Template:Birth date and age

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This template is used on approximately 748,000 pages, or roughly 1% of all 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.

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{{bda}}

This template uses Lua:

Template:Birth date and age will return a living person's date of birth and age. Using this template rather than simply inserting the date into articles allows for the inclusion of hidden metadata about the date. This metadata can be used by web browsers and other software tools to extract the details, and display them using some other website or mapping tool, index, or search them.

This template is intended for use in an article about a living person. For an article about a dead person, use {{Birth date}} with {{Death date and age}}.

Usage

Unnamed parameters for year, month, day: {{Birth date and age|year of birth|month of birth|day of birth|additional parameters}}; {{bda|year of birth|month of birth|day of birth|additional parameters}}

Named parameters for year, month, day: {{Birth date and age|year=year of birth|month=month of birth|day=day of birth|additional parameters}}; {{bda|year=year of birth|month=month of birth|day=day of birth|additional parameters}}

Additional parameters

The df (day first) and mf (month first) parameters indicate the intended date format to display. The appropriate parameter should be set to "y" or "yes" e.g. df=yes or mf=y.

The default output of this template is to display the month before the day. This default may not be appropriate for articles about people from parts of the world where the day precedes the month in a date. In such articles the parameter, "df", should be set to display the day before the month.

The parameter "mf", while not actually used by the template, will indicate that month first format is intended. Using these parameters can assist bots or other automated processing to detect which date format is intended; leaving the format as default may lead an editor or bot to change the format to an unintended value.

Do not specify both "df" and "mf" parameters in the same use of the template, as these formats are mutually exclusive.

Error tracking

Some kinds of invalid input are tracked in Category:Pages using age template with invalid date.

Also see Category:Pages using birth date and age template with unknown parameters (0).

hCard microformat

This template also returns the date, hidden by CSS, in the ISO 8601 standard.^[1] ^[2] For example:

(<span class="bday">1993-02-24</span>)

Note: For the "foundation", "built" and similar set-up dates of companies, buildings etc., use {{start date}} (this will work for year-only or month-year dates). Because the ISO 8601 standard requires the Gregorian calendar, this template should not be used if the date is given in the Julian calendar.

For further information, visit the microformats project.

Notes

Do not use with non-Gregorian dates because the resulting hCard hidden date will be false.
The template will appear broken when the parameters are left blank.
When only the year of a person's birth is known, or if it is desired not to state a person's full dates of birth for privacy reasons, consider using the templates {{Birth year}} or {{Birth year and age}} instead.

Examples

Unnamed parameters for year, month, day: {{Birth date and age|1993|2|24}} returns " (1993-02-24) February 24, 1993 (age 31)"; {{Birth date and age|1993|2|24|df=yes}} returns " (1993-02-24) 24 February 1993 (age 31)"; {{Birth date and age|1993|2|24|mf=yes}} returns " (1993-02-24) February 24, 1993 (age 31)"

Named parameters for year, month, day: {{Birth date and age|year=1993|month=2|day=24}} returns " (1993-02-24) February 24, 1993 (age 31)"; {{Birth date and age|year=1993|month=2|day=24|df=yes}} returns " (1993-02-24) 24 February 1993 (age 31)"; {{Birth date and age|year=1993|month=2|day=24|mf=yes}} returns " (1993-02-24) February 24, 1993 (age 31)"

Using month name instead of number

The following examples use a parameter value that will not work in the {{Birth date}}, {{Death date}}, or {{Death date and age}} templates.

Unnamed parameters for year, month name, day: {{Birth date and age|1993|Feb|24}} returns " (1993-02-24) February 24, 1993 (age 31)"; {{Birth date and age|1993|Feb|24|df=yes}} returns " (1993-02-24) 24 February 1993 (age 31)"; {{Birth date and age|1993|Feb|24|mf=yes}} returns " (1993-02-24) February 24, 1993 (age 31)"

Named parameters for year, month name, day: {{Birth date and age|year=1993|month=Feb|day=24}} returns " (1993-02-24) February 24, 1993 (age 31)"; {{Birth date and age|year=1993|month=Feb|day=24|df=yes}} returns " (1993-02-24) 24 February 1993 (age 31)"; {{Birth date and age|year=1993|month=Feb|day=24|mf=yes}} returns " (1993-02-24) February 24, 1993 (age 31)"

Using full date in one parameter

The following examples use a parameter value that will not work in the {{Birth date}}, {{Death date}}, or {{Death date and age}} templates.

The date format entered does not change the date format displayed, which is MDY by default or DMY if |df=y (to display the date in the same format it was entered, use {{Birth-date and age}}).

Unnamed parameter for full date (output in MDY format): {{Birth date and age|1993-2-24}} returns " (1993-02-24) February 24, 1993 (age 31)"; {{Birth date and age|Feb 24, 1993}} returns " (1993-02-24) February 24, 1993 (age 31)"; {{Birth date and age|24 Feb 1993}} returns " (1993-02-24) February 24, 1993 (age 31)"

Unnamed parameter for full date (output in DMY format): {{Birth date and age|1993-2-24|df=y}} returns " (1993-02-24) 24 February 1993 (age 31)"; {{Birth date and age|24 Feb 1993|df=y}} returns " (1993-02-24) 24 February 1993 (age 31)"; {{Birth date and age|Feb 24, 1993|df=y}} returns " (1993-02-24) 24 February 1993 (age 31)"

Output compared with {{Birth-date and age}}: {{Birth date and age|24 February 1993}} returns " (1993-02-24) February 24, 1993 (age 31)"; {{Birth-date and age|24 February 1993}} returns "24 February 1993 (1993-02-24) (age 31)"; {{Birth date and age|Feb 24, 1993}} returns " (1993-02-24) February 24, 1993 (age 31)"; {{Birth-date and age|Feb 24, 1993}} returns "Feb 24, 1993 (1993-02-24) (age 31)"; {{Birth date and age|Feb. 24, 1993}} returns "Error: Need valid birth date: year, month, day" ("Feb" without a dot is required to avoid an error); {{Birth-date and age|Feb. 24, 1993}} returns "Feb. 24, 1993 (1993-02-24) (age 31)"

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Birth date and age in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Birth date and age

This template will return a living person's date of birth and age. Using this template rather than simply inserting the date into articles allows for the inclusion of hidden metadata about the date. This metadata can be used by web browsers and other software tools to extract the details, and display them using some other website or mapping tool, index, or search them.

Template parameters[Edit template data]
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Year of birth	`1` `year`	The year in which the person was born Example 1993	Number	required
Month of birth	`2` `month`	The month (number) in which the person was born Example 2	Number	required
Day of birth	`3` `day`	The day (number) in which the person was born Example 24	Number	required
Day first	`df`	When set to 'y' or 'yes', the date of birth is output in a DMY format Auto value `yes`	Boolean	optional
Month first	`mf`	When set to 'y' or 'yes', stresses that the default MDY date format is intended for the date of birth Auto value `yes`	Boolean	optional

References

^ "Date Design Pattern". Microformats Wiki. April 7, 2013.
^ "hCalendar closed issues". Microformats Wiki. August 28, 2009. Specifically rejects supporting the Julian calendar.