Template:Use mdy dates/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Use mdy dates.
It contains usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

This template is used on approximately 245,000 pages.
To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

Shortcuts

{{mdy}}
{{MDY}}

This template uses Lua:

Module:Unsubst

Usage

To promote consistent date formatting, place this template with other maintenance tags near the top of articles that use the mmmm d, yyyy date format (below hatnotes, but above infoboxes, as per the Manual of Style). Use the parameter |date= for the month and year that an editor or bot last checked the article for inconsistent date formatting and fixed any found.

Wikipedia articles that use mmmm d, yyyy ("American") dates, either because of the first main contributor rule or close national ties (see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers, shortcut: WP:MOSNUM), are systematically tagged with {{Use mdy dates}} over time. The template is invisible except in edit mode.

The template lets editors know which date format to use when adding or editing dates in an article. It also facilitates article maintenance by enabling bots to recognize use of this format, and by adding the article to the hidden category called Use mdy 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 the article uses or should use a different date format.

After being tagged, and bearing in mind article evolution, periodic script or bot runs clean up formats, correcting any new introductions since its last visit, and updating the visit date on the {{Use mdy 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/or access/archive dates to either, with date consistency being preferred (see MOS:DATEUNIFY).

Auto-formatting citation template dates

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`	abbreviated publication and access- / archive-dates
`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.

Syntax

{{Use mdy 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).
Do not use redirects of this template, because otherwise its presence in an article may not be recognized by date formatting templates and bots. (There 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.)

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. Click here to see a monthly parameter usage report for this template based on this TemplateData.

TemplateData for Use mdy dates

Parameter names cannot be empty. To document unnamed parameters use their internal numbers "1", "2", and so on.

Wrongly tagged?

If you determine that an article is incorrectly tagged with this template, you should replace this template with the correct one or at least remove it. This will prevent scripts and bots from applying the "wrong" format.

Maintenance categories

Category:Pages using Use mdy dates template with unknown parameters (0)