Template talk:Time

Purpose

What is the purpose of this template? It seems to be used primarily in people's signatures, which defeats the purpose of having timestamps in the signature in the first place. What valid uses exist? —Bkell (talk) 01:54, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

It saves time. at least on my user talk page. There are places where we subst this template for time to save time. --Cat out 20:57, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Why don't you just use five tildes? ~~~~~ will do exactly the same thing. —Bkell (talk) 21:17, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Er, wait, never mind, no it won't. That was my entire point, I guess. What's an example of a case in which this is useful? —Bkell (talk) 21:19, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

This template has been transcluded in several spots, which seems to serve no purpose. As for substituting, the only advantage I see over ~~~~~ is the linking that results in it following the user's date preferences. Maybe we need to get a bot to remove all transcluded instances of this template. —TheMuuj ^Talk 20:40, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

No we don't. Leave it alone. It tells the user the current time on UTC at the time of their post. It serves the purpose of any clock. --Cat out 07:16, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

The problem is that it provides misleading information if used after a post. If I signed this comment with {{time}}, today it would look like I signed November 20 (which is true), but next week it would look like I signed November 27 (which is obviously wrong). It can be used for other purposes, but should not be used after comments on talk pages. —Mets501 (talk) 11:55, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

I'm guessing {{subst:time}} might do the trick. ~ trialsanderrors 09:23, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

• I use this template as part of an 'am I online?' indicator on my talk page: see User:Ceyockey. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 15:01, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

other time templates

I'm looking for other templates for wedging in the time. This one isn't quite it. Links anyone? -Zeno Izen 20:42, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Argument

I added an argument so it can be used to display the time in different time zones. I've added CET, feel free to add more. Currently, daylight saving time will have to be set manually, it's going to be complicated to set that automatically. -- SkyLined (talk) local time:14:47, 14 April 2008 (CET), server time: 13:47, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

I wish to add IST on {{Time}} which is UTC+5.5 hours. How do I do that? It doesnt accept decimal vlaues as 5.5 , can you help me ? -- TinuCherian ^(Chat?) - 05:37, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

This has been addressed: time zone offsets should be calculated in sub templates, as it is now done for CET, PST and IST     — SkyLined {^talk_contribs 22:18, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Added GMT

For some reason, GMT wasn't on the list and it started to bug me, considering in Britain we are 1 hour ahead of UTC but there's no template. But anyway, it's added now. —Cyclonenim (talk · contribs · email) 15:29, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

De linking the date

I delinked the date per "The wikilinking of dates is now deprecated." -- Suntag ☼ 19:44, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

Change use

I'd like to change this template so that it's more generally useful to the project. What I'm thinking of is changing parameter 1 so that it's a HH:MM time value; adding parameter 2 with an optional time zone value (with UTC being the default); and possibly adding named parameters for both of those parameters.

The reason for this is that I'd like a time template available for use in article space. This way we can avoid the use of HTML entities within wikitext, and can easily provide local -> UTC conversions for our world-wide audience.

Comments, concerns?
— V = IR (Talk • Contribs) 15:30, 2 May 2011 (UTC)

I agree. - Talk to you later, Presidentman (talk) Random Picture of the Day (Talkback) 20:05, 2 May 2011 (UTC)

I think the proposed feature would be awesome to have! However, that change requires updating up to 575 transclusions to use the new arguments, but other than that I have no objection.     — SkyLined (talk) 15:27, 5 May 2011 (UTC)

How do you plan to cater for Daylight Saving? In both hemispheres? Pdfpdf (talk) 15:58, 5 May 2011 (UTC)

(And the backward compatability - are there only 575 transclusions?) Pdfpdf (talk) 15:58, 5 May 2011 (UTC)

Time offset vs. time zone

EST is not a time zone.

{{utc|19}} produces 21:09, but that will only be correct until the first Sunday in March next year.

I'm looking for something that will always show the correct time, adjusted for daylight saving. --Uncle Ed (talk) 19:09, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Ed's right "EST" stands for "Eastern Standard Time" the input therefore should be ET. EST is fine for an output, during EST but this template is outputting "EST" regardless of whether standard time is in place or not. During daylight savings time it should be "EDT". JIMp _talk·cont 07:11, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

NZST

I have created {{Time/NZST offset}} and would like an NZST parameter added to the template. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 21:34, 4 May 2012 (UTC)

 Done -- WOSlinker (talk) 13:50, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

Edit request on 25 July 2013

A couple of points:

1. As noted just above: for the North American time zones (everywhere from "HST" down to "PMST"), the output line should get rid of the S (for "standard").

   Using Eastern Time as an example, the output should be EST (Eastern Standard Time) in the winter and EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) in the summer. I suspect that would be fairly difficult to implement, though, given how these time-offset subpages are built. So it would be better in this case to simply have the output be ET (Eastern Time).

2. The Hawaii/Aleutians zone should really be split into two. The Aleutians observe DST, but Hawaii does not. The current /HST offset subpage reflects practice in Hawaii; i.e., UTC-10 always. I just created a new subpage /AleutST offset reflecting UTC-10 in winter (AleutST) and UTC-9 in summer (AleutDT). Please add references to that. Also, please change the output for Hawaii simply to read HST (or HT, but it doesn't matter in this case). Both of those time zone abbreviation designations can still be piped links to Hawaii-Aleutian Time Zone.

Thank you. StevenJ81 (talk) 19:31, 25 July 2013 (UTC)

Not done for now: It would take quite a bit of work to code this up, particularly for your second point, and probably even more so if we wanted to implement your suggestion re: EST and EDT. Could you add your suggested code to Template:Time/sandbox so that it can be tested before we make any changes? See WP:TESTCASES for more details on how to do this, and you can ask at WP:WPT or WP:VPT if you need help with the code. Feel free to ask me on my talk page as well. Once you're done, please reactivate the {{edit protected}} template so that a patrolling admin can make the edit. Best — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 04:00, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

Code added as requested.

