Template:Show by/doc

Usage
Show by is a wrapper for Show by date that will automatically display one of two statements based on whether a particular date/time has been reached.


 * Parameter 1 is the date and/or time that the template should show the  . Until that date and time, the   is shown. The   parameter can be in any format accepted by PHP's strtotime function. See mw:Help:Extension:ParserFunctions for more information.
 * Parameter 2 is the text to be shown if the current date is before the date specified in the previous parameters; it may be left empty if only the   needs to be displayed at the specified date
 * Parameter 3 is the text to be shown if the current date is on or after the date specified in the previous parameters; it may be left empty if only the   needs to be displayed until the specified date
 * The demo parameter can be used to prevent automatic substitution of the template.

This template should always be substituted ({{subst:Show by}}). This will insert the Show by date template using separate parameters for year, month, date, and time.

The show by date template inserted by this template is particularly useful on low-activity articles where dated statements may not receive prompt attention. A WP:BOT, User:AnomieBOT, will substitute the Show by date template with just the  as the given dates elapse.

Warnings

 * Be certain that the "before" and "after" versions of the statement are both reliably supported by the cited sources. For example, "Mr. Smith will take office on 1 January " to "Mr. Smith took office on 1 January " are both normally citable to the results of the election or announcement of the appointment. But the source for "The movie is scheduled for release on 1 January " does not usually support a statement "The movie was released on 1 January " since movie dates often slip; on the other hand, it could support "The movie was scheduled for release on 1 January " or the template could be used to remove the text entirely, and update after could be used to request an update.
 * Be careful that the article does not contain awkward grammar before the date and will not contain awkward grammar when the "after" text is displayed.
 * This template supports both absolute (e.g. ) and relative (e.g.  ) times, but relative times should only be used if the template is manually substituted. If the template is bot substituted, the time will be relative to the time that the bot edited the page.

Limitations

 * Unless  specifies a time zone, statements will be switched on the date according to Wikipedia time (00:00 UTC). If the actual event point is a few hours before or after this, it probably makes little difference in the grander scheme of time. However, it will make a significant difference if the actual event is more than 12 hours before or after this. For example, an event that takes place on August 27 at 8:00 pm Pacific Standard Time (UTC−08:00) corresponds to 04:00,  (UTC).
 * The output of this template will not be changed until the page is purged. MediaWiki may or may not manage to do this automatically. Category membership and the output of Special:WhatLinksHere, if these are changed by the expiration of this template, will not be updated until the page is edited.
 * Neither the  nor the   may begin or end with whitespace. Workarounds include using an escape code for space, using a non-breaking space , or including invisible markup (e.g.  ) to prevent the spaces from being stripped (see example below).
 * If the  or   contains an "=" or "|" character that is not inside another template invocation, use the templates = or !.

Related templates

 * Show by date The template that this is a wrapper for, with separate parameters for year, month, and day
 * As of
 * Update
 * is used to mark an article whose factual accuracy may be compromised (although this may be disputed) due to out of date information. This template adds the article to Category:Articles with obsolete information.
 * Update after, which shows an inline upate maintenance tag when a specified date is reached.