Template talk:Height

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Created for sports articles, to indicate how tall a player is.

[edit] Usage

— May. 30, '06 [10:06] <freak|talk>

• Clawed, by stretching out this template to say ft and in, you are stretching out countless infoboxes needlessly which use this template inside of them. ie: NHL players. Just leave it with the standard " for inches and ' for feet. The strokes 16:06, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

The template should strictly follow the manual of style since it is a template in many articles. I have looked at half of all the NHL players that use the NHL infobox and only found a couple of boxes that were expanded such as Sergei Samsonov, but always by only a very small amount. Can you please provide some exapmles of articles where the infoboxes have been expanded by the change of this template--Clawed 08:36, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Shawn_Horcoff Sergei_Samsonov Brendan_Morrison

. The bracketed measurement will be placed on a second line

[edit] Foot (unit of length

Could someone fix the link so that it points to Foot (unit of length), which is the correct link. Thanks. --Zimbabweed 18:41, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Please, someone change this:

to this:

Thanks in advance, Muéro^(talk/c) 09:03, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks to whoever fixed the link. --Zimbabweed 00:13, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] USS Firebolt (PC-10)

This template is being used on that article, but the numbers given in it are not exact, so using this template implies an inappropriate degree of precision. This shouldn't be used outside of cases where the numbers are specifically known. Night Gyr (talk/Oy) 18:39, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Small change to remove spaces

A small request/proposal: rather than 6 ft (1.8 m), how about 6ft (1.8m)? When written normally, there would be no space between the number and symbol, e.g. 20kg, 100m. Fedgin | Talk 11:46, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

From Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers):

Put a space between the value and the unit symbol, for example "25 kg", "5 °C", (not "25kg", "5° C"); however, angles in degrees have no space: "45°". Preferably, use   for the space (25 kg) so that it does not break lines. GregorB 14:49, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fault

Using {{height|m=1.82}} gives:

• 1.82 m (5 ft 11+¹⁄₂ in)

5 ft 12 in is 6 ft. This template therefore needs a tinker.  Sʟυмgυм • т • c  12:18, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, strictly speaking 1.82m is 5.97112861 feet. Since it's not quite yet six feet, that's probably why it's not rounding it up to 6 ft 0 in—to insinuate the small difference.

Or it could be broken, I'm just postulating here. — pd_THOR ^{| =/\=} | 12:40, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Broken. Should be 6 ft. GregorB 14:51, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Here's the fix (hopefully):

It's also slightly simpler... GregorB 15:31, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Units

Is it possible to have the template display conversions in centimetres rather than metres and centimetres, e.g. 6 ft 1 in (185 cm)? McPhail 00:21, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

My thoughts also... Besides: e.g. 5 ft 11 in expands to "1.8 m", which is an odd format for human height (1.80 m or 180 cm would be customary). I'd also like to see a 1/2 inch precision (e.g. 187 cm is 6 ft 1½ in), although this looks pretty difficult to implement. GregorB 14:35, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, the fraction solution is ugly:

Works only one way, metric to inches. GregorB 16:06, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

I've moved the above code to {{Height2}}. GregorB 11:39, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Add a IW

Hi I've created a copy of this template on the norwegian language. Can an administrator add a IW in the noinclude section to no:Mal:Height? Nsaa 18:37, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] no inch display

Is there a way to make the 0 inches not display. E.G. at Palmolive Building. TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 21:53, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Short of altering the template, apparently not. I'd recommend {{Ft to m}}. GregorB 07:54, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. That is just what I am looking for. TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 18:26, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Links

{{editprotected}} I'd like to propose removing links to ft, in, metres, etc, as this makes the display of height in infoboxes very inelegant. It's also superfluous as the most obvious of links are not supposed to be made unless relevant to the article, such as linking years when not part of a date. Opinions? robwingfield ^«T•C» 21:30, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

The links don't really bother me, but I suppose they are not too useful either. GregorB 15:49, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

