Wikipedia:Overview of date formatting guidelines: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:15, 7 February 2022

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{{supplement|interprets=date formatting guidelines for Wikipedia|WP:DATEOVER|WP:DATEOVERVIEW|WP:DMY|WP:MDY}}

Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers#Dates, months and years|guidelines for formatting dates]] ([[MOS:DATEFORMAT]]) set out the three date formats acceptable for use in Wikipedia articles, namely:

*'''Day–month–year''' (DMY) format—e.g., {{xt|{{#time:j F Y}}}} or {{xt|{{#time:j M Y}}}};

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The appropriate format for a particular situation is determined by the (somewhat confusing) interaction between three sub-provisions of MOS:DATEFORMAT. The priority among these provisions can be summarised as follows:

#'''Consistency ([[MOS:DATEUNIFY]]):''' Each article should use either DMY or MDY consistently, ''except'' that in references, the format used by the citation style chosen for the article is used consistently. However, the only all-numeric style allowed in citations is YMD.

#'''Strong national ties to a topic ([[MOS:DATETIES]]):''' Articles on topics with strong ties to a particular English-speaking nation should generally use the date format most commonly used in that nation. This generally means:

#*articles on US topics use MDY, ''except'' articles on modern US military topics use DMY in line with modern military usage;

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#*articles on topics relating to other English-speaking countries use DMY.

::There may be other exceptions for particular topic areas.

::Note that MOS:DATETIES does ''not'' apply to topics related to non-English-speaking countries. For example, articlesexisting onforma:''' FrenchIf topicsan doarticle nothas necessarilyevolved useusing DMY,predominantly evenone thoughformat, DMYdon't is the predominant formatchange init France.''except'':</li></ol>

<ol start="3"><li>'''Retaining existing format ([[MOS:DATERET]]):''' If an article has evolved using predominantly one format, don't change it ''except'':</li></ol>

::*to conform with strong national ties (in accordance with MOS:DATETIES, as discussed in 2 above); or

::*for good reason, by consensus on the article's talk page (see below).