Template:Start date and age/doc

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
 * to display formatted as:
 * March 25, 2010
 * to display formatted as:
 * March 25, 2010


 * Full syntax
 * to display formatted as:
 * March 25, 2010

Parameters
{| class="wikitable"! 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).|}

"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.

Default separator: semicolon
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"! style="width:60%;" | Syntax! style="width:40%;" | Result|-| colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDD" | Full date (year, month, day)|-| | January 2, 2010|-|  | January 9, 2008|-|  | January 5, 2003|-|  | January 2, 2010|-|  | January 9, 2008|-|  | January 5, 2003|-| 100 days ago:
 * |-| Yesterday:
 * |-| Today:
 * |-| colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDD" | Year and month|-| | September 2001|-|  | September 2002|-|  | September 2003|-|  | September 2004|-| colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDD" | Year only|-|  | 2005|}

Optional separator: parentheses
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"! style="width:60%;" | Syntax! style="width:40%;" | Result|-| colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDD" | Full date (year, month, day)|-| | February 15, 2003|-|  | February 15, 2003|-| colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDD" | Year and month|-|  | February 2003|-| colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDD" | Year only|-|  | 2003|}

Line break with semicolon
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"! style="width:60%;" | Syntax! style="width:40%;" | Result|-| colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDD" | Full date (year, month, day)|-| | February 15, 2003|-|  | February 15, 2003|-| colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDD" | Year and month|-|  | February 2003|-| colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDD" | Year only|-|  | 2003|}

Line break with parentheses
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"! style="width:60%;" | Syntax! style="width:40%;" | Result|-| colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDD" | Full date (year, month, day)|-| | February 15, 2003|-|  | February 15, 2003|-| colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDD" | Year and month|-|  | February 2003|-| colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDD" | Year only|-|  | 2003|}

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 ).
 * Template:Years or months ago – display number of months or years ago (for dates given as  or  ).
 * Template:Yesno – allows optional formatting parameters to accept values other than "yes" (such as "y" or "1").