Àdàkọ:Period span/brief/doc

Purpose

To provide a time span (from start to end) in millions of years for a geological period or pair of geological periods. The time span will automatically update when new information is available. The numerical part of the time span is linked to a graphical display.

Usage

There are two ways of using the template:

• {{Period span/brief|period name|rounding (optional)}}
• {{Period span/brief|first period name|second period name|rounding (optional)}}.

Examples:

• {{period span/brief|Pragian}} produces "Àdàkọ:Period span1 aux" (without the quotes), i.e. the time from the start of the Pragian to the end of the Pragian
• {{period span/brief|Silurian|Carboniferous}} produces "Àdàkọ:Period span1 aux", i.e. the time from the start of the Silurian to the end of the Carboniferous.

The last optional parameter can be set to 1, 2, etc. to display that number of decimal places, or to -1, -2, etc. to round to the nearest 10, 100, etc. years. The default is 0, i.e. no decimal places are shown. If you do want to display decimal places then, except for very recent times, you should probably instead use the template {{Period span}}, which avoids an impression of spurious accuracy by including error bounds. Note that decimal places will not be shown if they are not present in the source data.

Examples:

• {{period span/brief|Pragian|1}} produces "Àdàkọ:Period span1 aux"
• {{period span/brief|Pragian|-1}} produces "Àdàkọ:Period span1 aux"; because the start and end round to the same number, only one is shown
• {{period span/brief|Silurian|Carboniferous|-1}} produces "Àdàkọ:Period span1 aux".

Errors

If this template generates an error, it is likely to be because the period is missing from {{next period}} or {{period start}}. Please go ahead and add it in the appropriate place (once you've checked your spelling!).

You also need to add the period to {{period start error}} so that other templates which display geological dates, such as {{period span}}, which shows more details, will work properly.

Sources

For documentation on the sources of the dates and other information, see Template:Period start.

See also

Templates for retrieving data about geological periods:

• {{period start}}
• {{period start error}}

• {{period end}}
• {{period end error}}

• {{period span}}
• {{period span/brief}}

• {{next period}}

• {{period color}}