 | This is an essay on Wikipedia:Deletion policy. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: This essay provides a slightly broader interpretation of WP:CALC providing allowances for counting, sorting, and ranking data. The essay then provides reasoning behind that interpretation. |
Wikipedia maintains a policy against publication of original research. However, counting and sorting are not original research and therefore can be included in any article where taking simple mathematical measures would add benefit.
When working on an article with a large amount of data, it may be advantageous to group, sort, count, and rank data that has been reported in other reliable sources. Such examples include "the coach with the most wins" or "the fifth most frequent winner at the Oscars" -- In both of these cases, the ability to sort data from other sources can prove very helpful to the article. Likewise, being able to count and complete other basic mathematical analysis should not be impeded as well: "Mario Cuomo served 12 years as governor of New York, from January 1, 1983 to December 31, 1994." If you have the data stating that Mario Cuomo took office on January 1, 1983 and left December 31, 1994, there is no need to find another source that states he held the office for 12 years. You can count the number of years or otherwise complete basic calculations to arrive at a meaningful answer.
You don't need to find a source that says "December 31, 1994 minus January 1, 1983 is 12 years" because the number of years can be counted.
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