I am aware that EST/EDT would be difficult, and do not propose that now. Instead, I propose that the neutral, and always correct, ET, be used in its place. See the testcases page.

As far as the Aleutians go, see the testcases page.

Finally, the whole thing is already implemented, with documentation updated, at simple:Template:Time, if you want to look there. StevenJ81 (talk) 04:52, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

Done. Thanks for your work! — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 12:52, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

I might have put a typo in my part of the code. Look in the akst|= section. One of the offset variables now reads {{Time/AKT offset}}, which doesn't exist. It should read {{Time/AKST offset}}. On the other hand, the output, as with the others, should read AKT, not AKST. Will fix in the sandbox. Please correct in main table; sorry about that. StevenJ81 (talk) 13:31, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

Done. Fixed. — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 16:21, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

Incorporation of straight UTC offsets

I have been playing around with some code for adding a straight UTC offset functionality to this template. Aside from adding a nice piece of functionality to this per se, it makes the template more usable to more people who do not live in one of the currently incorporated, named time zones. Would people have an interest in this? StevenJ81 (talk) 18:38, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

Edit request on 9 August 2013

Is there a reason there is no param |df=y to create DMY output? When used in an article that is otherwise DMY, it looks (and is) wrong. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 19:20, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

Not done: AlanM1, this isn't the correct use of the {{edit protected}} template - it is supposed to be used to request edits to pages where the code is already written and tested, not for general questions about a template. If you don't get a response from your thread, you could try asking at WP:WPT or WP:VPT. Or if you want to draw up the code yourself and test it, you can reactivate the request after that. Best — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 03:28, 11 August 2013 (UTC)

OK. Sandbox updated with revamped template, supporting |df=y to render DMY dates. Also now correctly supports present but empty param 1 (as default UTC). Testcase page has been redesigned to test all supported cases and compare results using new subtemplates. Doc updates to follow (assuming implementation in live code). —[AlanM1(talk)]— 02:48, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Additionally, I gave AWST its own offset template, instead of using BT's. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 08:29, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Done. Thanks for your hard work, and sorry for the delay in updating the template. Also, as I was fulfilling this request I noticed that the template only had 895 transclusions, so I have reduced the protection level to semi-protection. — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 06:35, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

Wow, if 895 is not enough then I must hold a really strict conservative view of what's considered high-risk.. -- œ^™ 04:57, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

Is this template capable of expressing time in AM and PM formats?

As per title. If the answer is yes how does one do so? Thanks for your time. Brenton (contribs · email · talk · uploads) 03:02, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

To include EAT

EAT may be added to this template. The subtemplate for the relevant offset is {{Time/EAT offset}}. --βα£α(ᶀᶅᶖᵵᵶ) 19:25, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

• Not done: please make your requested changes to the template's sandbox first; see WP:TESTCASES. — {{U|Technical 13}} ^{(e • t • c)} 22:28, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

@Technical 13: I really dont know what could be done hereafter. Could u guide me or where should this be taken to for establishing consensus? --βα£α(ᶀᶅᶖᵵᵶ) 23:02, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

• Sorry, I clicked the wrong response... — {{U|Technical 13}} ^{(e • t • c)} 23:12, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

No problem. Thanks for the guidance. Will see through it. --βα£α(ᶀᶅᶖᵵᵶ) 23:52, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

a new version?

A recent conversation at WP:VPT caused me to wonder about an improved version of this template. In that discussion {{time}} was displaying the correct time but the wrong timezone abbreviation (NZST instead of NZDT). It was easier to use MediaWiki's {{#time:}} parser function than to wade through the sea of templates that make up {{time}}.

It seemed that a more manageable solution could be accomplished with a Lua module. I set about writing one and the present result is {{time/new}}. I think it gets it right. There are things that still need some thinking:

1. timezone abbreviations – according to List of time zone abbreviations (which I presume is reflective of 'official' timezone abbreviations), some are duplicates: BST can be Bangladesh Standard Time, Bougainville Standard Time, and British Summer Time; some method is needed to distinguish the one from the others
2. daylight saving time not used uniformly within a time zone – the US state of Arizona is always in MST; similarly Northern Territory doesn't but South Australia does; no doubt there are other kinds of situations like this

A possible solution to the two cases described above might be use ISO 3166 country codes as tags (or similar abbreviations) so, perhaps these rules:

1. the template accepts only 'standard' time timezone abbreviations
2. when the abbreviation can have more than one meaning, append the appropriate ISO 3166 country code

Applying these rules:

For BST in Great Britain we might write:

{{time/new|GMT-UK}}

For Bougainville (not currently supported) we might write:

{{time/new|BST-PG}} – PG is the ISO 3166 country code for Papua New Guinea

For Bangladesh, either use BST-BD (for uniformity) or allow BST because Bangladesh is larger, more populous, ...

Where there is an area within a timezone that does not observe DST then perhaps a suitable parameter like |no dst=y can be used to suppress the template's automatic rendering of summer time for those timezones that support it.

Things that {{time/new}} does that {{time}} does not do:

1. renders time and date in military timezones A–Z (except J)
2. renders time and date for UTC offsets
3. renders time and date in dmy, mdy, and iso formats (defaults to mdy)
4. all timezone properties are held within a single page Module:Time which is also where all of the template processing is done

These things can be seen on the {{time/new}} documentation page (which for the time being is serving as a testcases page).

{{time/new}} does not yet support all of the timezones that {{time}} does; they will come with time. Feel free to add their properties to the module.

What improvements can be made to {{time/new}}? Should it replace {{time}}?

—Trappist the monk (talk) 14:46, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

Since there has been no expression of disapproval, I shall move Template:Time and Template:Time/doc to Template:Time/old and Template:Time/doc/old leaving behind redirects. All of the sub-templates shall remain in place. I shall then move Template:Time/new and Template:Time/doc/new to Template:Time and Template:Time/doc without leaving behind redirects.

Any objections?

