Template:Start date and age

The 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.

Contents Usage Common usage to display formatted as: March 25, 2010; 9 years ago to display formatted as: 25 March 2010; 9 years ago Full syntax to display formatted as: 25 March 2010 (9 years ago) 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, similar to Template:Start date. If the parameter end equals yes, y, or 1, the template will instead use, 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) January 2, 2010	January 2, 2010; 9 years ago January 9, 2008	January 9, 2008; 11 years ago January 5, 2003	January 5, 2003; 16 years ago January 2, 2010	2 January 2010; 9 years ago January 9, 2008	9 January 2008; 11 years ago January 5, 2003	5 January 2003; 16 years ago 100 days ago: April 11, 2019	April 11, 2019; 3 months ago Yesterday: July 19, 2019	July 19, 2019; 1 day ago Today: July 20, 2019	July 20, 2019; 0 days ago Year and month September 2001	September 2001; 17 years ago September 2002	September 2002; 16 years ago September 2003	September 2003; 15 years ago September 2004	September 2004; 14 years ago Year only 2005	2005; 14 years ago Optional separator: parentheses Syntax	Result Full date (year, month, day) February 15, 2003	February 15, 2003 (16 years ago) February 15, 2003	15 February 2003 (16 years ago) Year and month February 2003	February 2003 (16 years ago) Year only 2003	2003 (16 years ago) Line break with semicolon Syntax	Result Full date (year, month, day) February 15, 2003	February 15, 2003; 16 years ago February 15, 2003	15 February 2003; 16 years ago Year and month February 2003	February 2003; 16 years ago Year only 2003	2003; 16 years ago Line break with parentheses Syntax	Result Full date (year, month, day) February 15, 2003	February 15, 2003 (16 years ago) February 15, 2003	15 February 2003 (16 years ago) Year and month February 2003	February 2003 (16 years ago) Year only 2003	2003 (16 years ago) 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 or  for people.

Similarly, 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.

Example December 31, 2016 → December 31, 2016; 2 years ago December 31, 2016 &#059;&#032;2 years ago &#160;( 2016-12-31 )