Help:Magic words

From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.

A "magic word" is a symbol which is recognized by the MediaWiki software and which when seen in the non-commented text of the page, triggers the software to do something other than display that symbol, or transclude a page with that name, but instead to use the symbol directly. A magic word can be:

• an upper case word, preceded and followed by two underlines "__", e.g. __NOTOC__
• an XML object, coded similar to HTML, preceded by "<" and followed by ">", e.g. <nowiki>
• a parser function: similar to a template, a word preceded by the symbols "{{" and followed by "}}", and optionally parameter definitions between pipe characters, except that the part before the first pipe (or without pipes, the text between the braces) contains a colon (":"), e.g. {{ns:3}} and {{#ifexpr:{{{1}}}>3|large|small}}
• a variable: similar to a template without parameters, a word preceded by the symbols "{{" and followed by "}}", except the word used is in all upper case, e.g. {{CURRENTDAY}}
• a template modifier
• an image modifier

If a page in the template namespace has the same name as a magic word, the magic word will be invoked instead. If you discover you absolutely have to define a template with the same name as a magic word, prefix the name of the template with "msg:" or the name of the template namespace ("Template:"). See below for further details if you need this feature.

Contents 1 Magic words between double underscores 1.1 Table of contents 1.2 Other 2 Variables 2.1 Time 2.2 Local time 2.3 Statistics 2.4 Page names and related info 3 Parser functions 3.1 Namespaces and URLs 3.2 Formatting 4 Template modifiers 5 Image modifiers 5.1 Size 5.2 Position 6 Miscellaneous 6.1 Language-dependent word conversions 6.2 See also 7 References

[edit] Magic words between double underscores

[edit] Table of contents

For details see Help: Section.

Word	Explanation
__NOTOC__	Hides the table of contents on the current page.
__FORCETOC__	Forces the table of contents to appear.
__TOC__	Places a table of contents at the location where the magic word occurs (overriding any __NOTOC__).

[edit] Other

Word	Explanation
__NOEDITSECTION__	Hides the edit links beside headings.
__NEWSECTIONLINK__	Gives a "+"-link next to the edit-tab to make a new section on a non-talk page.
__NOCONTENTCONVERT__ __NOCC__	Don't perform the content language conversion (character and phase) in article display; for example, Chinese zh with zh_cn, zh_tw, zh_sg, zh_hk.
__NOGALLERY__	Allows images in category pages to be displayed as inline links instead of as a gallery.
__NOTITLECONVERT__ __NOTC__	Like __NOCONTENTCONVERT__ but affecting article title only.
__END__	Allows for trailing whitespace to be included in the page save.

[edit] Variables

For details see Help: Variable.

[edit] Time

The time in UTC. Note that if the page was displayed by the same user and has not changed (has not been edited) since the last time it was displayed, it is possible that the page may be cached (by the user's browser) and the displayed time or date may not change. Also, if a heavily used page, rather than freshly rendered by the software each time it is generated, is instead being retrieved from a caching system (such as the main page on Wikipedia) the date or time may not change from the last time the page was originally retrieved by the caching hardware or software.

Word	Example	Explanation
{{CURRENTDAY}}	13	Displays the current day in numeric form.
{{CURRENTDAY2}}	13	Same as {{CURRENTDAY}}, but with leading zero (01 .. 31).
{{CURRENTDAYNAME}}	Monday	Name of the day in the language of the project or English.
{{CURRENTDOW}}	1	Same as {{CURRENTDAYNAME}}, but as a number (0=Sunday, 1=Monday...).
{{CURRENTMONTH}}	10	The number 01 .. 12 of the month.
{{CURRENTMONTHABBREV}}	Oct	Same as {{CURRENTMONTH}}, but in abbreviated form as Jan .. Dec.
{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}	October	Same as {{CURRENTMONTH}}, but in named form January .. December.
{{CURRENTTIME}}	21:28	The current time (00:00 .. 23:59).
{{CURRENTHOUR}}	21	The current hour (00 .. 23).
{{CURRENTMINUTE}}	28	The current minute (00 .. 59).
{{CURRENTWEEK}}	42	Number of the current week (1-53) according to ISO 8601 with no leading zero.
{{CURRENTYEAR}}	2008	Returns the current year.
{{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}}	20081013212817	ISO 8601 time stamp.