—Trappist the monk (talk) 10:58, 14 April 2016 (UTC)

Have you made sure that the new template is 100% backward-compatible? If so, then you can probably go ahead. But keep in mind that there are over 1,000 transclusions of this template around the wiki, so don't be surprised if problems crop up. StevenJ81 (talk) 13:10, 14 April 2016 (UTC)

{{time/new}} is not 100% backward compatible with {{time}}. {{time/new}} attempts to use 'standardized' timezone abbreviations; it will not recognize 'AleutST'; time in the UK uses 'GMT-UK' for the reasons that I described in my original post. When the template does not recognize a time zone abbreviation it emits an error message. The error messages are described on the template's documentation page. Default date display is rendered according to how dates are rendered in the countries in the time zones; European time zones use dmy format so that is how the dates are displayed; JST in Japan uses the ISO date format. {{time/new}} will display the appropriate summer time abbreviation when {{time}} will not. Here is the table from Template:Time/doc with {{time/new}} comparisons added:

Code	template Result	module result
{{time}}	02:09, 24 November 2024 UTC [refresh]	{{time/new}}
{{time|HST}}	16:09, November 23, 2024 HST [refresh]	{{time/new|HAST}}
{{time|AleutST}}		{{time/new|AleutST}}
{{time|AKST}}	17:09, November 23, 2024 AKST [refresh]	{{time/new|AKST}}
{{time|PST}}	18:09, November 23, 2024 PST [refresh]	{{time/new|PST}}
{{time|MST}}	19:09, November 23, 2024 MST [refresh]	{{time/new|MST}}
{{time|CST}}	20:09, November 23, 2024 CST [refresh]	{{time/new|CST}}
{{time|EST}}	21:09, November 23, 2024 EST [refresh]	{{time/new|EST}}
{{time|AST}}	22:09, 23 November 2024 AST [refresh]	{{time/new|AST}}
{{time|NST}}	22:39, 23 November 2024 NST [refresh]	{{time/new|NST}}
{{time|PMST}}	23:09, 23 November 2024 PMST [refresh]	{{time/new|PMST}}
{{time|WGT}}	23:09, 23 November 2024 WGT [refresh]	{{time/new|WGT}}
{{time|UTC}}	02:09, 24 November 2024 UTC [refresh]	{{time/new|UTC}}
{{time|GMT}}	02:09, 24 November 2024 GMT [refresh]	{{time/new|GMT}}
{{time|CET}}	03:09, 24 November 2024 CET [refresh]	{{time/new|CET}}
{{time|EET}}	04:09, 24 November 2024 EET [refresh]	{{time/new|EET}}
{{time|IST}}	07:39, 24 November 2024 IST [refresh]	{{time/new|IST}}
{{time|WIT}}	11:09, 24 November 2024 WIT [refresh]	{{time/new|WIT}}
{{time|BT}}	10:09, 24 November 2024 BT [refresh]	{{time/new|BT}}
{{time|EIT}}		{{time/new|EIT}}
{{time|JST}}	2024-11-24T11:09 JST [refresh]	{{time/new|JST}}
{{time|NTT}}		{{time/new|NTT}}
{{time|ChST}}	12:09, November 24, 2024 ChST [refresh]	{{time/new|ChST}}
{{time|NZST}}	15:09, 24 November 2024 NZDT [refresh]	{{time/new|NZST}}

—Trappist the monk (talk) 14:15, 14 April 2016 (UTC)

I see what you've done, and it's a very nice piece of work, indeed. Still, this is potentially a problem. People expect templates like this, which are stable and widely used, not to be broken. Most importantly, there are templates that call this that need to continue working. There are also article-space and Wikipedia-space pages that use this. (I'm less worried about user pages; users can fix their own pages.) So with all due respect, I think your path forward, if you choose to undertake it, has to look something like this:

• Consider allowing the non-standard abbreviations to be used for input, even if you leave that capability undocumented. In cases of potential ambiguity, like "BST", there is still normally going to be a most common usage (equivalent to WP:PTOPIC), and if you allow the non-standard abbreviations to be valid, then you're unlikely to break anything.
• I have some reservations about your controlling the output format, although that is mitigated by the fact that you have given a configuration option. But I don't know whether people have written code that depends on an output format that you will in fact break.
• If you don't allow the non-standard abbreviations to be used for input, make sure you go to any templates, main space pages and Wikipedia space pages and see that the calls on those pages will be compatible with your work.
• Add a quick reference portion at the top of your documentation to describe what people finding broken template calls are likely to need to do to fix them promptly.

Good luck. StevenJ81 (talk) 15:17, 14 April 2016 (UTC)

In this list of templates that transclude {{time}}, most of them do it through their documentation: all of the {{time}} sub-templates for example. That leaves these (excluding their associated doc and sandbox pages:

{{Time-UTC-tag}} – refers to {{time}} in its documentation page

{{DYKsug}} – is an obsolete template; I didn't pursue it any farther

{{Did you know/Queue}} – transcludes Wikipedia:Did_you_know/DYK_hook_count which uses {{time}}

{{User time EET}} – uses {{time|EET}} supported by {{time/new}}

{{User time PST}} – uses {{time|PST}} supported by {{time/new}}

{{Deadlocked}} – refers to {{time}} in its documentation page

{{User time CET}} – uses {{time|CET}} supported by {{time/new}}

{{User time zone plus time}} – used on a dozen or so user pages, including yours; those that list GMT will not show current DST time; the instance on User:Dennis6492's page will render correctly

{{Timebox}} – uses {{time}} without time zone supported by {{time/new}}

Most uses in the Wikipedia namespace appear to archives and the vast majority of them use {{time}}

In article namespace, there are three articles. Time in Europe will show GMT time year 'round; the other articles should be correct because those time zones are supported by {{time/new}}

I added a help link to the Error messages section of the template's documentation; you can see it in the table above.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 23:01, 14 April 2016 (UTC)

Thank you for that; you've really done your homework.

The way you are set up now, how many previously supported abbreviations are no longer supported?