• I have turned off the editprotected link for now because there is very little comment on this and this template is used very widely. I would like to see enough to believe that there is consensus before making the change. Perhaps you can post something at the village pump to draw some attention for people to come here and comment. Once (if) you have consensus, I will be happy to make the change. --After Midnight ⁰⁰⁰¹ 14:00, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

I support it per GregorB's comment. ~ thesublime514 • talk • sign 03:59, July 5, 2007 (UTC)

I oppose this. I believe the links should remain because users may not be familiar with the units, or more importantly the abbreviations. And on many articles, this template is the first and only usage of them. I wouldn't be opposed to a parameter specifying whether to link or not. — The Storm Surfer 04:13, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

A reader wouldn't be familiar with the units or abbreviations? I'd find that hard to believe, but in the remote possibility that they're not familiar with pretty much the only units used to measure height worldwide (either metres or feet & inches), then the figures being provided are of no use to them, so a link to the article describing them would be of no use either. robwingfield ^«T•C» 18:35, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] problem in algorithm?

{{editprotected}}

It seems the following is giving an error: {{height|m=1.82}} produces 1.82 m (5 ft 11+¹⁄₂ in)

Is it possible to fix the template to just be 6 ft 0 in? // laughing man 19:01, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

I just noticed an apparent fix is posted above under the "Fault" heading, as well as a request to add an interwiki link, so I'm adding the editprotected template here.

Done. Also I've created a /doc subpage for furture interwiki links. Cheers. --MZMcBride 22:33, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

Looks good, thanks MZMcBride. // laughing man 22:46, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Instructions

Hi I've added instructions without noticing there were some at the top of this talkpage, so I reduced mi edits to a quick guide, I wonder if you would mind to move these long table to the /doc subpage --Andersmusician $ 00:55, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Half inches

I can't seem to get the template to use half inches; { {height|ft=6|in=1.5} } and { {height|ft=6|in=1} } both display as 6ft 1in; however, the metric changes correctly. Thanks, BertieBasset 16:35, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

{{Height}} currently does not support half inches, but for the equivalent result you can try this: {{Ft in to m|ft=6|in=1.5|abbr=yes|precision=2|wiki=yes}}, which expands as 6 ft 1.5 in (1.87 m). Speaking of which: it would make sense for {{Height}} to transclude {{Ft in to m}}, it would simplify its code greatly, with half inches as a bonus. Any opinions on that? GregorB 17:24, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

I added the functionality of using the sixteenths of the inch in the output (decimals are supported by default). Note that something like "6/16" would automatically be reduced to "3/8". Have fun.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 21:01, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Enquiry

Could someone add an instruction so that you can specify whether you want feet or metres to appear first? For example with footballers, some people get very nationalistic over which units to highlight and so used { {height|ft=6|in=1} } / 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) when the player is actually 1.86 m tall. I reverted to { {height|m=1.86} } / 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) because it is more correct, and only after a few iterations of this minor edit war did I notice what the problem is.

So what I'm saying is that it would be good to be able to enter the height in metres, but get feet display first. Shouldn't be too much work, should it? Cheers, aLii 15:44, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Precision

Precision=0 should be the default instead of precision=1 because that's how human height in inches is usually represented and that was the template's original behavior. The current setting displays precision that isn't there. GregorB 13:04, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

I agree. In the main, people never measure height in fractions of inches. Precision=0 should be the default. - PeeJay 14:26, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Fixed. One can still specify a different precision if necessary. Thanks.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 15:40, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Whoops, I didn't realize there were more complaints above. Just wanted to say that when I was re-designing this template, I beleived that it should be deprecated; all improvements were introduced only as a stop-gap measure. But since people are eager to keep this, a more serious re-write is in order. Anyway, as for the fractions being 16ths, that can be easily switched to any other denominator, as {{dec to frac}} (which is called to handle fraction conversions) can handle all of the smaller values (16 is used here only as a default; it is trivial to switch to 2 (for halves) or to a custom parameter.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 15:53, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

