When giving times and dates, such as for opening and closing times of attractions, restaurants and bars, use the following formats.
Ranges
[edit]- Consider using an en dash rather than a hyphen: 2–5PM, rather than 2-5PM; 09:00–13:00, rather than 09:00-13:00 (en dashes can be found below the edit box in the "Wiki markup" section, typed in keyboard-setting-specific ways such as AltGr+hyphen or compose --., or encoded as
–
. In the running text, "from X to Y" is sometimes better, such as in the rare cases where the time specifications themselves are complicated. - Omit spaces before and after the dash or hyphen: 10:30AM–5PM, not 10:30AM – 5PM; 10AM–noon, not 10AM – noon; M–F, not M – F.
Times
[edit]
- Use one of these formats: 09:30–17:00 or 9:30AM–5PM. Do not use both 24- and 12-hour formats within one article. Choose between formats by following predominant local usage. Ask yourself which format visitors will see in timetables, on shop doors and in newspapers.
- It can be assumed that time is in the local time zone; when discussing time zones, use offset from UTC.
- For establishments that don't close, use: 24 hours daily
24-hour format
[edit]- Always use two digits for the hours and two digits for the minutes (hh:mm). Include a leading zero for numbers below ten: 09:00, not 9:00, 09:0 or 9:0.
- Use a colon as the separator: 17:30, not 17.30, 17-30, 1730 or 1730h.
- Use 00:00 for midnight and 12:00 for noon.
12-hour format
[edit]- Use upper case "AM" and "PM".
- Minutes are not shown for full hours: 5PM, not 5:00PM.
- Where minutes are shown, use a colon as the separator: 5:26PM, not 5.26PM or 5-26PM.
- Omit periods (full stops) in "AM" and "PM": 10:30AM–5PM, not 10:30A.M.–5P.M.
- Use noon and midnight, not 12PM and 12AM.
- Don't use a space between the number and the AM/PM sign: 2PM, not 2 PM.
- Use "AM" and "PM" only once for a range when the start and end times are both AM or both PM: 8–11AM, not 8AM–11AM.
Days of the week
[edit]- Abbreviate to the minimum number of letters – M Tu W Th F Sa Su – in lists and where space is short.
- Spell out when it is part of a named day, as, for example, Good Friday or Fat Tuesday.
- If it looks odd or ambiguous in a particular context, spell it out.
- Separate two consecutive days with a space only, as, for example: Su M, not Su–M or Su, M.
- Separate days that are not in a range (for example, when a shop is open M, W and F, and closed on Tu and Th) with spaces only. In this example: M W F 08:30–17:30 or M W F 8:30AM–5:30PM.
- When combining days with time, put the days first: M–F 10AM–2PM, not 10AM–2PM M–F.
- For establishments open all seven days of the week, use: daily, not "every day" or "Su–Sa".
- For establishments open six days a week, it is often clearer to state the day they are closed: 10AM–6PM (closed Tu), not W–M 10AM–6PM.
Dates
[edit]- Use the date format of dd Mmm yyyy, e.g., 10 Jan 2003.
- Abbreviate months to three letters—Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec—in lists, listings and where space is at a premium, such as in a table.
- Avoid using dates such as 10/1/03, 10-1-03 or 10/1/2003, as these can mean 10 Jan 2003 or 1 Oct 2003 to different people.
- Some of our Mediawiki templates, such as {{listing}} and {{warningbox}}, expect a lastedit date in a specific format (usually YYYY-MM-DD numerically). See the individual template's documentation for details.
Decades and centuries
[edit]- Decades should be shown in digits, i.e., the 1920s, and not "the twenties" or "the 1920's".
- Centuries should be shown in digits, i.e., the 19th century, and not "the XIX century", "the nineteenth century", or the "19th Century".
- Also consider whether to use, for example, "the 1800s" instead of "the 19th century".
Duration
[edit]- Year or years: yr
- Week or weeks: wk
- Hour or hours: hr
- Minutes: min
- Hours and minutes: either 5 hr 15 min or 5¼ hr
(decimal values can easily be confused with minutes, and durations should not be written as points of time)