Also, two other suggestions:

• Put the section about how to set up a new time zone in a collapsable box; most people won't need/want to see those details.
• Describe the time zones that are supported; not everyone will recognize all those abbreviations.

StevenJ81 (talk) 14:27, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

Just the three that show errors in the table above.

I dislike collapsible boxes because they spoil incoming section links depending on how your browser renders the page. §Adding a new time zone is at the end of the documentation; editors are free to ignore it as they see fit.

Items in §Supported time zones are linked or have foot notes.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 16:21, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

In this case, if you start the collapsible box below the section title, there shouldn't be a problem, because there are no section headers inside.

I'd still prefer that you add sections for those three time designators, because you'd make things backward-compatible that way. But if you feel very strongly about not doing so, I guess I don't see a huge problem in those three cases.

With regard to any time zone designated solely by XST, where X is the first letter of the country name: I think there are just too many chances for confusion. I wouldn't have assumed that BST=Bangladesh, and wonder if that's even as common a usage for that abbreviation as British Summer Time is, at least in English. IST can be India, but also Ireland (as you pointed out) ... or Israel, for that matter. So I wonder whether or not you wouldn't be better off standardizing such abbreviations as BST-BD, IST-IN, etc. StevenJ81 (talk) 16:45, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

The rule, as stated in §§Parameters and Adding a new time zone, is that the |<time zone> positional parameter gets the abbreviated name of the time zone's standard time. Applying that rule, BST cannot refer to British Summer Time. Though not stated, the position I took is: without a need to disambiguate the time zone, don't disambiguate the time zone. This is similar to WP:PRECISE. Because there is no other BST, Bangladesh gets it sans disambiguation (this is the abbreviation currently supported by {{time}}). When a need arises for Bougainville Standard Time then one of them, probably Bougainville, the newest one, will need an appropriate disambiguator.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 00:11, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

Fine, then. It's your work. I would potentially have handled it differently. But you're the one who did the coding, so it's your call. I think you can probably go ahead, but be prepared to address any issues that come up. StevenJ81 (talk) 15:03, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

Version comparison

Code	{{time}} result	{{time/old}} result
{{time}}	02:09, 24 November 2024 UTC [refresh]	02:09, November 24, 2024 UTC ()
{{time|HST}}	16:09, November 23, 2024 HST [refresh]	16:09, November 23, 2024 HST ()
{{time|AleutST}}		16:09, November 23, 2024 AleutT ()
{{time|AKST}}	17:09, November 23, 2024 AKST [refresh]	17:09, November 23, 2024 AKT ()
{{time|PST}}	18:09, November 23, 2024 PST [refresh]	18:09, November 23, 2024 PT ()
{{time|MST}}	19:09, November 23, 2024 MST [refresh]	19:09, November 23, 2024 MT ()
{{time|CST}}	20:09, November 23, 2024 CST [refresh]	20:09, November 23, 2024 CT ()
{{time|EST}}	21:09, November 23, 2024 EST [refresh]	21:09, November 23, 2024 ET ()
{{time|AST}}	22:09, 23 November 2024 AST [refresh]	22:09, November 23, 2024 AT ()
{{time|NST}}	22:39, 23 November 2024 NST [refresh]	22:39, November 23, 2024 NT ()
{{time|PMST}}	23:09, 23 November 2024 PMST [refresh]	23:09, November 23, 2024 PMT ()
{{time|WGT}}	23:09, 23 November 2024 WGT [refresh]	23:09, November 23, 2024 WGT ()
{{time|UTC}}	02:09, 24 November 2024 UTC [refresh]	02:09, November 24, 2024 UTC ()
{{time|GMT}}	02:09, 24 November 2024 GMT [refresh]	02:09, November 24, 2024 GMT / BST ()
{{time|GMT-UK}}	02:09, 24 November 2024 GMT [refresh]	()
{{time|CET}}	03:09, 24 November 2024 CET [refresh]	03:09, November 24, 2024 CET / CEST ()
{{time|EET}}	04:09, 24 November 2024 EET [refresh]	04:09, November 24, 2024 EET ()
{{time|IST}}	07:39, 24 November 2024 IST [refresh]	07:39, November 24, 2024 IST ()
{{time|WIT}}	11:09, 24 November 2024 WIT [refresh]	09:09, November 24, 2024 WIT ()
{{time|BT}}	10:09, 24 November 2024 BT [refresh]	10:09, November 24, 2024 BT ()
{{time|EIT}}		11:09, November 24, 2024 EIT ()
{{time|JST}}	2024-11-24T11:09 JST [refresh]	11:09, November 24, 2024 JST ()
{{time|JST|df=mdy}}	11:09, November 24, 2024 JST [refresh]	11:09, November 24, 2024 JST ()
{{time|NTT}}		11:39, November 24, 2024 NTT ()
{{time|ChST}}	12:09, November 24, 2024 ChST [refresh]	12:09, November 24, 2024 ChST ()
{{time|NZST}}	15:09, 24 November 2024 NZDT [refresh]	15:09, November 24, 2024 NZST ()

What's the deal with the funky-looking JST (Japan) time? wbm1058 (talk) 16:24, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

Also note the differences in the handling of UK time. – wbm1058 (talk) 17:08, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

When I wrote the module that now underlies the template, I found, someplace on WP and since long-lost from memory, a mention that time and date in Japan is rendered in the ISO 8601 format. So, in the module, that is the default setting that is applied. Clearly you have discovered that the template allows you to override the default.

For time in the UK, winter time is GMT. GMT does not have a summer-time version. To provide for summer time in the UK, and still allow for correct display of GMT during the summer, the template supports GMT-UK so local UK time also displays correctly. This same is true for Ireland for which use GMT-IE.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 18:15, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

Date and time notation in Japan doesn't mention ISO 8601. That's obviously the standard for machine-readable date-times, but Wikipedia is primarily intended to be read by people, not bots.

