Information:Age calculation templates
This is an information page. It is not one of BattleTechWiki's policies or guidelines, but rather intends to describe some aspect(s) of BattleTechWiki's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect varying levels of consensus and vetting. |
BattleTechWiki 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.
Contents
Mentioning "as of" date[edit]
Such dates 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}}"
.
When to use templates vs. fixed text[edit]
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.
Examples[edit]
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.
Age[edit]
- {{Age}}
- {{Age as of date}}
- {{Age at a date}} - gives the date and the age the individual was at that date
- {{Age nts}} – for use in sortable tables
- {{Age in days}}
- {{Age in days nts}} – for use in sortable tables
- {{Age in years}} - returns a 2-year range; in 2022 someone born in 2000 may be either 21 or 22. Use {{Age}} or {{Years ago}} with a year parameter to return a single number of years
- {{Age in years and days}}
- {{Age in years, months and days}}
- {{Age in months}}
- {{Age in weeks}}
- {{Age in weeks and days}}
- {{Age in years, months, weeks and days}}
- {{Age for infant}} – displays months and days up to one year, years and months up to three years, and years beyond
- {{Years ago}}
Dates[edit]
- {{Birth date}}
- {{Birth-date}} – works with "fuzzy" or ambiguous dates
- {{Birth date and age}} – used on most biographical entries
- {{Birth date and age2}} – calculates age at a specified date
- {{Birth based on age as of date}} – used when a reference mentions the age of a person as of the date of the reference's publication
- {{Birth year and age}}
- {{Death date}}
- {{Death date and age}}
- {{Death year and age}}
- {{BirthDeathAge}} – combines the functionality of the above six birth and death templates