Date math on Wikipedia is done with
variables,
templates and the #time
parser function.
In articles, it is almost always preferred to specify a specific static date for a statement or event rather than an automatically generated date. Wikipedia:As of describes how to properly specify such dates.
| Built-in variables | Templates based on them | What you see | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| {{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}} | 20240707090328 | ||
| {{CURRENTYEAR}} | 2024 | ||
| {{ UTC}} | 2024-07-07 09:03 UTC | also uses {{CURRENTMONTH}} {{CURRENTDAY2}} {{CURRENTTIME}} | |
| {{ CURRENTDATE}} | 09:03, Sunday, July 7, 2024 ( UTC) | also uses {{CURRENTTIME}} {{CURRENTDAYNAME}} {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}} | |
| {{ CURRENTJULIANDAY}} | 2460498.8774074 | current Julian day also uses {{CURRENTMONTH}} {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTHOUR}} {{ CURRENTMINUTE}} {{ CURRENTSECOND}} | |
| {{CURRENTMONTH}} | 07 | ||
| {{ CURRENTMNTH}} | 7 | trims leading zero | |
| {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} | July | ||
| {{ Month+1}} | August | ||
| {{ Month-1}} | June | ||
| {{ Month-2}} | May | ||
| {{CURRENTDAY}} | 7 | day of month | |
| {{CURRENTDOW}} | 0 | day of week | |
| {{#time:l|-1 day}} | Saturday | ||
| {{#time:l}} | Sunday | ||
| {{#time:l|+1 day}} | Monday | ||
| Any variable or template with a resolution of smaller than one day should not be placed in articles. These variables only indicate when the article was parsed and cached; they may lag by many hours or even days compared to the time the page is viewed. | |||
| {{CURRENTTIME}} | 09:03 | ||
| {{CURRENTHOUR}} | 09 | ||
| {{#time:H|+1 hour}} | 10 | ||
| {{ Current hour}} | 9 | trims leading zero | |
| {{#time:i}} | 03 | ||
| {{ CURRENTMINUTE}} | 03 | ||
| {{ Current minute}} | 3 | trims leading zero | |
| {{#time:s}} | 28 | ||
| {{ CURRENTSECOND}} | 28 | ||
| Template name | Usage | Output | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| {{ Ordinal date}} | {{Ordinal date|year=2007|month=03|day=15}} | 74 | returns ordinal date (day of year) |
| {{Ordinal date|year=2008|month=03|day=15}} | 75 | +1 due to leap year in 2008 | |
| {{ WEEKDAY}} | {{WEEKDAY|2009|08|25}} | 1 | returns day of week |
| {{WEEKDAYNAME|{{WEEKDAY|2009|08|25}}}} | Tuesday | ||
| {{ JULIANDAY}} | {{JULIANDAY|2009|08|25}} | 2455069 | |
| {{WEEKDAYNAME|{{JULIANDAY|2009|08|25}}}} | Tuesday | Note: 2455069 mod 7 = 1 | |
| {{JULIANDAY|{{CURRENTYEAR}}|{{CURRENTMONTH}}|{{CURRENTDAY}}}} | 2460499 | Nesting templates to get the value of the current Julian day with no decimal portion. Useful for date math between a set point and the current date. | |
| {{ JULIANDAY.TIMESTAMP}} | {{JULIANDAY.TIMESTAMP|2455069}} | 20090825120000 | same format as {{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}} |
| {{#time:D Y-m-d|{{JULIANDAY.TIMESTAMP|2455069}}}} | Tue 2009-08-25 |
Julian dates or day numbers can be used for date calculations. A simple example follows:
- 90 days from 25 December 2006 is: 25 March 2007
- Code: {{#time:j F Y|{{JULIANDAY.TIMESTAMP|{{JULIANDAY|2006|12|25}}+90}}}}
- 90 days from 25 December 2007 is: 24 March 2008 (1 day less than first example due to leap year in 2008)
- Code: {{#time:j F Y|{{JULIANDAY.TIMESTAMP|{{JULIANDAY|2007|12|25}}+90}}}}
| {{ today cell}} | {{ tomorrow cell}} |