Date math on Wikipedia is done with variables, templates and the #time parser function.

In articles, it is almost always preferred to specify a specific static date for a statement or event rather than an automatically generated date. Wikipedia:As of describes how to properly specify such dates.

Current date and time edit

Built-in variables Templates based on them What you see Comments
{{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}} 20240504004228
{{CURRENTYEAR}} 2024
{{UTC}} 2024-05-04 00:42 UTC also uses {{CURRENTMONTH}} {{CURRENTDAY2}} {{CURRENTTIME}}
{{CURRENTDATE}} 00:42, Saturday, May 4, 2024 (UTC) also uses {{CURRENTTIME}} {{CURRENTDAYNAME}} {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}}
{{CURRENTJULIANDAY}} 2460434.5294907 current Julian day also uses {{CURRENTMONTH}} {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTHOUR}} {{CURRENTMINUTE}} {{CURRENTSECOND}}
{{CURRENTMONTH}} 05
{{CURRENTMNTH}} 5 trims leading zero
{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} May
{{Month+1}} June
{{Month-1}} April
{{Month-2}} March
{{CURRENTDAY}} 4 day of month
{{CURRENTDOW}} 6 day of week
{{#time:l|-1 day}} Friday
{{#time:l}} Saturday
{{#time:l|+1 day}} Sunday
Any variable or template with a resolution of smaller than one day should not be placed in articles. These variables only indicate when the article was parsed and cached; they may lag by many hours or even days compared to the time the page is viewed.
{{CURRENTTIME}} 00:42
{{CURRENTHOUR}} 00
{{#time:H|+1 hour}} 01
{{Current hour}} 0 trims leading zero
{{#time:i}} 42
{{CURRENTMINUTE}} 42
{{Current minute}} 42 trims leading zero
{{#time:s}} 28
{{CURRENTSECOND}} 28

Computed date and time edit

Template name Usage Output Comment
{{Ordinal date}} {{Ordinal date|year=2007|month=03|day=15}} 74 returns ordinal date (day of year)
{{Ordinal date|year=2008|month=03|day=15}} 75 +1 due to leap year in 2008
{{WEEKDAY}} {{WEEKDAY|2009|08|25}} 1 returns day of week
{{WEEKDAYNAME|{{WEEKDAY|2009|08|25}}}} Tuesday
{{JULIANDAY}} {{JULIANDAY|2009|08|25}} 2455069
{{WEEKDAYNAME|{{JULIANDAY|2009|08|25}}}} Tuesday Note: 2455069 mod 7 = 1
{{JULIANDAY|{{CURRENTYEAR}}|{{CURRENTMONTH}}|{{CURRENTDAY}}}} 2460435 Nesting templates to get the value of the current Julian day with no decimal portion. Useful for date math between a set point and the current date.
{{JULIANDAY.TIMESTAMP}} {{JULIANDAY.TIMESTAMP|2455069}} 20090825120000 same format as {{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}}
{{#time:D Y-m-d|{{JULIANDAY.TIMESTAMP|2455069}}}} Tue 2009-08-25

Julian dates or day numbers can be used for date calculations. A simple example follows:

  1. 90 days from 25 December 2006 is: 25 March 2007
    • Code: {{#time:j F Y|{{JULIANDAY.TIMESTAMP|{{JULIANDAY|2006|12|25}}+90}}}}
  2. 90 days from 25 December 2007 is: 24 March 2008 (1 day less than first example due to leap year in 2008)
    • Code: {{#time:j F Y|{{JULIANDAY.TIMESTAMP|{{JULIANDAY|2007|12|25}}+90}}}}

Fancy stuff edit

Today is
Tomorrow
{{today cell}} {{tomorrow cell}}

See also edit