Difference between revisions of "Template:Dts"

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This template is used on approximately 20,000 pages, so changes to it will be widely noticed. Please test any changes in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. Please consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

Please check that you do actually need this template before using it. Default date sorting does not work for spelled-out month–year or year–month combos and dates before the year 100, but it works in most other circumstances. Furthermore, this template litters the text content of tables, and data-sort-value should generally be preferred. For more information, see Help:Sorting § Date sorting problems.

This template should not be used in citation templates such as Citation Style 1 and Citation Style 2, because it includes markup that will pollute the COinS metadata they produce; see COinS in Wikipedia.

Uses Lua: Module:Dts

Dts (date time sorting) is used to correctly sort and display dates in a sortable table (see Help:Sorting).

What it solves

Dates in their customary formats, if simply treated as alphanumeric text strings, sort in nonsensical ways:

• 1/8/2013 sorts alphanumerically before 5/3/1967, because 1 is less than 5;
• February 5, 1922 sorts alphanumerically before January 3, 1922, because F comes before J.

Use of the YYYY-MM-DD format would solve this problem, but with minor exceptions that format is not used in articles (see WP:DATEFORMAT).

This template automatically attaches a "hidden key" to dates, causing them to sort correctly while still being displayed in one of the customary display formats such as February 5, 1922 or 5 Feb 1922.

Parameters

Dates

Formatting

Using format produces a format that depends on, but is not necessarily equal to the format of the supplied date. The format parameter can take nine values.

Abbreviation

There are two ways of abbreviating the month name.

1. Directly input an abbreviated month name.
2. Use the abbr=on parameter.

Additional sort key

In case two dates in a table are identical they may be ordered using the addkey parameter.

Wrapping

To turn off the suppression of word wraps, use the nowrap=off parameter.

Notes

Sorting for incomplete dates

Whole months or years

A whole year or month (and year) is sorted according to its first day.

Missing years

If the year is not specified, the date will be sorted as if the year were the current year.

Blank dates

For no date input at all, the maximum possible sort key is used, so the entry will sort last.

Error handling

Entering an invalid date format will (generally) produce an error message such as the one below.

Error in Template:Dts: days must be an integer between 1 and 31

Errors are tracked in Category:Dts templates with errors.

Calendar choice

The template is not capable of distinguishing Julian and Gregorian calendar dates. Also, it is not capable of taking a date in one calendar as input and outputting a date in the other calendar. Thus, to insure proper sorting, editors must either use one calendar for all dates, or pick a specific changeover date (for example, deciding that 4 October 1582 is Julian and all later dates are Gregorian); this would be done on an article-by article basis. Editors are also responsible for explaining to the reader whether the visible dates are Julian or Gregorian, if there is any possibility of confusion.

Linking

The template formerly linked dates automatically, with link=off used to suppress linking. In accordance with current guidelines linking of dates is no longer supported and instances of link=off should be removed. Transclusions using the |link= parameter are tracked in Category:Dts templates with deprecated parameters.

See also

• m:Template:dts (backlinks edit), since on Meta e.g. 09999 9999 induces numeric sort mode, "&" is prefixed to force string sort mode.
• {{sort}}, sorting by a specified key (also good for complicated numbers, e.g. scientific notation)
• {{sortname}}, full name sorting (using "last name, first name" as default sort key)
• {{tts}}, for sorting times in result tables of athletic events (only needed in certain cases - see template documentation)
• {{mss}}, for sorting times in tables of eclipses
• {{nts}}, for numbers