Template:Is now/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Is now.
It may contain usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

Usage

This template is intended to be used by other templates. It returns a "1" if the current time, as interpreted by {{#time: {{{format string|U}}} }} exactly matches any of the supplied times in the parameters |at1=, |at2=, and so on. Otherwise it returns a "0".

This is useful for recurring events, such as holidays, hours of the day, etc.

Parameters

|format string=U Format string to pass to {{#time:}}.
|at1=, |at2=, etc. - strings to match
|debug= - If set, then |format string= is printed. For debugging.

Common format string parameter values. See mw:Help:Extension:ParserFunctions#.23time for further information.

|format string=M - 2-digit month of year. Returns 01 during January
|format string=d - 2-digit day of month. Returns 01 on the 1st day of the month.
|format string=w - Day of week. Returns 0 on Sunday
|format string=M-d - 2-digit month, hyphen, 2-digit day. Returns 01-01 on January 1.
|format string=xmn - Month as a number (Islamic calendar). Returns 1 during Muharram.
|format string=xjn - Month as number (Hebrew calendar). Returns 1 during Nisan.
|format string=H - Hour of the day (UTC).
|format string= Defaults to U, which is "seconds since January 1 1970 00:00:00 UTC." This default is deliberately not useful to discourage the use of this template without specifying a format string.

Recommended uses

Displaying messages that only appear on certain, possibly non-consecutive days of the week, month, or year.
Displaying messages that only appear during certain, possibly non-consecutive hours of the day.

Demonstration (purge this page to update the result)

Display whether it is the weekend (Saturday or Sunday) or a weekday (Monday through Friday) in the United States:
{{#ifeq: {{Is now|format string=w|at1=0|at2=7}}|1|Enjoy the weekend|Another day, another dollar.}}

yields

Another day, another dollar.

Limitations

The "switch" from 0 to 1 happens only when the page this template is used on is updated or purged. If a page includes a template which calls this template, it is the page the reader sees, not the template which calls this template, which must be purged or updated.
There is a hard-coded limit of 31 |atN= parameters, but this can be extended at any time.

See also