The documentation doesn't say that |df=ymd is supported, but, if it was, I suppose that might render in the format 02:09, 2024 November 24, adjusted to the correct JST time, of course.

So in the UK, GMT doesn't give the correct time in the summer, and BST doesn't give the correct time in the winter. There must be some universal code for UK time that's less clunky than GMT-UK.

My first guess was UKT, and while I didn't find a lot of usage of that form, see the Newshour infobox, and the second paragraph of Lucy Hockings. u know that ;)

Not really asking for any code changes, unless you'd like to make them. wbm1058 (talk) 20:19, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

It wasn't Date and time notation in Japan; someplace else. If I remember or find it again I'll add a note to the documentation. Or not; when the age is in and the wit is out.

Unfortunately, the commonly accepted standard abbreviations are sometimes promiscuous; BST is one such. The old template used some made-up time zone abbreviations. I chose to use insofar as possible, standard commonly used abbreviations. Where that isn't possible because of promiscuity or, in the case of GMT contrary to the definition, I chose to disambiguate the abbreviations for use in the template as parameter values. These disambiguated parameter values are then mapped to the appropriate abbreviation when the template is rendered. For disambiguators, I chose standard ISO 3166 two-character country codes. Yeah, still non-standard and to some extent made-up, but at least they are derived from existing time zone abbreviations. We can change to UKT if it ever ever becomes a commonly used time zone abbreviation.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 00:39, 22 September 2016 (UTC)

change 24 hours to 12 hours?

How to specify to change to 12 hours? --Tyw7  (☎ Contact me! • Contributions) 13:57, 15 July 2017 (UTC)

|df=dmy12 or |df=mdy12.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 15:15, 15 July 2017 (UTC)

Thanks --Tyw7  (☎ Contact me! • Contributions) 17:23, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

Is there a time option in YMD

24 November 2024
November 24, 2024

2024-11-24

vs.

24 November 2024
November 24, 2024
2024 November 24
2024-11-24

So in date only, it gives 2024 November 24, but in date/time option, it gives returns as an error.

It doesn't say YMD, just curious.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:a000:1103:35d:cd63:66a3:a1e1:7f51 (talk) 22:03, 21 April 2018‎ (UTC)

There is no YYYY Month DD format in {{time}} that mimics {{date|2=YMD}}. Primarily, this is because MOS:DATEFORMAT does not support that date format.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 22:12, 21 April 2018 (UTC)

There is a YYYY Month DD format in {{date}}, that was why — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:A000:1103:35D:8CC2:546D:EED0:7792 (talk) 19:52, 7 May 2018 (UTC)

Well there is an option 02:09, 2024 November 24 actually solves the problem, the date template outputs are supported by MediaWiki's date autoformatting mechanism, However in MOS:DATEFORMAT does not allow supporting {{date|2=YMD}}, and that remains the only date format that is unacceptable by MOS:DATEFORMAT, why is yyyy mmmm d not allowed in the accordance of MOS:DATEFORMAT?— Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:a000:1103:144:251e:be4:ff27:d0b8 (talk) 04:06, 18 November 2018 (UTC)

That option will work as long as you are only considering UTC time/date.

With the sandbox version of this template one can write:

{{time/sandbox|df-cust=g:i a, Y F j|mst}}

7:09 pm, 2024 November 23 MST [refresh]

Whether the current sandbox version ever becomes live is undecided.

I do not know why YYYY mmmm dd is not a MOS approved format. You might spend some time going through the talk archives at MOS:DATES

—Trappist the monk (talk) 09:35, 18 November 2018 (UTC)

Add the day of the week?

Should thistemplate display the day of the week? Should there be a option to display the day of the week? ★BrandonALF★ ^{talk edits} 01:17, 24 June 2018 (UTC)

This template has been around a long time, and appears in a lot of places. If you do this, default must be not to show it. Frankly, though, you'd be better off creating a variant template "Time with day of week" to accomplish this. Also, if you just want to do something like this occasionally, you can just use the parser function #time directly. It's got far more options now than it used to. StevenJ81 (talk) 15:06, 24 June 2018 (UTC)

Meh. If it is necessary (we should avoid forking this template into one that is only slightly different – forks usually end up getting deleted) we might add |dow=yes that would instruct Module:time to include the day of the week in its rendering; |dow=no would be the default. But, without a demonstrated need, I see no reason to pursue this.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 15:04, 25 June 2018 (UTC)

Supported time zones is outdated

Look at Module:Time and you'll clearly see more timezone have been added. ★BrandonALF★ ^{talk edits} 20:19, 25 June 2018 (UTC)

If you see a problem with the documentation that needs fixing, fix it.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 14:17, 26 June 2018 (UTC)

BST still causing problems

Since the discussions above about the ambiguous "BST" timezone initials (see List of time zone abbreviations), Module:Time seems to have reverted to assuming that all instances of "BST" mean Bangladesh Standard Time. Because of the way that {{Infobox time zone}} is set up to use this template, this was causing the British Summer Time article to break (showing Bangladesh Standard Time as the current time instead). I've temporarily fixed this (and suggested a more permanent fix for {{Infobox time zone}} at Template talk:Infobox time zone), but, as the initials "BST" are ambiguous, would it not be better to return an error message (either the default one, or perhaps a new "ambiguous timezone" error)? In order to fix the infobox, I was also wondering whether it would be better to add a new parameter to this template, allowing for a UTC offset value rather than relying on these non-standardised initials, or if we'd need to create a new template to do that? Cheers! ‑‑Yodin^T 10:27, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

Does utc offset support not already exist?

{{time|utc±00:00|df=dmy|hide-tz=yes}} → 02:09, 24 November 2024 [refresh]

The problem that I see with that is that the automatic DST is disabled for utc offests so that will be lost in {{Infobox time zone}}.

