Wikipedia:Age calculation templates

Wikipedia uses several templates that self-update every day to keep date and age information current. These are very useful for a dynamic online encyclopedia and save users from having to regularly update that kind of information. However, when using this kind of template, a few things should be kept in mind.

Mentioning "as of" date

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In mirrored versions of the site as well as print versions, such statistics will immediately become inaccurate. As such, they should always be accompanied by a note to indicate the date at which it was last correct. The note itself can be made self-updating along with the age calculation template by adding "as of {{FULLDATE}}". For more information about self-updating as-of dates, see Wikipedia:As of.

When to use templates vs. fixed text

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Some of these templates, such as {{Birth date and age}} add useful metadata to biography pages, and should be used in the person's infobox or when the information is first needed in the prose. This is true whether the information updates or is fixed.

In lists, however, they should only be used where the self-updating feature is needed. Some of these templates can be complex, and will greatly add to the loading time of a page if used many times. For example, in an article like list of Prime Ministers of Canada by time in office, the template is only used for the incumbent prime minister, and fixed numbers are used for all past prime ministers.

Examples

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Common age calculation templates include the following. The age displayed was calculated when the page was last purged and so may not be correct for the current date.

Dates

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See also

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