Community Wishlist Survey 2023/Wikidata/Improve handling of dates in languages other than English

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Improve handling of dates in languages other than English

Problem: Wikidata does not display dates correctly in many languages. When entering data, it also cannot parse many common forms of dates in other languages. This makes Wikidata difficult to use in other languages. e.g. 1997-02-01 is displayed in Chinese and Japanese as "1 2 1997" instead of "1997年2月1日". When editing, it does not understand "1997年2月1日" even when the interface is in Japanese. In Spanish, it can parse "11 mayo 1961" but not "11 de mayo de 1961". In German it can parse "1. März 2000" but not "1. märz 2000". It can parse "01.02.1997" if the language is Slovak, but not if the language is Czech.
Proposed solution: Display dates using the date format from MediaWiki. Improve the parsing of dates so that it can understand dates written in the usual format for that language.
Who would benefit: Non-English speakers using Wikidata
More comments: This is a long-standing problem which has been proposed here multiple times in the past:
Phabricator tickets: phab:T63958, phab:T221097, phab:T214002, phab:T65732, phab:T260699
Proposer: Nikki (talk) 13:25, 5 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

As I was told, phab:T221097 should be fixed in the following days. The bugfix only concerns parsing, though. --Matěj Suchánek (talk) 14:11, 5 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Long-standing problem. I can just add two personal experiences with Italian interface: it parses months with lowercase initial (e.g. 22 marzo 2022) but not with less common (but sometimes used) uppercase initial (e.g. 22 Marzo 2022); since in Italy the most-common usage is dd mm yyyy, I can say that dd-mm-yyyy and dd mm yyyy are interpreted correctly, whilst dd/mm/yyyy is interpreted wrongly as mm/dd/yyyy (which can cause errors, if the user doesn't notice the problem when saving). I think this inversion of month and day is a problem perceived also in other languages: probably, in ambiguous cases (e.g. 01/02/2022), the system should just present the two options to the user and ask them to choose, in order to avoid misinterpretations. --Epìdosis 18:46, 5 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
+ phab:T167788 Ayack (talk) 08:22, 13 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
It is likely a super challenge (a pipe dream) asking for an ability to translate dates from lunisolar calendar to the Gregorian system. It is an unfortunate task for editors who tried to decipher dates from a primary source that deployed an emperor's era. For instance,"清高宗乾隆丁亥四月十九日" (transliteration: Qing Gaozong Qianlong Ding hai si yue shijiu ri; translated to Gaozong of Qing, Qianlong Emperor, 32nd year, 4th month, 19th day) to the Gregorian date, 1767 May 16. Nevertheless, if somehow a system could push forward a year, such as 民國一百一十二年 (minguo 112) to 2023. That would be a great start! Is that even possible? Thank you. ShiehJ (talk) 19:39, 15 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
That is part of another wish, https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Wishlist_Survey_2023/Wikidata/Support_for_non-Gregorian_and_non-Julian_calendar_models_on_Wikidata C933103 (talk) 12:09, 5 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
For everyone following this discussion, there is an upcoming Bug Triage Hour on dates input that may be of interest to you all. On March 13th, we will be following up on an issue with date parsing in the Czech language (T221097) that was fixed in February. During the Bug Triage Hour, we will be looking at the changes induced by this fix together, checking how the date input parsing works in different languages, and identifying any possibly remaining issues. This may be a great opportunity for those concerned with the handling of dates in languages other than English to get involved and provide feedback. -Mohammed Sadat (WMDE) (talk) 10:39, 6 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Voting

Support Strainu (talk) 20:20, 10 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support TLSOSLT (talk) 21:23, 10 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Joalpe (talk) 21:45, 10 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support عُثمان (talk) 23:34, 10 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support NMaia (talk) 00:01, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support ·addshore· ^{talk to me!} 00:13, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support - PKM (talk) 00:17, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support ··· 🌸 Rachmat04 · ☕ 02:41, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support HHill (talk) 08:33, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support --Epìdosis 08:42, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Envlh (talk) 09:17, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Oltrepier (talk) 10:08, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Nw520 (talk) 12:33, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Кирилл С1 (talk) 14:36, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support OwenBlacker (Talk) 15:15, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Mbkv717 (talk) 16:59, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Abzeronow (talk) 19:18, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support --NGC 54 (talk｜contribs) 01:07, 12 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Ahkei (talk) 01:49, 12 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Betseg (talk) 03:44, 12 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Mauricio V. Genta (talk) 08:02, 12 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support HLFan (talk) 08:52, 12 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Ameisenigel (talk) 09:13, 12 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Mehman 09:41, 12 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support QuickQuokka ^{[⁠talk • contribs]} 16:58, 12 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Bencemac (talk) 20:21, 12 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Thomas Kinz (talk) 01:01, 13 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Xayala Mammadli (talk) 05:35, 13 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Ayack (talk) 08:15, 13 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support — putnik 08:41, 13 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support TiagoLubiana (talk) 18:47, 13 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Excellence (talk) 20:25, 13 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support JAn Dudík (talk) 21:53, 13 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Libcub (talk) 02:51, 14 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Mikxth (talk) 12:10, 14 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Elilopes (talk) 17:06, 14 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support doesn't seem that hard BrokenSegue 22:30, 14 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Ottawajin (talk) 09:21, 15 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Moebeus (talk) 12:43, 15 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support ShiehJ (talk) 19:25, 15 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support --Polarlys (talk) 21:36, 15 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support --Melderick (talk) 21:53, 15 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support ಮಲ್ನಾಡಾಚ್ ಕೊಂಕ್ಣೊ (talk) 17:39, 16 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Husky22 (talk) 19:22, 16 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Steam Flow (talk) 22:10, 16 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support I didn't realize it was this bad, but yes this should be fixed. ArthurPSmith (talk) 20:58, 17 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support --Yining Chen (Talk) 10:07, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Fabius Lector (talk) 10:40, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Herbert Ortner (talk) 14:28, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Vulcan❯❯❯Sphere! 16:14, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support This should be fixed to improve dates handling. Thingofme (talk) 16:19, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Christian (talk) 20:27, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Jklamo (talk) 12:16, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Niskka2 (talk) 21:59, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Mule hollandaise (talk) 05:25, 20 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Matěj Suchánek (talk) 08:26, 20 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support — Draceane ^talk_contrib. 12:44, 20 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support cyrfaw (talk) 18:52, 20 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Higa4 (talk) 03:38, 21 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Serieminou (talk) 23:08, 21 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Tris T7 (talk) 02:18, 22 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Computerz4 (talk) 17:45, 22 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Morten Haan (talk) 18:50, 22 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support --Tchoř (talk) 10:17, 23 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]