"Precision=0" broke the support for fractions. I'm going to leave it as is for now because the fractions support is not used anywhere and the default/requested behavior is not affected, but rest assured I'll have it fixed later... unless this fraction feature is found to be completely unneeded.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 19:15, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Update

OK, hopefully I was able to finally fix this template. For meters-to-feet/inches conversions, the output now defaults to showing half-inches. If fourths, sixteenths, 45ths, or whatever else is desired, specify it using the frac parameter (set frac=4, 16, 45, or whatever). Use frac=10 to show inches as decimals (the default precision for this is one, but it can be changed using the precision parameter). To make sure no fractional inches are shown (either vulgar or decimal), set precision=0.

If you find any bugs that need fixing, please list them here. Hopefully there won't be any. Otherwise, enjoy!—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 17:11, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Well, there's this very minor issue that was present since the beginning: e.g. {{height|ft=5|in=11}} displays the height as 1.8 m, while the display of 1.80 m would be more common in general use. As far as I can tell, this is due to behavior of the MediaWiki round function, so working around it looks difficult. GregorB 17:44, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

You are right, it is how the round function works. I won't say it's unfixable (it is), but fixing it is definitely not something that can be done quickly (not with the limited assortment of tools the template language provides, anyway).—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 17:59, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Ah, alright, I couldn't resist—I tried it out :) Turned out to be not as difficult as I first thought. However, since I don't have time to test is thoroughly, please do so for me before this improvement can go into production.

In order to change {{height}}'s handling of trailing zeroes, {{ft in to m}} will need to be improved. That improved version of {{ft in to m}} is now located at {{X8}} (here's the permalink in case X8 gets reset; it's a sandbox template). Please test it out with different values and precisions. If everything checks, then X8's code can simply be used to overwrite {{ft in to m}}'s, after which {{height}} will handle trailing zeros properly.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 18:55, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Never mind, it does not work properly :(—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 19:43, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Confirmed... 5 ft 11 in is OK, 6 ft 7 in is not. GregorB 20:23, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Centimetres

Why give heights in metres? Usually when people speak of height it's in centimetres (if they're talking metric). Jɪmp 23:27, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Having for most of my life lived in a country that uses the metric system, I should note that stating a human height in centimeters is not nearly as common as giving it in meters (e.g., 1.89 m) or in meters and centimeters (1 m 89 cm). I can't vouch, of course, that this is the case everywhere else.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 00:15, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

That country would be Russia, would it not? I should rephrase ... usually when people speak of height, in English speaking countries, it's in centimetres (if they're talking metric) ... or at least that's my experience. Giving human height in metres would be most uncommon where I'm from (Australia). Jɪmp 07:02, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Russia, yup, that's correct. As for the English-speaking countries, I wouldn't know, living in the U.S. and all (I am yet to hear an American talk metric :)). Anyone else wants to comment? Please?—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 20:49, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

We can inform ourselves with some crude research. Here are some suggestions for google tests:

• height 178-cm weight
• height 1.78-m weight
• taille poids 178-cm
• taille poids 1.78-m
• Höhe Gewicht 178-cm
• Höhe Gewicht 1.78-m
• altura peso 178-cm
• altura peso 1.78-m

Google has excellent facilities for restricting searches to one country (e.g. Spain) or language (e.g. Spanish). Run the english language tests on www.google.co.za using the 'pages from South Africa' button below the search box.

Similarly with www.google.com.au using the 'pages from Australia' button.

You can test russion pages using http://www.google.com/intl/ru/ using the 'Поиск страниц на русском' button.

Other useful data sources would be articles (but not translations of US non-metric articles) from local Wikipedias. For example, the Italian Wikipedia shows the height of Matias_Aguero in metres.

