Usage

((YEAR|string formatted as a valid date))

Specify optional parameter (({2))} to get soft error rather than a hard ((error))

• ((YEAR|1999)) gives: 1999
• ((YEAR|1999-12-12)) gives: 1999
• ((YEAR|January 1999)) gives: 1999
• ((YEAR|1 January 1999)) gives: 1999
• ((YEAR|January 1, 1999)) gives: 1999
• ((YEAR|1-2-1990)) gives: 1990
• ((YEAR|1/2/1990)) gives: 1990
• ((YEAR|2239-10-23)) gives: 2239

Reports "Error" if given bad input:

• ((YEAR|1-14-1990)) gives: Error
       Reason for the error: there are not 14 months.
• ((YEAR|61 January 1999)) gives: Error
       Reason for the error: no month has 61 days.
• ((YEAR|1 MyMonth 1999)) gives: Error
       Reason for the error: there is no such month name.
• ((YEAR|some text which is not a date)) gives: Error
       Reason for the error: no date information to parse.
• ((YEAR|on approximately 1999-12-12)) gives: Error
       Reason for the error: includes extraneous content.

If used with a year range, it returns only the first match:

• ((YEAR|1999-2001)) gives: 1999

This presently only works when the year range is specified with a hyphen; if correctly given with an en dash, it reports an error (this will probably not be fixed, because handling ranges is not the template's function; that it kinda-sorta works on something like 1999-2001 with a hyphen is basically just an accident):

• ((YEAR|1999–2001)) gives: Error

If used without input, it simply outputs the current year:

• ((YEAR)) gives: 2024

It can be cleanly substituted for this purpose. If fed invalid data when substituted, it produces a larger, red error.