[edit] Local time

The time depending on the local timezone of the wiki (not depending on the timezone in the user's preference settings).

Word	Example	Explanation
{{LOCALDAY}}	13	Displays the local day of the month in numeric form.
{{LOCALDAY2}}	13	Same as {{LOCALDAY}}, but with a leading zero (01 .. 31).
{{LOCALDAYNAME}}	Monday	Name of the day in the language of the project or English.
{{LOCALDOW}}	1	Same as {{LOCALDAYNAME}}, but as a number (0=Sunday, 1=Monday...).
{{LOCALMONTH}}	10	The number 01 .. 12 of the month.
{{LOCALMONTHABBREV}}	Oct	Same as {{LOCALMONTH}}, but in abbreviated form as Jan .. Dec.
{{LOCALMONTHNAME}}	October	Same as {{LOCALMONTH}}, but in named form as January .. December.
{{LOCALTIME}}	21:28	The local time (00:00 .. 23:59).
{{LOCALHOUR}}	21	The local hour (00 .. 23).
{{LOCALWEEK}}	42	Number of the local week (1-53) according to ISO 8601 with no leading zero.
{{LOCALYEAR}}	2008	Returns the local year.
{{LOCALTIMESTAMP}}	20081013212817	ISO 8601 time stamp.

[edit] Statistics

Statistics variables give thousands separators unless ":R" for "raw" is added (actually, these versions are parser functions).

Word	Example	Explanation
{{CURRENTVERSION}}	1.13.2	Returns the current version of the base MediaWiki software installed on the Memory Alpha server. [1]
{{NUMBEROFEDITS}} {{NUMBEROFEDITS:R}}	893,126 893126	Returns the total number of page edits since MediaWiki, the software that runs Memory Alpha, was installed.
{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} {{NUMBEROFARTICLES:R}}	29,156 29156	Returns the total number of articles on Memory Alpha.
{{NUMBEROFPAGES}} {{NUMBEROFPAGES:R}}	77,043 77043	Returns the total number of pages on Memory Alpha. [2]
{{NUMBEROFFILES}} {{NUMBEROFFILES:R}}	19,392 19392	Returns the number of files uploaded to Memory Alpha (rows in the image table).
{{NUMBEROFUSERS}} {{NUMBEROFUSERS:R}}	993,543 993543	Returns the number of registered users (rows in the user table).
{{NUMBEROFADMINS}} {{NUMBEROFADMINS:R}}	21 21	Returns the number of administrators (sysop, bureaucrat, steward and checkuser) on Memory Alpha.

[edit] Page names and related info

Word	Example	Explanation
{{PAGENAME}}	Magic words	Returns the name of the current page, including all levels (Title/Subtitle).
{{PAGENAMEE}}	Magic_words	More URL-friendly percent-encoded special characters (to use an article name in an external link).
{{SUBPAGENAME}} {{SUBPAGENAMEE}}	Magic words Magic_words	Name of the current page, excluding parent pages ("Subtitle" on "Title/Other/Subtitle") in namespaces supporting subpages.
{{BASEPAGENAME}} {{BASEPAGENAMEE}}	Magic words Magic_words	The base name of a subpage ("Title/Other" on "Title/Other/Subtitle").
{{NAMESPACE}} {{NAMESPACEE}}	Help Help	Returns the name of the namespace the current page resides in.
{{FULLPAGENAME}} {{FULLPAGENAMEE}}	Help:Magic words Help:Magic_words	Shorthands for NAMESPACE+PAGENAME
{{TALKSPACE}} {{TALKSPACEE}}	Help talk Help_talk	Name of next odd namespace (e.g. 4 → 5)
{{SUBJECTSPACE}} {{SUBJECTSPACEE}}	Help Help	Name of last even namespace (e.g. 5 → 4)
{{ARTICLESPACE}} {{ARTICLESPACEE}}	Help Help	An alias for SUBJECTSPACE(E)
{{TALKPAGENAME}} {{TALKPAGENAMEE}}	Help talk:Magic words Help_talk:Magic_words	FULLPAGENAME in its TALKSPACE
{{SUBJECTPAGENAME}} {{SUBJECTPAGENAMEE}}	Help:Magic words Help:Magic_words	FULLPAGENAME in its SUBJECTSPACE
{{ARTICLEPAGENAME}} {{ARTICLEPAGENAMEE}}	Help:Magic words Help:Magic_words	An alias for SUBJECTPAGENAME(E)
{{REVISIONID}}	844847	The unique identifying number of a page, used in comparing two versions of the same page, as when viewing the page history. Note that when editing a page, this value is null.
{{REVISIONDAY}}	9	The day on which the page was last modified.
{{REVISIONDAY2}}	09	The day on which the page was last modified, but with a leading zero (01 .. 31).
{{REVISIONMONTH}}	6	The month in which the page was last modified.
{{REVISIONYEAR}}	2008	The year in which the page was last modified.
{{REVISIONTIMESTAMP}}	20080609132439	ISO 8601 time stamp, indicating when the page was last modified.
{{SITENAME}}	Memory Alpha	The name of the site ($wgSitename).
{{SERVER}}	http://memory-alpha.org	The base URL of the server ($wgServer).
{{SCRIPTPATH}}	/en	The base URL path ($wgScriptPath).
{{SERVERNAME}}	memory-alpha.org	The name of the server without the protocol ($wgServerName).

