Template talk:Death year and age

Year link optional?

Can the single year linking (against current MOS style) be turned off? How about an optional parameter, like wiki=off? — Bellhalla (talk) 16:20, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

nowrap

Can we add a nowrap to the "(aged xxx)" part so when it wraps the whole part moves down? Leofric1 (talk) 21:19, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Precise death date but birth year only

Is there a way to have the range of ages at death in parentheses if we know only the year of birth but the exact date of death? (Often we don't have the DOB of people who were born in obscurity but later become notable.) Jeff Muscato (talk) 12:27, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

Can someone with access please add an additional template parameter specifying the day of the month of death? --Doradus (talk) 19:59, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

I agree, we need an option to specify the day of the death. - Esteban Zissou (talk) 19:48, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

I was just going to ask about something of that nature. Backtable _{Speak to me}^{concerning my deeds.} 21:59, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. This template needs to be edited by someone who is good at that sort of thing so that the exact day of death can be entered. --Kohoutek1138 (talk) 17:16, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

Query

Is there any way to have this template work for inputting both month and years for birth/death dates? Thanks. Connormah (talk | contribs) 01:13, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

If you know both months you should know the day too and then you can use Template:Death date and age -- Esemono (talk) 02:46, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

The days are unknown. This is not a current situation, just something that may happen in the future. Connormah (talk | contribs) 03:02, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Exact death dates

Can we make {{Death year and age|1874|1802|07|05}} (and {{Death year and age|1874|1802|07|05|df=y}}) work? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 21:31, 19 March 2013 (UTC)

What if birth day is known but only month/year of death is known?

Like lets say they were born January 1st, 1910 but we only have the death date as December 1990 (just using an example here), isn't there a way we can set this? Thanks

Wgolf (talk) 20:37, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

I agree that this is a void needing to be filled. Example: Saul Tepper died sometime in Jan. 1987, in New York, per Social Security Death Index for Saul Tepper. It's possible an obituary giving the exact day can't be found. {{death date and age}} threw an {{error}}, but neither is {{Death year and age}} adequate for this situation. {{Death year and age|year of death|year of birth|optional month of death}} allows for specifying an optional month of death, but not a specific date of birth. {{death date and age}} doesn't allow specifying an optional day of death, as it hard-errors on someone's good-faith attempt to do that by saying they died on day "zero". I'm not keen on creating yet another death-age calculation template to fill in the gap. Our existing templates should be made more flexible to handle these situations. We should be able to tell the difference between a specific day omitted by mistake and a specific day omitted because it is unknown. Wbm1058 (talk) 13:36, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

See this version of the page. We have a choice of accurately saying he died "(aged 87)" or "January 1987", but not both. Wbm1058 (talk) 14:02, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

If someone has some template edits in mind, the sandbox should be available while we wait for the protection level to be lowered. – Jonesey95 (talk) 02:41, 21 June 2015 (UTC)

This other template works fine, as far as I can tell:

{{Death-date and age|January 1987|December 20, 1899}} → January 1987 (1987-02) (aged 87)

Maybe the documentation could be updated to point to that template to cover the situation above. – Jonesey95 (talk) 02:57, 21 June 2015 (UTC)

"Age" versus "aged"

The wording of the age at death has been discussed a few times. This time I am offering a solution. I just need a few more opinions on whether it does actually tackle the problem. Discussion at Template_talk:Death_date_and_age#"Age" versus "aged" Periglio (talk) 20:53, 2 August 2015 (UTC)

What if death day is known but only month/year of birth is known?

This is the opposite of the question above, but surely more likely. I just added an infobox to Henry Dodwell, born October 1641, died 7 June 1711. There is no version of {{birth date}} that accepts only month, and no appropriate version of {{death date and age}}. I'm very much aware that you could quickly multiply out the different combinations to be unmanageable, so is it simply the recommendation that we use plain text for cases where we know only the year, or only the year/month? David Brooks (talk) 00:13, 30 December 2015 (UTC)

The death date and age template should work fine. There is an example in the documentation. Post here if I am misunderstanding your question. – Jonesey95 (talk) 01:38, 30 December 2015 (UTC)

I think the problem is that template does not support missing parameters (in this case day, but often month as well). But I just realized that {{BirthDeathAge}} can do what I want, because it does support missing parameters, and I've used it in that article. It does require a death year, which is ignored if the B parameter is used. David Brooks (talk) 06:42, 30 December 2015 (UTC)

RfC: Age format when the birth date or death date is unknown

The following discussion is an archived record of a request for comment. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

There is relatively strong opposition to this proposed change. Primefac (talk) 19:13, 28 October 2018 (UTC)

---

Isn't that more correct if the birth date and/or death date is unknown the format is (age 54 or 55) instead of (age 54–55)? RfC relisted by Cunard (talk) at 01:05, 9 September 2018 (UTC). Hddty. (talk) 07:45, 28 July 2018 (UTC)

Well, yes, it would be nicer to do it that way, but I don't know how much trouble it would be. WhatamIdoing (talk) 05:22, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