Ambiguous timezone abbreviations are a problem that is got round in part by documentation, by the creation of pseudo-standardized aliases, and by the requirement that the timezone abbreviations given to {{time}} are for standard time. So, for your example of BST:

the module requires standard time abbreviations as input, BST is Bangladesh Standard Time, so the module displays the time in Bangladesh

in the UK, standard time is GMT but because UK observes DST while GMT does not, we use the alias GMT-UK; GMT-UK automatically shifts to BST (summer time) whereas GMT does not

{{time|gmt}} → 02:09, 24 November 2024 GMT [refresh]

{{time|gmt-uk}} → 02:09, 24 November 2024 GMT [refresh]

—Trappist the monk (talk) 11:55, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

• Thanks for the quick reply Trappist the monk! I've tried playing with the sandboxed version of Module:Time, etc. as you suggest, and came to the same conclusion that you point out above: UTC offset isn't a good solution for {{Infobox time zone}}, as it doesn't detect daylight savings. Would you be open to the idea of adding a new {{{tz-full-name}}} parameter to {{time}}, that would be the full name of the time zone (e.g. "British Summer Time"), alongside the default parameter 1 for the timezone abbreviation – if {{{tz-full-name}}} is present, then the module would use this to select which timezone to use, but would still use parameter 1's abbreviation as the text at the end. If it's not there then it would just work exactly as it does now. This would solve the shared timezone abbreviation problem in a very streamlined way for {{Infobox time zone}} without having to use a new pseudo-standard (at the moment this Wikipedia invented abbreviation would have to be displayed to readers in the timezone infobox in order to work), which again wouldn't work for {{Infobox time zone}}, as your GMT-UK code would not display BST (UTC+1) on the British Summer Time article once the clocks go back (though this is also an interesting point of what time should it display, and how... it should be clear when showing the time whether BST is active or not). Will make a new sandbox version to show you what I mean! ‑‑Yodin^T 12:40, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

No need I think for a full name parameter. There is an aliases table in Module:time/data/sandbox that can map pretty much anything to an appropriate abbreviation. I just added ['british summer time'] = 'gmt-uk', so now:

{{time/sandbox|British Summer Time}} → 02:09, 24 November 2024 GMT [refresh]

—Trappist the monk (talk) 13:01, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

Ok, that's even better! Still not sure it's right for the British Summer Time article (as it would display GMT during winter), but that's part of the bigger problem that that infobox has about how to reflect varying daylight savings use in timezones. Cheers! ‑‑Yodin^T 13:35, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

There is |dst=always

{{time/sandbox|British Summer Time|_TEST_TIME_=2018-12-11T15:15:15|dst=always}} → 16:15, 11 December 2018 BST [refresh]

not my invention; I'm not sure that it makes sense to display dst time for dates that are outside of the dst window. If the point of using {{time}} in {{Infobox time zone}} is to show current time in the timezone then showing British Summer Time in December just makes for confusion.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 13:55, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. I've now changed {{Infobox time zone}} to send the full name of the timezone across if needed, for cases like British Summer Time – that article will show the time again when you're ready to update {{time}} to the current {{time/sandbox}} version. I've also given more thought about it being confusing to display a DST time if daylight savings isn't active, but also inaccurate showing the wrong timezone... I think you're right that the best bet is probably to show the actual current time in those places (especially as it will show the initials afterwards, which should indicate whether summer time is active or not, for GMT vs BST at least), so I've added an extra note to {{Infobox time zone}} for DST-only timezones to explain that they're only active some of the year, and which the other timezone they will use is. Appreciate your fielding my questions on this! Cheers. ‑‑Yodin^T 11:34, 23 September 2018 (UTC)

Time in the Republic of Ireland
Time zone
UTC offset
UTC	UTC±00:00
IST	UTC+01:00
Current time
02:09, 24 November 2024 GMT [refresh]
Observance of DST
DST is observed throughout this time zone.

Before I do that, it seems to me that we should also add an alias for Irish Standard Time (even though Time in the Republic of Ireland doesn't use the infobox). I've added the infobox sandbox here with what I think are the correct parameter values. Are there any others that need this treatment?

—Trappist the monk (talk) 12:21, 23 September 2018 (UTC)

I've gone through List of time zone abbreviations: here are the timezones that are currently in {{time}} that have initials that conflict with other timezones:

• AST = Atlantic Standard Time
• BST = Bangladesh Standard Time
• CDT = Central Daylight Time (I think you treat this as Central Standard Time)
• CHST = Chamorro Standard Time (not a conflict, but may be worth adding because of natural overlap with CST)
• CST = Central Standard Time
• IST = Indian Standard Time
• MST = Mountain Standard Time
• PST = Pacific Standard Time
• SST = Singapore Standard Time

I guess the aliases of more timezones that conflict with others can be included in Module:Time as and when those timezones get added? ‑‑Yodin^T 13:06, 23 September 2018 (UTC)

I guess I'm confused. {{time/sandbox}} already understands those abbreviations so we shouldn't need to do anything about them until someone decides to add new timezone data for a timezone with a conflicting abbreviation, right? BST and IST are conflicted so we have provided alternate naming to support the infobox. What am I not understanding?

—Trappist the monk (talk) 15:04, 23 September 2018 (UTC)

My mistake! I thought you wanted to future-proof all the existing ones in case conflicting ones are added. If not (and yep, this is probably best to be done as and when it's needed), then I think once the BST and IST aliases you've made go live then all of the timezones currently in {{time}} will work fine with {{Infobox time zone}}, with the exception maybe of Kaliningrad Time, which might need "KALT" and "Kaliningrad Time" added as aliases. :) ‑‑Yodin^T 12:22, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

KALT should probably become the canonical abbreviation with USZ1 retained as an alias so I have done that:

{{time/sandbox|kalt}} → 04:09, 24 November 2024 KALT [refresh]

{{time/sandbox|usz1}} → 04:09, 24 November 2024 KALT [refresh]

That change should make it unnecessary to alias 'kaliningrad time', right?