[edit] Parser functions

For details see Meta: Parser function.

[edit] Namespaces and URLs

Word	Example	Explanation
{{ns:}}	{{ns:4}} = Memory_Alpha {{ns:project}} = Memory_Alpha	Returns the name of a given namespace number.
{{localurl:x y @}} {{localurle:x y @}} {{localurl:a|b=c}}	/en/wiki/X_y_%40 /en/wiki/X_y_%40 /en/index.php?title=A&b=c	Returns the local URL of a page (might not exist). Optional query parameter, see Variable.
{{urlencode:x y @}}	x+y+%40	Encodes variable values for use in external links. [3]
{{anchorencode:x #y @}}	x_.23y_.40	Encodes variable values for use in section anchors. [4]
{{fullurl:x y @}} {{fullurle:x y @}} {{fullurl:m:a|b=c}}	http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/X_y_%40 http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/X_y_%40 http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/a?b=c	Returns the full URL of a given page. Optional query parameter as for localurl:.

[edit] Formatting

Word	Example	Explanation
{{#language:}}	{{#language:da}} = Dansk	Native name of language code.
{{lc:}}	{{lc:AbC dEf}} = abc def	Lowercases all characters of a string.
{{lcfirst:}}	{{lcfirst:Ab Cd}} = ab Cd	Lowercases the first character of a string.
{{uc:}}	{{uc:aBc DeF}} = ABC DEF	Uppercases all characters of a string.
{{ucfirst:}}	{{ucfirst:aB cD}} = AB cD	Uppercases the first character of a string.
{{formatnum:}}	{{formatnum:-299792458.56789}} = -299,792,458.56789	Adds decimal separators to a number. Leading plus or minus is recognized.
{{padleft:}} {{padright:}}	{{padleft:7|3|0}} = 007 {{padleft:0|3|0}} = 000 {{padleft:bcd|6|a}} = aaabcd {{padright:bcd|6|a}} = bcdaaa {{padleft:café|8|-}} = ---café {{padleft:cafe|8|-}} = ----cafe {{padleft:bcd|6|{{!}}}} = |||bcd	Pads a string with a character to the specified width. Note that there's a little bug that interprets non-US-ASCII characters as two, instead of one character (see the difference in café and cafe in the examples). It does not seem possible to use padleft and padright for padding with characters with a multi-character code, such as  , which would be useful with padleft for sorting tables with Javascript.
{{#tag:}}	{{#tag:myextension | attr=val | attr2=val2 | content}} = <myextension attr=val attr2=val2>content</myextension>	Passes attributes and inner content to an XML-style parser tag, parsing template variables along the way. See Extension:TagParser.

