 December 1|ISO}
|
2008 December 1 (expected: 2008-12-01) |
{date|June 2006|ISO}
|
June 2006 (missing day, expected: 2006-06--) |
{date|--08-24}
|
--08-24 |
{date|-08-24}
|
26 March 2025 |
{date|08-24}
|
08-24 |
{date|2006-08--}
|
2006-08-- |
{date|2006-08-}
|
2006-08- |
{date|32 Aug}
|
32 Aug |
{date|932 Aug}
|
932 Aug |
{date|0932 Aug}
|
0932 Aug |
{date|Aug 32}
|
Aug 32 |
{date|Aug 932}
|
Aug 932 |
{date|Aug 0932}
|
Aug 0932 |
{date|31/05/2012}
|
31/05/2012 (expected 31 May 2012) |
{date|05-31-2012}
|
05-31-2012 (expected 31 May 2012) |
{date|May 18, 2019|YDM}
|
18 May 2019 (expected 2019 18 May) |
Known issues
- Out-of-range values are "fixed"
- The PHP library, that this template ultimately depends on, converts out-of-range values to the next-best in-range values. As a result, some date-like values that are not actually valid dates get converted anyway. These include...
- all dates with zero day-of-the-month. Such a "zero-th" day of a month gets converted into the last day of the previous month.For example,
{date|June 0, 2006}results in31 May 2006.Similarly,{date|0 January 2006}becomes31 December 2005. - all dates with day-number values that exceed the number of days in the specified month cause the date to be incremented into the next month.For example,
{date|31 November 2008}results in1 December 2008, since November has only 30 days.Similarly,{date|February 29, 2007}results in1 March 2007, since 2007 was not a leap year.Note: Due to a parser peculiarity in the PHP library, 'December 32' and '32 December' are treated differently, and the latter results in an error (which causes this template to emit it unchanged), and only the former "overflows" into the next month.
- all dates with zero day-of-the-month. Such a "zero-th" day of a month gets converted into the last day of the previous month.
- Non-Gregorian dates are treated as Gregorian
- The PHP library that this template ultimately depends on assumes that all dates, irrespective of context, are Gregorian calendar dates. Consequently:
- some dates that would be valid in a non-Gregorian context are treated as out-of-range dates and converted to the next-best in-range values. For example,
{date|30 February 1712}results in1 March 1712because – even though 30 February 1712 is a valid date in the Swedish calendar – February 1712 had only 29 days in the Gregorian calendar. - ten dates are not reformatted. These are 29 February & 1 March of the years 1000, 1100, 1300, 1400, 1500. The cause of this is the same as that of the Swedish 30 February 1712.
- some dates that would not be valid in some contexts are converted normally. For example, 29 February 1912 or 1 February 1918 are not valid in a Russian context, but perfectly valid in the Gregorian one.
- some dates that would be valid in a non-Gregorian context are treated as out-of-range dates and converted to the next-best in-range values. For example,
- ISO 8601 format not suitable for years before 1583
The ISO 8601 standard requires mutual agreement between those using the format to use years earlier than 1583. Since no agreement has been obtained from our readers, that format should not be used for such years, nor for any date not in the Gregorian calendar.
- Output provided for ISO dates when year is missing
The current 2004 version of ISO 8601 does not permit omitting the year, but this template will produce a supposedly ISO output when the year is missing.
- Does not provide Microformats
- hCalendar and hCard microformats have various date properties, which are not emitted by this template. Use {Start date}, {End date}, {Birth date} or one of their variants, as necessary, in infoboxes which allow microformat-compatible date templates.
See also
Multiple units of time
| Type | Adjustable | Current | Last | Next |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date and time | {time} | {Currentdate} (MDY) {Plain now} (DMY) {Now} (DMY in a complete sentence) {Simple now} |
||
| Date only | {Dateonly} {Datedow} (Has the day of the week) |
{Date} (Chose format) {DATE} (prefixed by date=) {TODAY} (DMY) |
{Yesterday} {Day-1} |
{Tomorrow} {Day+1} |
| Month and year only | {Monthyear} | {Monthyear-1} | {Monthyear+1} | |
| Time only | {Timeonly} | {CURRENTTIME} (12 h format) {CURRENTTIME24} (24 h format) |
||
| Banners | {Right now} (Blue with time and number of Wikipedia articles) |
|||
| Timestamp | {Timestamp} (Format YYYYMMDDhhmmss) |
Single units of time
| Unit of time | Adjustable | Current | Last | Next |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Second | {CURRENTSECOND} | |||
| Minute | {CURRENTMINUTE} | |||
| Hour | {CURRENTHOUR} | |||
| Week | {CURRENTWEEK} {CURRENTWEEKOFMONTH} |
|||
| Day of Week | {DAYOFWEEK} | {CURRENTDAYNAME} {CURRENTWEEKDAYABBREV} {CURRENTWEEKDAY} |
||
| Month | {MONTHNAME} {MONTHABBREV} {MONTHNUMBER} {MONTH} (zero padded) |
{CURRENTMONTHNAME} {CURRENTMONTHABBREV} {CURRENTMONTH1} {CURRENTMONTHDAYS} |
{LASTMONTHNAME} | {NEXTMONTHNAME} |
| Day of Month | {CURRENTDAY} {CURRENTDAY2} (zero padded) |
|||
| Year | {CURRENTYEARCC} {CURRENTYEARYY} {CURRENTISOYEAR} {CURRENTYEAR} |
{LASTYEAR} | {NEXTYEAR} | |
| Day of Year | {CURRENTDAYOFYEAR} | |||
| Decade | {DECADE} | {CURRENTDECADE} | ||
| Century | {Century} | {CURRENTCENTURY} | ||
| MILLENNIUM | {MILLENNIUM} |
Date and time templates made for substitution:
Month:
{Lmonth} produces Feb
{Nmonth} produces Apr
{Last month} produces February 2025
{Next month} produces April 2025
Parser functions
- mw:Special:MyLanguage/time permits a custom time specifier string, similar to the C date and time functions
Individual templates
- {Calendar}
- {Calendar clock with Wikipedia stats}
- {Clock}
- {Digital clock}
- {Digital clock and date}
- {Infobox calendar date today}
- {Raph Williams65/digiclock}
Categories of templates
- Category:Time, date and calendar templates
- Category:Date-computing templates
- Category:Date-computing templates based on current time
- Category:ISO date templates
- Category:Calendar templates
Converts dates into a format used on Wikipedia
| Parameter | Description | Type | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| date | 1 | Date to be formatted
| Date | suggested |
| format | 2 | Controls the date format for the result
| String | suggested |