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

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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

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  • {{start date|year|month|day}}
  • {{start date|year|month|day|HH|MM|SS|...}} (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|...}} → "08:30:23, February 24, 1993 (UTC) (1993-02-24T08:30:23Z)"
  • {{start date|1993|02|24|08|30|23|...}} → "08:30:23, February 24, 1993 (+01:00) (1993-02-24T08:30:23+01:00)"
  • {{start date|1993|02|24|08|30|23|...}} → "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

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This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools.

TemplateData for Start date

Date that an event or entity started or was created

Template parameters

ParameterDescriptionTypeStatus
YYYY1

start year

Numberoptional
MM2

start month

Numberoptional
DD3

start day of month

Numberoptional
HH4

start hours

Numberoptional
MM5

start minutes

Default
0
Numberoptional
SS6

start seconds

Default
0
Numberoptional
TZ7

time zone offset, “+02:00”, “-06:00” or “Z” for UTC

Lineoptional
day firstdf

boolean parameter to put the date before the month name

Default
false
Lineoptional

Use in microformats

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Template:UF-date-part

See also

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