This template is intended to be useful for creating links to "diffs"; that is, links to pages that show the differences between two versions of a wiki page.

Every historical version of a page has a revision ID, which you can find from the history of the page. Given a page name and one or two revision IDs, you can construct links to several types of diffs.

{{ diff | page | diff | oldid | label }}
  • page – The title of the page.
  • diff – The ID or keyword that is used against the base ID. Possible keywords are:
    cur – compare with the current version of a page.
    prev – compare with the previous version of a page.
    next – compare with the next version of a page.
  • oldid – The base ID onto which the diff is generated.
  • label – Text to display as link. No label will give a numbered link.

All parameters are optional. Omitted parameters must be empty (by using a double pipe). You can also use the named variables page=, diff=, oldid= and label=

Code Output
{{diff|Main Page|204901573|202506579|Diff between two numbered versions of a page}} Diff between two numbered versions of a page
  • The diff= parameter (parameter number 2) should be the larger revision number.
  • The oldid= parameter (parameter number 3) should be the smaller revision number.
{{diff|Wikipedia:Pagediff|204934693|204901573|Diff between two numbered versions of different pages}} Diff between two numbered versions of different pages
  • The page= parameter (parameter number 1) should be Wikipedia:Pagediff.
  • The diff= parameter (parameter number 2) should be the page revision to appear on the right (proposed change).
  • The oldid= parameter (parameter number 3) should be the page revision to appear on the left (original).
{{diff|Main Page|prev|204901573|Diff between a numbered version and the previous version}} Diff between a numbered version and the previous version

This is the form that would be used most often.

  • The diff= parameter (parameter number 2) should be the word prev.
  • The oldid= parameter (parameter number 3) should be the known revision number.
{{diff|Main Page|next|204901573|Diff between a numbered version and the subsequent version}} Diff between a numbered version and the subsequent version
  • The diff= parameter (parameter number 2) should be the word next.
  • The oldid= parameter (parameter number 3) should be the known revision number.
{{diff|Main Page|cur|204901573|Diff between a numbered version and the current version of a page}} Diff between a numbered version and the current version of a page
  • The diff= parameter (parameter number 2) should be the word cur.
  • The oldid= parameter (parameter number 3) should be the known revision number.
{{diff|Main Page|cur||Diff showing the most recent change to a page}} Diff showing the most recent change to a page
  • The diff= parameter (parameter number 2) should be the word cur.
  • The oldid= parameter (parameter number 3) should be empty.
{{diff|Main Page||204901573|A link to a numbered version of a page}} A link to a numbered version of a page
  • The diff= parameter (parameter number 2) should be empty.
  • The oldid= parameter (parameter number 3) should be the known revision number.
  • The result is not actually a diff, so this might be considered misuse of the template. See the {{oldid}} template.