Template:Show by date/doc

Usage
This template will automatically display one of two statements based on whether a particular date has been reached.


 * Parameters 1, 2, and 3 are the Year, Month, and Day that the template should show the text after. Until that date, the text before is shown. If the day is omitted, the template will activate on the first day of the specified month. If the month is also omitted, the template will activate on 1 January of the specified year.  If the year is also omitted, the template will activate immediately.
 * Parameter 4 (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 5 (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 template is particularly useful on low-activity articles where dated statements may not receive prompt attention. A CP:BOT, User:AnomieBOT, will substitute the 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 " 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.

Limitations

 * In the current version of the template, statements will be switched on the date according to 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 28 at 8:00 pm Pacific Standard Time (UTC−08:00) corresponds to 04:00,  (UTC). Tackling the complexities of a time-sensitive version of this template would be a good future research and development project, though.
 * 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 to prevent the spaces from being stripped.
 * If the text before or text after contains an "=" or "|" character that is not inside another template invocation, use the templates = or !.

Related templates

 * Update after - shows an inline upate maintenance tag when a specified date is reached
 * Out of date 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.
 * As of