—Trappist the monk (talk) 13:20, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Yep, should work perfectly! Cheers. ‑‑Yodin^T 16:39, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Custom string for am/pm

I am using this template to create Infoboxes for some of the date and time format pages. Some countries have different approaches to the ante meridiem and post meridiem abbreviations, whether it's a.m., A.M., or ᴀᴍ. Could there be a way to specify custom strings for these? AndrewNJ (talk) 13:49, 30 October 2018 (UTC)

I don't know; perhaps. An uppercase version of the am/pm string as it is rendered now can likely be made available; different punctuation versions are more difficult. Module:Time uses the Lua/scribuntu version of the {{#time:}} parser function. In essence, we give it a text string of specific 'codes' that that tells {{#time:}} how to render its output:

{{#time:'g:i a'}} → '2:09 am'

{{#time:'g:i A'}} → '2:09 AM'

For 'custom' am/pm strings that don't use standard {{#time:}} parser function codes, the module must have both an am code and a pm code and then choose the correct form based on the current time:

{{#time:'g:i "A.M."'}} → '2:09 A.M.'

{{#time:'g:i "P.M."'}} → '2:09 P.M.'

{{#time:'g:i "ᴀᴍ"'}} → '2:09 ᴀᴍ'

This can be done but is it really necessary?

—Trappist the monk (talk) 14:22, 30 October 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for looking into it! If possible and not a maintenance burden, it certainly would be useful. The point of these articles is to illustrate how different countries (mostly represented through government style guides) notate the date and time in different ways, and using a live date really improves it. See for example Date and time notation in Canada or Date and time notation in the United Kingdom. A number of the sources specifically ask for a.m. written with periods. AndrewNJ (talk) 02:09, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

Possible solution in the sandbox. I have created three new parameters: |df-cust=, |df-cust-a=, and |df-cust-p=. These allow editors to specify custom time/date formats using the codes defines at mw:Help:Extension:ParserFunctions##time. With |df-cust= we can do:

{{time/sandbox|df-cust=U}} → 1732414147 UTC [refresh] – Unix timestamp

{{time/sandbox|df-cust=L|mst}} → 1 MST [refresh] – is this year a leap year?

{{time/sandbox|df-cust=g:i A|mst}} → 7:09 PM MST [refresh] – time where AM/PM are uppercase

With |df-cust-a= and |df-cust-p= (when either used, both must be used):

{{time/sandbox|df-cust-p=g:i "p. m.", j F Y|df-cust-a=g:i "ᴀᴍ", j F Y|mst}} → 7:09 p. m., 23 November 2024 MST [refresh] – time where ᴀᴍ/p. m. (illustrative nonsense)

Because is seemed sensible to do, and because the {{#time:}} parser function supports it (but Lua does not – why is that?) the sandbox version also allows editors to specify a language. I don't know how useful that is but it is there for those who can make use of it:

{{time/sandbox|lang=bn|mst}} → ১৯:০৯, নভেম্বর ২৩, ২০২৪ MST [refresh] – Bengali

{{time/sandbox|lang=el|mst}} → 19:09, Νοέμβριος 23, 2024 MST [refresh] – Greek

{{time/sandbox|lang=it|mst}} → 19:09, novembre 23, 2024 MST [refresh] – Italian

{{time/sandbox|lang=bosco|mst}} → 19:09, November 23, 2024 MST [refresh] – nonsense returns the wiki's local language

—Trappist the monk (talk) 13:39, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

Thank you; that's brilliant. I was thinking of asking about languages but thought it too complex; very kind of you to add it! The only possible area for improvement is making it easier to ensure that the space between the time and am/pm is a non-breaking space: it works if one uses {{time/sandbox|df-cust-p=g:i "p.m."|df-cust-a=g:i "a.m."|hide-tz=yes}}, with the Unicode character (which however is invisible in the source); conversely, {{time/sandbox|df-cust-p=g:i "p.m."|df-cust-a=g:i "a.m."|hide-tz=yes}} does not work. Not sure if there's a way to replace it by default. AndrewNJ (talk) 16:20, 7 November 2018 (UTC)

Put the   inside the quote marks:

{{time/sandbox|df-cust-p=g:i" p.m."|df-cust-a=g:i" a.m."|hide-tz=yes}}

Play around with the sandbox for a while and let me know if there is anything broken. If not, tell me that too and I'll update the live module.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 16:54, 7 November 2018 (UTC)

One other minor thing: when inputting the date in French, it doesn't provide an ordinal for the first day of the month (a rather weird exception in the language). For example, {{time/sandbox|df=dmy|dateonly=yes|hide-refresh=yes|hide-tz=yes|lang=fr|_TEST_TIME_=2017-07-01T00:00:00}} should output 'le 1^er juillet 2017', but instead one gets '1 jullet 2017'. I entirely understand if this is beyond the scope. AndrewNJ (talk) 16:37, 7 November 2018 (UTC)

mw:Help:Extension:ParserFunctions##time doesn't support ordinal days so unless there is a rather significant need for such (sufficient to cause a major re-write) ordinal support will probably not be added.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 16:54, 7 November 2018 (UTC)

I thought as much; not a major problem really. Your other improvements work extremely well, and it would be great to get them into the working template if possible. AndrewNJ (talk) 02:23, 1 December 2018 (UTC)

Yeah, done. The script errors above are there because another editor has reverted the sandbox edits for unspecified needs.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 14:18, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

True ISO 8601 and no article link

At the risk of feature creep, I'd like to request options to:

1. output true ISO 8601 format (not just "a form roughly adhering to the ISO 8601 format"); and
2. suppress the link on the time zone (/UTC offset) indicator.

This would allow for output like:

2019-06-29T15:34−12:00

or:

2019-06-29T15:34−12:00

instead of (using |df=iso):

2019-06-29T15:34 UTC−12:00

And one could avoid things like:

2019-06-29T15:34 UTC−12:00

when the template is used in the article for the specified UTC offset (in this case as it would appear in the UTC−12:00 article — the self-link causes the bold text).

