Wikipedia:Date math

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

More information Built-in variables, Templates based on them ...
Built-in variables Templates based on them What you see Comments
{{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}} 20260313165503
{{CURRENTYEAR}} 2026
{{UTC}} 2026-03-13 16:55 UTC also uses {{CURRENTMONTH}} {{CURRENTDAY2}} {{CURRENTTIME}}
{{CURRENTDATE}} 16:55, Friday, March 13, 2026 (UTC) also uses {{CURRENTTIME}} {{CURRENTDAYNAME}} {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}}
{{CURRENTJULIANDAY}} 2461113.2048958 current Julian day also uses {{CURRENTMONTH}} {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTHOUR}} {{CURRENTMINUTE}} {{CURRENTSECOND}}
{{CURRENTMONTH}} 03
{{CURRENTMONTH1}} 3 trims leading zero
{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} March
{{Month+1}} April
{{Month-1}} February
{{Month-2}} January
{{CURRENTDAY}} 13 day of month
{{CURRENTDOW}} 5 day of week
{{CURRENTDAYNAME}} Friday
{{#time:l|-1 day}} Thursday
{{#time:l}} Friday
{{#time:l|+1 day}} Saturday
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}} 16:55
{{CURRENTHOUR}} 16
{{#time:H|+1 hour}} 17
{{Current hour}} 16 trims leading zero
{{#time:i}} 55
{{CURRENTMINUTE}} 55
{{Current minute}} 55 trims leading zero
{{#time:s}} 03
{{CURRENTSECOND}} 03
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Computed date and time

More information Template name, Usage ...
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}} 2 returns day of week
{{WEEKDAYNAME|{{WEEKDAY|2009|08|25}}}} Tuesday
{{JULIANDAY}} {{JULIANDAY|2009|08|25}} 2455069
{{JULIANDAY|{{CURRENTYEAR}}|{{CURRENTMONTH}}|{{CURRENTDAY}}}} 2461113 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
{{JULIANDAY.DAYNAME}} {{JULIANDAY.DAYNAME|2455069}} Tuesday same format as {{CURRENTDAYNAME}}

Note: 2455069 mod 7 = 1

{{JULIANDAY.DAYNAME|{{CURRENTJULIANDAY}}}} Friday
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Julian dates or day numbers can be used for date calculations. A simple example follows:

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

Fancy stuff

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

See also

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