Template:Dts/doc
This is a documentation subpage for Template:Dts. It contains usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page. |
Dts/doc stands for Date Table Sorting and is used to correctly sort and display dates in a sortable table (see Help:Sorting).
Contents
What it solves
Normally, for proper sorting, dates must be entered in YYYY-MM-DD format. However, that format does not conform to the Manual of Style for date display. This template automatically creates the hidden <span style="display:none">1776-07-04</span>
for sorting purposes and then displays the date like this: July 4, 1776. To hide the output, use the {{dtsh}} template instead.
Parameters
Date display can be modified using two named parameters.
|
{{dts|year|month|day|BC}} | {{dts|date}} |
---|---|
Thus e.g. for the year 5 BC we can use "5|bc" or "-4". A time period (year or month and year) is sorted according to its start, and time periods with the same starting moment are in order of descending length: a year comes before its first month; a month comes before its first day. |
|
Input
{{dts|year|month|day|BC}}
- {{
dts|1776|July|4
}}
{{dts|date}}
- {{
dts|1776-07-04
}} - {{
dts|July 4, 1776
}} - {{
dts|4 July 1776
}}
When supplying a single parameter for the date, it is accepted and interpreted according to the php date/time format, except that a single number is interpreted as a year. By default the date is shown as supplied. If the first parameter is not just the year, but no format parameter is supplied, due to a call of function #time
the maximum number of calls of this template on a page is 1200.
Using format
produces a format that depends on, but is not necessarily equal to the format of the supplied date. This requires multiple calls of function #time
, reducing the maximum number of calls of this template on a page in the worst case to 88, see below.
Also see the examples below.
Output
Output sent to table
<span style="display:none">01776-07-04</span> July 4, 1776
or<span style="display:none">01776-07-04</span> 4 July 1776
Output displayed to user
- July 4, 1776 or
- 4 July 1776
Linking
The template formerly linked dates automatically. To turn linking off the parameter link=off
was used. In accordance with current guidelines linking is no longer supported. Please do not use this parameter. Please remove it from existing transclusions.
Examples
Normal function of the template. | The template with debug=yes , which causes hidden parts to appear:
|
---|---|
Error handling
Entering an invalid date format will (generally) produce an error message such as the one below.
Error in Template:Dts: 'wrong format' is an invalid date
See also
- {{dtsh}}, hides the template's output
- {{TBA}}, allows quarters, and allows sorting of time periods by end date.
- m:Template:dts (backlinks edit), since on Meta e.g. 09999 9999 induces numeric sort mode, "&" is prefixed to force string sort mode.
- {{dts1}}
- {{dts vgr}}, for video game release dates.
- {{sort}}, sorting by a specified key
- {{sortname}}, full name sorting.
- {{tts}}, for sorting times in result tables of athletic events (only needed in certain cases - see template documentation)