These changes would allow this template to completely replace Template:TimebyUTCoffset, being used in the table at Time zone#List of UTC offsets and in various UTC offset articles (and nowhere else, at the moment). If I've overlooked how to do these things using current options, please let me know. - dcljr (talk) 04:38, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

DST yes option

{{time|ET|dst=yes|df=mdy}} should output as 22:09, November 23, 2024 EDT but instead it outputs as 21:09, November 23, 2024 EST in standard time from first Sunday in November to second Sunday in March, why does it not output daylight saving time the period when DST is not in effect, is it because the Uniform Time Act of 1966?, that doesn't allow DST year around.

--2605:A000:1103:651:25A5:A2B7:8EB8:365E (talk) 23:49, 31 December 2019 (UTC)

Similar template to describe time at one instant (not current time)

Similar to #other time templates, I was wondering if there is a template on here that is able to convert the time at a point in history to the reader's date and time preferences. For example, if something happened at 4:30 AM at UTC, is there a template that could take those variables in its parameters and spit something out at 9:30 PM for a reader who lives in a UTC-7 area? —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 16:59, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

Yes, this one. But, you must specify a whole date time in ISO 8601 format complete to the second in UTC and that time should be in the Unix epoch. So, for some event that occurred at 04:30 16 March 1986 UTC, the time of that event at UTC-07:00 will be:

{{time|_TEST_TIME_=1986-03-16T04:30:00|UTC-07:00}} → 1986-03-15T21:30 UTC−07:00 [refresh]

or with named timezone (allowing dst adjustment):

{{time|_TEST_TIME_=1986-03-16T04:30:00|MST}} → 22:30, March 15, 1986 MDT [refresh]

or with named timezone (disallowing dst adjustment):

{{time|_TEST_TIME_=1986-03-16T04:30:00|MST|dst=no}} → 21:30, March 15, 1986 MST [refresh]

to show just the time as a 12-hour clock:

{{time|_TEST_TIME_=1986-03-16T04:30:00|UTC-07:00|df=12|hide-refresh=yes|hide-tz=yes}} → 9:30 pm

—Trappist the monk (talk) 18:21, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

Trappist the monk, thanks for the reply. ISO 8601 format seems unwieldy but logical. So I'm guessing there's no way the template can display one singular time (12:00 PM (UTC)) as 5:00 AM (PDT) for someone living by the Pacific and 8:00 AM (EDT) for someone living by the Atlantic? —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 19:54, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

You might use the {{#time:}} parser function:

PST from 12:00 UTC: {{#time:g:i a|12:00 - 8 hours}} → 4:00 am

PDT from 12:00 UTC: {{#time:g:i a|12:00 - 7 hours}} → 5:00 am

EST from 12:00 UTC: {{#time:g:i a|12:00 - 5 hours}} → 7:00 am

EDT from 12:00 UTC: {{#time:g:i a|12:00 - 4 hours}} → 8:00 am

—Trappist the monk (talk) 20:50, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

Trappist the monk, thanks for the link; I'll give that a read. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 20:55, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

I was looking for a template where you can simply state a specific time (including a date, necessarily, as you cannot convert a time without a date), and a time zone, and it will display that time and time zone unchanged, but when the user hovers over it with the mouse, it will display the time in the user's time zone (or in a parenthesis after, or similar stuff according to parameters). One use is e.g. in 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine: "Around 05:00 EET (UTC+2) on 24 February" where I would want the "05:00 EET" to show the reader's local time in a tooltip when hovering over it, a bit like I tried to illustrate here, although the dotted underlining is not necessary and might be in the way. I am surprised that such a template doesn't seem to exist? --Jhertel (talk) 18:06, 27 February 2022 (UTC)

Doesn't exist because it is not possible for a template (or a Scributu module) to know anything about the reader. In general, templates only know about what is inside their bounding {{ and }}. There are some exceptions; for example, templates can fetch data from wikidata and modules can read the unparsed content of a wiki page, but user preferences is not something that templates have access to. Further, if logged-in users are like me, en.wiki time is UTC, not the time where I live.

I suspect that this is something that can be done for you personally with a WP:USERSCRIPT so if that is something that you want, you might ask at WP:SCRIPTREQ.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 18:21, 27 February 2022 (UTC)

UTC+15:00

If Line Islands Time Zone had Daylight Saving Time the time zone would be UTC+15:00, since Line Islands Time that is used in Kiritimati, Kiribati is UTC+14:00. However Kiritimati is so close to the equator that wouldn't need to change the clocks since at the equator there is always 12 hours of daylight all year.

Here is the UTC+13:00 time (2024-11-24T15:09 UTC+13:00 [refresh])
Here is the UTC+14:00 time (2024-11-24T16:09 UTC+14:00 [refresh])
Here is the UTC+15:00 time (2024-11-24T17:09 UTC+15:00 [refresh])

In places where the time is currently 17:09 the date is November 23 and the offset of UTC is -09:00.

--2605:A000:1103:55F:D132:50B6:A19A:980D (talk) 15:56, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

2021 displayed as 2121

In Date format by country, when the 4-digit year is used in all-numeric forms, the year 2021 displayed as 2121. Can someone fix this? YueLing01 (talk) 04:10, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

@YueLing01: That is probably due to your recent edit using the magic word #time. That is not related to this template. I can't investigate at the moment. Please ask at WP:VPT where someone will fix it quickly. Johnuniq (talk) 04:31, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

I fixed the article. Johnuniq (talk) 08:43, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

Error when using a historic date

11:45, April 18, 1976 EDT [refresh] should display EST with 10:45, April 18, 1976 as Daylight Saving Time back then didn’t start until April 25, 1976 which was also on Orthodox Easter that year

I did find disabling the DST option would work somewhat for that date, 10:45, April 18, 1976 EST [refresh] would work, but outside the present period of current DST doesn’t work 04:30, January 7, 1974 EST [refresh], when DST was observed far before March Equinox in 1974.

2607:FB91:16C9:217:8539:7F5F:1D0B:6B26 (talk) 15:16, 22 August 2023 (UTC)