Help:Magic words
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Help:Magic_words".

	This is a copy of the master help page at Meta. Do not edit this copy. Edits will be lost in the next update from the master page. See below for more information.

This is an organized index of Magic words used in MediaWiki.

A "magic word" is a symbol 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 underscores, e.g. __NOTOC__
• an XML object, coded similar to HTML, preceded by "<" (and for the end tag "/") and followed by ">", as in <nowiki>...</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.

Tags which are used on this page such as "[MW1.5+]" indicate the MediaWiki version that first supported the magic word. "XYZ" indicates user input, which is used in the example.

Magic words between double underscores

Table of contents

For details see Help:Section

Other

XML-style tags

XML-style tags use the syntax <tag name>contents</tag name>. XML-style tags are frequently used by MediaWiki extensions; see Extending wiki markup for details on adding new tags.

Default

The following tags are available in a default MediaWiki installation.

• parsing is the conversion of text markup and XHTML to formatting and structure like templates, links, formatting, line breaks, et cetera. Two tags affect parsing:
  • nowiki disables parsing of all wiki syntax. For example, "<nowiki>'''[[{{tc}}]]'''</nowiki>" gives "'''[[{{tc}}]]'''".
  • pre mimics nowiki above in a formatted box, and preserves new lines. For example, "<pre>'''[[{{tc}}]]'''</pre>" outputs as:

    '''[[{{tc}}]]'''
    

• transclusion is adding the content of one page to another using the {{...}} template syntax. Three tags affect transclusion:
  • noinclude prevents text from appearing when the page is transcluded, so the text will only be visible on the current page. For example, "<noinclude>[[Category:Foo]]</noinclude>" will only categorize the template page.
  • includeonly hides text on the current page, so that it will only appear when the page is transcluded. For example, "<includeonly>[[Category:Foo]]</includeonly>" will categorize all pages that transclude the template, but not the template itself.
  • onlyinclude hides all other text when the page is transcluded, so that only the text inside the onlyinclude tags will be shown. For example, "I am an <onlyinclude>apple</onlyinclude>." will output "apple" when transcluded.

• math uses TeX markup to generate complex mathematics, usually in image form (see Help:Displaying a formula). For example, "<math>\sqrt{a^2+b^2}</math>" outputs as .

Common extensions

• hiero (WikiHiero extension) uses the Hieroglyph coding manual syntax to generate images of hieroglyphs. For example, "<hiero>A1</hiero>" outputs as .

• categorytree (CategoryTree extension) uses custom syntax to create a dynamic view of the category structure. See the extension page for examples.

Variables

For details see Help:Variable

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.

Local time

The time depending on the local timezone of the wiki (not depending on the timezone in the user's preference settings). (All words [MW1.8+] )

• See also:
  • Help:ParserFunctions
  • {{now}} for a W3C draft standard compliant date and time.

Statistics

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

Page names and related info

Other

Parser functions

For details see Help:Parser function.

Not working at the position of the page where the tag is located but on the page header, and throughout the page, respectively (see below):

• DISPLAYTITLE: allow the page header to be different from the page name.
• DEFAULTSORT: Sets a default category sort key for the page.

Namespaces and URLs

Formatting

With regard to #language and m:Template:n local (backlinks, ), see also:

• List of Wikipedias/local names - shows both names for all languages, without automatic comparison
• List of Wikipedias/local names/diff - values of #language for which {{n local}} contains a different name.
• List of Wikipedias/local names/diff 1 - for languages where the two names are different, shows both

Note: An alternative of LC and UC, for display only (not for further processing) is with CSS:

• Template:Xpdplain
• Template:Xpdplain

Capitalizing the first letter of each word:

• Template:Xpdplain

Template modifiers

Image modifiers

For details see w:en: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. The last unrecognized modifier is used as caption for framed images or together with thumbnails. It's also used as description alt=text.

Size

Position

For details see Help:Images and other uploaded files

The positions are mutually exclusive; the last specified wins. Template:- can stop floating. For inline images only modifier px (see above) is supported.

Miscellany

Language-dependent word conversions

"Grammar" and "Plural" are language-dependent functions, defined in [10], [11], 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 cs:Šablona:Wikivar/GRAMMAR.

"Plural" is a site-language-dependent switch function, controlled by function convertPlural in Language.php (which distinguishes between 1 and "not 1"), for some languages overridden in Languagexx.php, e.g. for French (which distinguishes between <=1 and >1) and Russian (oddly, first option is 1, 21, 31,.., 91, 101, 121, .., second is 2, 3, 4, 22, 23, 24, 31, 32, 33, 41,.., 94, 102, 103, 104,.., 122, 123,.., and else the third).

As opposed to ParserFunctions, "plural" accepts points and commas in numbers and interprets them in a site-language-specific way (depending on $separatorTransformTable in Messagesxx.php); on this site:

• {{plural:1.000|a|b|c}} gives a
• {{plural:1,000|a|b|c}} gives b

(on e.g. the German and the Dutch sites reversed w.r.t. the result on English sites).

"Plural" is used in various system messages, e.g. message with id 'nmembers' (talk), where it uses interface language instead of site language.

See also

• ParserFunctions #expr:, #if:, #ifeq:, etc.
• mw:Manual:Magic words
• Source for Language.php
• Source for MagicWord.php
• Adding parser functions
• mw:Extension:Variables : adding new magic words like {{CURRENTUSER}}

Notes and references

Wikipedia-specific help

There are no known magic words working only for Wikipedia, or working on Meta but not here As of 2007at the moment.

This page is a copy of the master help page at Meta (for general help information all Wikimedia projects can use), with two Wikipedia-specific templates inserted. To update the main text, edit the master help page for all projects at m:Help:Magic words. For Wikipedia-specific issues, use Template:Ph:Magic words (the extra text at the bottom of this page) or Template:Phh:Magic words for a Wikipedia-specific lead (text appears at the top of this page). You are welcome to replace the full wikitext of this page with that of the master page at Meta at any time. To view this page in other languages see the master page at Meta.