Template:YEAR/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:YEAR.
It may contain usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

This template is used on approximately 91,000 pages and changes may be widely noticed. Test changes in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

Usage

{{YEAR|string formatted as a valid date}}

Specify optional parameter {{{2}}} to get soft error rather than a hard {{error}}

{{YEAR|1999}} gives: 1999
{{YEAR|1999-12-12}} gives: 1999
{{YEAR|January 1999}} gives: 1999
{{YEAR|1 January 1999}} gives: 1999
{{YEAR|January 1, 1999}} gives: 1999
{{YEAR|1-2-1990}} gives: 1990
{{YEAR|1/2/1990}} gives: 1990
{{YEAR|2239-10-23}} gives: 2239

Reports "Error" if given bad input:

{{YEAR|1-14-1990}} gives: Error
Reason for the error: there are not 14 months.
{{YEAR|61 January 1999}} gives: Error
Reason for the error: no month has 61 days.
{{YEAR|1 MyMonth 1999}} gives: Error
Reason for the error: there is no such month name.
{{YEAR|some text which is not a date}} gives: Error
Reason for the error: no date information to parse.
{{YEAR|on approximately 1999-12-12}} gives: Error
Reason for the error: includes extraneous content.

If used with a year range, it returns only the first match:

{{YEAR|1999-2001}} gives: 1999

This presently only works when the year range is specified with a hyphen; if correctly given with an en dash, it reports an error (this will probably not be fixed, because handling ranges is not the template's function; that it kinda-sorta works on something like 1999-2001 with a hyphen is basically just an accident):

{{YEAR|1999–2001}} gives: Error

If used without input, it simply outputs the current year:

{{YEAR}} gives: 2024

It can be cleanly substituted for this purpose. If fed invalid data when substituted, it produces a larger, red error.

Usage

See also