They're equivalent in this context. Just does not matter at all.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  15:44, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

(Notified by bot) Honestly, I think we're splitting hairs here, and that it doesn't matter one way or the other. I added the RfC category "Wikipedia technical issues and templates" just in case consensus goes the other direction. Maybe someone will know how to fix the template so it's "just so". -- I dream of horses  If you reply here, please ping me by adding {{U|I dream of horses}} to your message  (talk to me) (My edits) @ 08:03, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

Both seem fine. --SubSeven (talk) 18:13, 16 August 2018 (UTC)

(Notified by bot) I really can't see that it makes any difference.--5 albert square (talk) 08:02, 18 August 2018 (UTC)

• How about age 54/55? – Uanfala (talk) 19:04, 18 August 2018 (UTC)

I think better use "or" because it's more clearer. The problem with using en dash is that the punctuation could also means "range" and no one refer people's age as 54.5 for example. Hddty. (talk) 13:40, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

Apparently I run into a lot of "nobodies", because I see things like that often. --Khajidha (talk) 19:38, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

• Oppose – The dash seems more suited to the abbreviated format of an infobox. 142.160.89.97 (talk) 03:35, 25 August 2018 (UTC)
• Relisting comment: RfC relisted to allow for more discussion about Hddty. (talk · contribs)'s argument that "or" is clearer because using en dash could also means "range".

  Cunard (talk) 01:05, 9 September 2018 (UTC)

• "or" is seemingly completely unambiguous while the dash could be misinterpreted more easily. — Godsy ^(TALK_CONT) 05:40, 10 September 2018 (UTC)

  @Godsy: how can a dash in age section be misinterpreted? —usernamekiran(talk) 19:51, 29 September 2018 (UTC)

• "or" is better, because the dash could mean the person is all of those ages (leading to some possible head-scratching, at least), whereas "or" has only one possible construction. Of course, that works only when the uncertainty range is only two years. "54, 55, or 56" would be cumbersome. Bryan Henderson (giraffedata) (talk) 06:37, 17 September 2018 (UTC)

• If a person's birth date and/or death date only known as a year, the uncertainty range is only two years so it works for this template and similar template. Hddty. (talk) 17:56, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

• Summoned by bot. Can't say I know anything about the technical restrictions, but my weak inclination is for "54 or 55" rather than "54-55" for clarity reasons. Maybe best to make it unbreaking (i.e. not putting the numbers on separate lines). — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 17:44, 22 September 2018 (UTC)
• Same opinion as Rhododendrites, except if the range is more than two years (obviously). I don't think there is any potential for confusion here, but "or" is a little more natural and a little faster to read. Daß Wölf 00:18, 26 September 2018 (UTC) (arrived via WP:RFC/A)
• (Summoned by bot) Either is fine with me. ^Thanks, L3X1 ◊distænt write◊ 17:14, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
• Support (Summoned by bot) – Agree with Hddty, an endash reads as a range. "or" indicates one over the other. Also easier to read as per Rhododendrites and Daß Wölf. Cheers --RubenSchade (talk) 06:42, 28 September 2018 (UTC)
• oppose 1: Dash is more suited in infobox. 2: It's common sense. Nobody is going misinterpret 15-16 in age section. —usernamekiran(talk) 23:54, 28 September 2018 (UTC)

• 1: "or" only takes a little bit more space compared to en dash, so it's not a problem. 2: I agree that nobody is going to misinterpret but better to use "or" if we only have two years like that. Hddty. (talk) 00:42, 29 September 2018 (UTC)

• @Hddty.: I am not sure what you mean in your second point. Also, I still oppose per WP:AINT. —usernamekiran(talk) 19:45, 29 September 2018 (UTC)

• Oppose—there are rare cases, as with East Asian age reckoning, in which an age estimate could span three years rather than two. There are also cases such as Winsor McCay, whose birthdate is estimated anywhere from 1866 to 1871. Curly "JFC" Turkey 🍁 ¡gobble! 01:25, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
• Oppose: an en dash works and would be used for everything else (eg. 45–47), so for consistency and infobox appearance I'd keep it for even the smallest range. Yes, it reads as "forty-five to forty-six", but that works just fine and means "forty-five or forty-six", just as "forty-five to forty-seven" means "forty-five or forty-six or forty-seven" - there's no more reason for someone to be confused by one than by the other. --tronvillain (talk) 13:02, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

All details known bar exact date of death

Dave Mehmet's death has been announced. His exact date of birth is known (2 December 1960) and it is known he was 63 years old when he died, but only the year of his death (2024) has been made public. Is there a way to use the {{death year and age}} template to display "2024 (aged 63)" or is it easier just to type that out? I can't figure out from the documentation how to cover this particular scenario...... -- ChrisTheDude (talk) 12:53, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

I think you can only use {{Birth date}} for the birth date and type out the death year and age. Johnuniq (talk) 04:47, 10 April 2024 (UTC)