Template:Show by date

Template documentation[view] [edit] [history] [purge]

For the wrapper template that uses a freeform date/time parameter instead of separate year, month, and day parameters, see Template:Show by.

Usage

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 as the given dates elapse.

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 2026" to "Mr. Smith took office on 1 January 2026" 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 2026" does not usually support a statement "The movie was released on 1 January 2026" since movie dates often slip; on the other hand, it could support "The movie was scheduled for release on 1 January 2026" or the template could be used to remove the text entirely, and {{update after}} could be used to request an update.
• Be careful that the article does not contain awkward grammar before the date and will not contain awkward grammar when the "after" text is displayed.

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, it will make a significant difference if the actual event is more than 12 hours before or after this. For example, an event that takes place on October 26 at 8:00 pm Pacific Standard Time (UTC−08:00) corresponds to 04:00, October 27 (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 text before nor the text after may begin or end with whitespace. Workarounds include using an escape code for space ( ), using a non-breaking space ( ), 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|2023|||Show this before 2023|Show this after 2023}} has started	Show this after 2023 has started
{{show by date|2027|09||Show this before September 2027|Show this after September 2027}} has started	Show this before September 2027 has started
{{show by date|2023|09|06|Show this before 06 Sep 2023|Show this as of 06 Sep 2023}}	Show this as of 06 Sep 2023
{{show by date|2025|10|26|Show this before 5:00 UTC|Show this as of 5:00 UTC|hour=5}}	Show this before 5:00 UTC
{{show by date|2027|09|06|Show this before 06 Sep 2027|}}	Show this before 06 Sep 2027
{{show by date|2027|09|06||Show this after 06 Sep 2027}}
{{show by date|2027|||{{show by date|2023|||Show this before 2023|Show this between 2023 and 2027}}|Show this as of 2027}}	Show this between 2023 and 2027
Note *{{show by date|2027||| lost spacing }}*, and *{{show by date|2027||| workaround }}*	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.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
year	1	Year	Number	required
month	2	Month number	Number	suggested
day	3	Day of the month.	Number	suggested
Text before	4 before	Text that will be shown before the specified date.	Content	suggested
Text after	5 after	Text that will be shown on and after the specified date.	Content	suggested
Hour	hour	Hour of the day in 24-hour UTC time	Unknown	optional

Related templates

• {{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|inaccurate=y}} is used to mark an article whose factual accuracy may be compromised (although this may be disputed) due to out of date information. This template adds the article to Category:Articles with obsolete information.
• {{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

• Wikipedia:Avoid statements that will date quickly

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Show by date/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (create | mirror) and testcases (create) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.