In ignorance of the 'right' answer, we could have a slight preference for base units (m, kg, W) over prefixed units. My impression is that there is no consensus that would be 'right' for all countries and all domains. Lightmouse 12:15, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

Here in Sweden we at least say (translated) "I'm one and eighty-seven" going with the 1.87m view. "I'm 187 centimeters" just sounds retarded ;) Chandlertalk 09:10, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] MOS conformity

Is it possible to get this template and {{weight}} to default to WP:MOS#Units_of_measurement conventions on abbreviations.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 21:18, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

I thought I've fixed this one already? Could you, please, point out where exactly it is in violation of MOS? I might have missed something, of course. As for {{weight}}, I also promised to fix it, but never got around to actually doing it :( Thanks.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 21:29, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

MOS calls for spelled out units and abbreviated parenthetical conversion. Thus, it should default to X feet Y inches (Z m) instead of X ft Y in (Z m). Same for {{weight}}.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 21:10, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Ah, that. The only reason why this template defaults to abbreviated units is because it is intended for use primarily in infoboxes, where spelling out units is not practical. I was not aware this template is used anywhere outside infoboxes; perhaps this point should be clarified in the documentation. In any case, it is possible to add the abbr switch to take care of this contingency. Please let me know if that would be helpful. Thanks.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 21:17, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes a parameter like MOSstlye=on or something would be great for both templates. --TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 15:26, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

OK, done. You can now use the standard abbr parameter, which takes values of yes (default), no (both sides spelled out), and mos (MoS-compliant). Note that the issue with singular units still needs to be fixed—one foot/one inch/one meter currently show as "1 feet"/"1 inches"/"1 meters", so until that's fixed please exercise caution.

I am not making any promises on when {{weight}} is going to be done, but it is on my to-do list. If anyone reading this wants to fix it themselves, I won't be complaining :) Best,—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 15:58, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 22:47, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Display of fractions of inches

This is a great addtion to Wikipedia. Would it be possible to use the ½ ⅓ ⅔ ¼ ¾ ⅛ ⅜ ⅝ and ⅞ characters when displaying fractions of inches? This would enhance the appearance of the output. Best Wishes Saga City 08:11, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

The author of the template that handles the fractions ({{frac}}) originally implemented that feature, but I believe he then rolled it back because of the MoS concerns and overall inconsistency of look. It is not terribly difficult to add the feature back, making it optional if necessary, but we first need to determine whether this feature can be considered to be MoS-compliant or not.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 14:16, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

In most cases in which this template is used, nothing more than half-inch precision is reasonable. But that isn't true in all cases in which it is used, let alone in all cases in which it could be used, were it designed with some way to override the default to the current precision.

But even when half-inch precision is used, there is a second point made here by Saga City

code	{{height|m=1.82}}
display when posted	1.82 m (5 ft 111⁄2 in)
current display	1.82 m (5 ft 11+1⁄2 in)
Saga City suggestion	1.82 m (5 ft 11½ in)

Gene Nygaard (talk) 22:53, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

As you have probably already discovered by now, the problem lies not with this template, but with {{frac}}, the author of which did not want to use the Unicode fractions for reasons I can't quite recall.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 15:05, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Linkable

Is it possible to make the units linkable?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 00:48, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

Done. Can you tell me where you are planning to deploy this tempate's added features, please? It's just that I am having a hard time imagining it being useful anywhere outside the infoboxes. Thanks.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 16:21, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Deprecation

Why isn't this template announced as deprecated just like the "weight" template (due to the new "convert" template)? -62.219.97.68 (talk) 18:10, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Because, unlike {{weight}}, this template provides some functionality which no other template offers.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 18:32, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Is that so? What functionality is that? – PeeJay 14:53, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

Vulgar fractions. Please refer to the template documentation for details.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 15:21, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] 4'12"

The template is converting height to '4'12"'. See: Fuko. Dekkappai (talk) 22:45, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Not an easy fix, unfortunately. You can either specify the fractions: {{height|m=1.52|frac=16}}→1.52 m (4 ft 11+¹³⁄₁₆ in); or use {{Convert}} or {{m to ft in}}: {{m to ft in|1.52}}→1.52 meters (4 ft 11.8 in)—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 14:26, 27 May 2008 (UTC)