To promote consistent date formatting, place this template with other maintenance tags near the top of articles that use the d mmmm yyyy date format (below hatnotes, but above infoboxes, as per the Manual of Style). The parameter |date= is intended to track the most recent month and year in which an editor or bot checked the article for inconsistent date formatting and, if any inconsistencies were found, fixed them to comply with this template's date formatting preference.

Wikipedia articles that use d mmmm yyyy dates, either because of the first main contributor rule or close national ties (see MOSNUM), are systematically tagged with {{Use dmy dates}} over time. The template is visible only in edit mode.

The template is useful to the editors to quickly know which date format is to be used when adding new dates into an article. It also facilitates article maintenance by enabling bots to recognise use of this format, and by adding the article to the hidden category Use dmy dates.

Use of this template is part of a continuing effort to monitor the date formats used in articles, to assist in maintaining consistent formatting within an article. It is not a temporary "cleanup" template. Therefore, do not remove the template without valid reason, such as a determination that the article uses or should use a different date format.

After an article is tagged, periodic script or bot runs clean up formats, correcting any new introductions since the bot's last visit, and updating the tracking date parameter in the {{Use dmy dates}} template.

The dmy and mdy templates have almost always been used to indicate date styles in the body of the articles; although it may also indicate the flavour of dates in reference sections or parts thereof. Therefore, this template notice ought to be read in conjunction with the blurb at Wikipedia:Date formattings. MOSNUM script documentation may also be relevant to those interested.

When a citation style does not expect differing date formats, it is permissible to normalize publication dates to the article body text date format, and access/archive dates to either, with date consistency being preferred (see MOS:DATEUNIFY).

This template is intended for use in articles. It can be used on a template page in order to format citation dates on the template page itself, but it must be enclosed in <noinclude>...</noinclude> tags so that it is not transcluded into articles or other pages.

Citation Style 1 and 2 (collectively cs1|2) templates automatically render dates (|date=, |access-date=, |archive-date=, etc.) in the style specified by this template. Because it is allowed by WP:MOSDATES, the cs1|2 templates can automatically format dates in a variety of styles. Editors may choose how cs1|2 templates render dates by the use of |cs1-dates=<keyword>.

Acceptable |cs1-dates= keywords

Keyword	Definition
l	long-form publication and access- / archive-dates; this is the default case when |cs1-dates= is omitted or empty
ll
ls	long-form publication dates; abbreviated access- / archive-dates
ly	long-form publication dates; year-initial numeric access- / archive-dates (ymd)
s	abbreviated publication and access- / archive-dates
ss
sy	abbreviated publication dates; year-initial numeric access- / archive-dates (ymd)
y	year-initial numeric publication, access- and archive-dates (ymd); cs1|2 cannot reformat Month YYYY, Season YYYY, date-ranges of any form, or Julian calendar dates into ymd format
yy

An example is given at Help:Citation Style 1 § Auto-formatting citation template dates.

Nota bene: cs1|2 auto-date formatting does not apply when previewing an article section that does not contain a {{use xxx dates}} template. When editing with the visual editor, changes to this template do not take effect until the page is saved.

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}

Notes:

• The template should be inserted in one of the first few lines of code of an article (to improve performance).
• Avoid redirects of this template, because their presence in an article may not be recognized by date formatting scripts and bots. (These are a number of "legacy redirects" which are still supported at least by CS1/CS2 citation templates, but they should be changed to direct invocations of this template, also for performance reasons.)

This template should be placed near the top of articles that use the d mmmm yyyy date format.

Template parameters[Edit template data]

This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Month and year	date	The month and year that the template was placed or the article was last checked or cleaned (in full). "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}" inserts the current month and year automatically. Example April 2022 Auto value {{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}	String	suggested
cs1-dates	cs1-dates	How dates should be formatted in CS1 citations Suggested values l ll ls ly s ss sy y yy	Unknown	optional

If, for example, you determine that an article has a template that is inappropriate for its nationality, you should replace it with the appropriate template to avoid scripts or bots reapplying the "wrong" format in the course of maintenance.

• Category:Pages using Use dmy dates template with unknown parameters (0)
• Category:Use dmy dates and its dated subcategories

• {{Use mdy dates}}, for the mmmm d, yyyy format
• {{Date}}, which can alter the format of an inputted date