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  • 21 Aug, 2019

  • By, Wikipedia

Template:Show By Date

This template will automatically display one of two statements based on whether a particular date has been reached or not.

{{show by date|year|month|day|text before|text after|hour=}}

  • Parameters 1, 2, and 3 are the Year, Month, and Day that the template should show the text after. Until that date, the text before is shown. If the day is omitted, the template will activate on the first day of the specified month. If the month is also omitted, the template will activate on 1 January of the specified year. If the year is also omitted, the template will activate immediately.
  • Parameter 4 (text before) is the text to be shown if the current date is before the date specified in the previous parameters; it may be left empty if only the text after needs to be displayed at the specified date
  • Parameter 5 (text after) is the text to be shown if the current date is on or after the date specified in the previous parameters; it may be left empty if only the text before needs to be displayed until the specified date
  • The hour parameter (hour=) is an optional parameter that sets the hour of the day in Wikipedia time (UTC) that the template will begin showing the text after. If not specified, it defaults to 0 (midnight UTC). When set to the offset between local time and UTC (for example -8 for Pacific Standard Time) it will cause the template to show text after at midnight local time.

The template is particularly useful on low-activity articles where dated statements may not receive prompt attention.

A WP:BOT, User:AnomieBOT, will substitute the template with just the text after after the specified date.

Warnings

  • Be certain that the "before" and "after" versions of the statement are both reliably supported by the cited sources. For example, "Mr. Smith will take office on 1 January 2025" to "Mr. Smith took office on 1 January 2025" are both normally citable to the results of the election or announcement of the appointment. But the source for "The movie is scheduled for release on 1 January 2025" does not usually support a statement "The movie was released on 1 January 2025" since movie dates often slip; on the other hand, it could support "The movie was scheduled for release on 1 January 2025" or the template could be used to remove the text entirely, and {{update after}} could be used to request an update.
  • Take care that neither the "before" nor "after" text displays with awkward grammar.
  • Limitations

    • Unless the hour= is set, statements will be switched on the date according to Wikipedia time (00:00 UTC). If the actual event point is a few hours before or after this, it probably makes little difference in the grander scheme of time. However, the template will trigger at some time on the day before or after the specified date if the actual event is more than 12 hours before or after 00:00 UTC. For example, an event that takes place on November 1 at 8:00 pm Pacific Standard Time (UTC−08:00) corresponds to 04:00, November 2 (UTC).

      To work around this, set the hour= parameter to the offset between local time and UTC (for example -8 for Pacific Standard Time) or to the UTC time of the actual start of the event.

    • The output of this template will not be changed until the page is purged. MediaWiki may or may not manage to do this automatically. Category membership and the output of Special:WhatLinksHere, if these are changed by the expiration of this template, will not be updated until the page is edited.
    • Neither the intended text before nor the text after may begin or end with whitespace (whitespace will be trimmed). Workarounds include using an escape code for space (&#32;), using a non-breaking space (&nbsp;), or including invisible markup (e.g. <nowiki/>) to prevent the spaces from being stripped.
    • If the text before or text after contains an "=" or "|" character that is not inside another template invocation, use the templates {{=}} or {{!}}.

    Examples

    Code Result
    {{show by date|2022|||Show this before 2022|Show this after 2022}} has started Show this after 2022 has started
    {{show by date|2026|09||Show this before September 2026|Show this after September 2026}} has started Show this before September 2026 has started
    {{show by date|2022|09|06|Show this before 06 Sep 2022|Show this as of 06 Sep 2022}} Show this as of 06 Sep 2022
    {{show by date|2024|11|1|Show this before 19:00 UTC|Show this as of 19:00 UTC|hour=19}} Show this before 19:00 UTC
    {{show by date|2026|09|06|Show this before 06 Sep 2026|}} Show this before 06 Sep 2026
    {{show by date|2026|09|06||Show this after 06 Sep 2026}}
    {{show by date|2026|||{{show by date|2022|||Show this before 2022|Show this between 2022 and 2026}}|Show this as of 2026}} Show this between 2022 and 2026
    Note *{{show by date|2026||| lost spacing }}*, and *{{show by date|2026|||&#32;workaround&#32;}}* Note *lost spacing*, and * workaround *

    Template data

    This template will automatically display one of two statements based on whether a particular date has been reached or not. ##### param 1 is the year ##### param 2 is the month number ##### param 3 is the day of the month ##### param 4 is the text to show before the specified date ##### param 5 is the text to show on or after the specified date ##### hour is the hour of the day in 24-hour UTC time

    Template parameters[Edit template data]

    This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

    ParameterDescriptionTypeStatus
    year1

    Year

    Numberrequired
    month2

    Month number

    Numbersuggested
    day3

    Day of the month.

    Numbersuggested
    Text before4 before

    Text that will be shown before the specified date.

    Contentsuggested
    Text after5 after

    Text that will be shown on and after the specified date.

    Contentsuggested
    Hourhour

    Hour of the day in 24-hour UTC time, or +/- offset

    Unknownoptional
    • {{Show by}} A similar template that accepts a date/time string instead of separate parameters for the year, month, and day
    • {{As of}}
    • {{Update}}
    • {{Update after}}, which shows an inline update maintenance tag when a specified date is reached.
    • {{Hide until}} – hides text until the specified date and time, down to the second

    See also