Template:Show by

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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.

{{subst:Show by|date/time|text before|text after|demo=}}

• Parameter 1 (date/time) is the date and/or time that the template should show the text after. Until that date and time, the text before is shown. The date/time parameter can be in any format accepted by PHP's strtotime() function. See mw:Help:Extension:ParserFunctions#.23time for more information.
• Parameter 2 (text before) 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 text after needs to be displayed at the specified date
• Parameter 3 (text after) 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 text before needs to be displayed until the specified date
• The demo parameter (demo=yes) 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 text after 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 2026" to "Mr. Smith took office on 1 January 2026" 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 2026" does not usually support a statement "The movie was released on 1 January 2026" since movie dates often slip; on the other hand, it could support "The movie was scheduled for release on 1 January 2026" 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. 20 December 2000) and relative (e.g. +20 hours) 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 date/time 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 October 22 at 8:00 pm Pacific Standard Time (UTC−08:00) corresponds to 04:00, October 23 (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 text before nor the text after 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. <nowiki/>) to prevent the spaces from being stripped (see example below).
• If the text before or text after contains an "=" or "|" character that is not inside another template invocation, use the templates {{=}} or {{!}}.

Examples

Code	Result
{{subst:show by|2026|Show this before 2026|Show this after 2026}} has started	Show this before 2026 has started
{{subst:show by|2024|Show this before 2024|Show this after 2024}} has started	Show this after 2024 has started
{{subst:show by|September 2022|Show this before September 2022|Show this after September 2022}} has started	Show this after September 2022 has started
{{subst:show by|2026-09-06|Show this before 2026-09-06|Show this as of 2026-09-06}}	Show this before 2026-09-06
{{subst:show by|2022-09-06 12:00pm EST|Before noon Eastern Standard Time on 2022 September 6|After noon Eastern Standard Time on 2022 September 6}}	After noon Eastern Standard Time on 2022 September 6
{{subst:show by|06 Sep 2026|Show this before 06 Sep 2026|}}	Show this before 06 Sep 2026
{{subst:show by|06 Sep 2026||Show this after 06 Sep 2026}}
{{subst:show by|2026|{{subst:show by|2022|Show this before 2022|Show this between 2022 and 2026}}|Show this as of 2026}}	Show this between 2022 and 2026
{{subst:show by| -1 day |It is before yesterday|It is after yesterday}}	It is after yesterday
{{subst:show by| +1 day |It is before tomorrow|It is after tomorrow}}	It is before tomorrow
Note *{{subst:show by|2026| lost spacing }}*, and *{{subst:show by|2026| workaround }}*	Note *lost spacing*, and * workaround *

Related templates

• {{Show by date}} The template that this is a wrapper for, with separate parameters for year, month, and day
• {{As of}}
• {{Update}}
  • {{Update|inaccurate=y}} 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.

See also

• Wikipedia:Avoid statements that will date quickly

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Show by/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (create | mirror) and testcases (create) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.