[edit] Template modifiers

Usage	Explanation
{{:xyz}}	A bare colon is not a template modifier, it's the prefix for the main namespace. Test e.g. article {{:UTC}} vs. template {{UTC}}. Using this syntax you include the text of the main namespace article xyz in another article.
{{int:xyz}}	Shorthand for {{MediaWiki:xyz}}, rendered as <xyz> if MediaWiki:xyz doesn't exist. See also System messages.
{{msg:xyz}}	Even if there is a magic word named "xyz", use template:xyz unless the template doesn't exist (equivalent to {{template:xyz}}). Normally, magic words have priority when there is a conflict.
{{msgnw:xyz}}	The unevaluated wikitext is rendered. See msgnw.
{{raw:xyz}}	Equivalent to {{msg:xyz}} above[1].
{{subst:xyz}}	In the wikitext, the tag is substituted by the content (single-level evaluation only); see Meta: Substitution.

[edit] Image modifiers

For details see Wikipedia: Extended image syntax.

These are image modifiers used in [[Image:title.ext|modifier|...|modifier]] links. Some are mutually exclusive, and then the last specified wins.

[edit] Size

The last unrecognized modifier is used as a caption for framed images or together with thumbnails. It's also used as a description, i.e. alt=text.

Word	Usage	Explanation
framed frame enframed	[[Image:Mediawiki.png|framed]]	Places an image in a frame with a description. Uses original image size.
border	[[Image:Mediawiki.png|border]]	Displays a 1px border around the image.
thumbnail thumb	[[Image:Mediawiki.png|thumbnail]]	Modifies image size, sets it to dependent on user's favorite thumbnail size in their preferences.
thumb=xyz	[[Image:Mediawiki.png|thumb=Wiki.png]]	Manualthumb: instead of displaying an automatically-sized thumbnail for Mediawiki.png, displays the image Wiki.png.
width px n1xn2 px	[[Image:Mediawiki.png|40px]] [[Image:Mediawiki.png|100x200px]]	Scales image to given width in pixels. Scales image to no more than n1 pixels wide and no more than n2 high, but image scaled to retain its true aspect ratio within the boundary specified.

[edit] Position

For details see Meta: Images and other uploaded files.

The positions are mutually exclusive; the last specified wins. <br clear="all" /> can stop floating. For inline images, only the modifier px (see above) is supported.

Word	Usage	Explanation
right	[[Image:Mediawiki.png|right]]	Modifies position, floats the image to the right.
left	[[Image:Mediawiki.png|left]]	Modifies position, floats the image to the left.
none	[[Image:Mediawiki.png|none]]	Explicitly states that the image should not float.
center centre	[[Image:Mediawiki.png|center]]	Modifies position, like none but centered.

[edit] Miscellaneous

Word	Example	Explanation
{{DISPLAYTITLE:xyz}}	{{DISPLAYTITLE:five}}	Sets the page's title to xyz. Note that the character count must match with that of the actual title or the displayed title will be unchanged.
{{DIRMARK}} {{DIRECTIONMARK}}	‎ ‎	u+200E left to right or u+200D right to left mark.
{{CONTENTLANGUAGE}}	en	Code of the default interface language ($wgLanguageCode).
{{DEFAULTSORT:xyz}}	{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Harry}}	Sets a default category sort key for the whole current page (i.e. also applies to category tags before this magic word)[2].
#REDIRECT	#REDIRECT [[target]] at top of source page	Creates a redirect to another page.

[edit] Language-dependent word conversions

Word	Example	Explanation
{{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}}	October	Genitive form of the month name; used for Czech, Polish, Ukrainian, etc. [5]
{{grammar:case | word}}	{{grammar:7sg|Wikipedie}} on cs: is Wikipedií.	Derived word forms in inflected languages like Czech. [6]
{{plural:count | form1 | form2}}	{{plural: 2 | is | are}} outputs are {{plural: 0 | this | these}} outputs these	count 1 yields form1 (singular), all other values for count yield form2 (plural); plural transformations are used for languages like Russian [7] based on "count mod 10".

"Grammar" and "Plural" are language-dependent functions, defined in [8], [9], etc. (note that in PHP, the modulo operator is the percent sign).

"Grammar" can either be applied to predefined words only, or to arbitrary words, depending on whether the definition is just a 2D array, or involves string manipulations. See also Wikipedia:cs:Šablona:Wikivar/GRAMMAR.

[edit] See also

• ParserFunctions #expr:, #if:, #ifeq:, etc.
• Magic words at MediaWiki
• Source for Language.php
• Source for MagicWord.php

[edit] References