Help:Magic words

Magic words are strings of text that MediaWiki associates with a return value or function, such as time, site details, or page names. This page is about usage of standard magic words; for a technical reference, see Manual:Magic words.

General notes

• Inheritance: page-dependent magic words will affect or return data about the current page, regardless of whether it is in the page code or a transcluded template.

Behaviour switches

A behaviour switch controls the layout or behaviour of the page and can often be used to specify desired omissions and inclusions in the content. They are usually written as an uppercase word wrapped with double underscores.

Word	Description	Versions
Table of contents
__NOTOC__	Hides the table of contents (TOC).
__FORCETOC__	Forces the table of content to appear at its normal position (above the first header).
__TOC__	Places a table of contents at the word's current position (overriding __NOTOC__). If this is used multiple times, the table of contents will appear at the first word's position.
Editing
__NOEDITSECTION__	Hides the section edit links beside headings.
__NEWSECTIONLINK__	Adds a link (("+" by default) beside the "edit" tab for adding a new section on a non-talk page (see Adding a section to the end).	1.7+
Categories
__NOGALLERY__	Used on a category page, replaces thumbnails in the category view with normal links.	1.7+
__HIDDENCAT__	Used on a category page, hides the category from the lists of categories in its members and parent categories (there is an option in the user preferences to show them).	1.13+
{{DEFAULTSORT:xyz}}	Used on a categorized page, sets a default category sort key.	1.10+
Language conversion
__NOCONTENTCONVERT__ __NOCC__	On wikis with language variants, don't perform any content language conversion (character and phase) in article display; for example, only show Chinese (zh) instead of variants like zh_cn, zh_tw, zh_sg, or zh_hk.
__NOTITLECONVERT__ __NOTC__	On wikis with language variants, don't perform language conversion on the title (all other content is converted).
Page formatting
{{DISPLAYTITLE:xyz}}	Format the current page's title header. The value must be equivalent to the default title: only capitalization changes and replacing spaces with underscores. It can be disabled or enabled by $wgAllowDisplayTitle; disabled by default before 1.10+, enabled by default thereafter.	1.7+
__END__	Explicitly marks the end of the article, to prevent MediaWiki from removing trailing whitespace. Removed in 19213.
Other
__START__	No effect.
__NOINDEX__	Tell search engines not to index the page (ie, do not list in search engines' results).	1.13+
__INDEX__	Tell search engines to index the page (overrides $wgArticleRobotPolicies, but not robots.txt).	1.13+
__STATICREDIRECT__	On redirect pages, don't allow MediaWiki to automatically update the link when someone moves a page and checks "Update any redirects that point to the original title".	1.13+
#REDIRECT [[Page name]]	Causes the current page to redirect viewers to another page.

Variables and parser functions

Variables return information about the current page, wiki, or date. Their syntax is similar to templates, but capitalized to help avoid conflicts. If a template has the same name and case as a variable, the variable will be used. Usage of the template can be forced by adding the "msg:" modifier (for example, "{{msg:CURRENTYEAR}}"). In some cases, adding parameters will force the parser to treat a variable as a template; for example, {{CURRENTDAYNAME|x}} tries to transclude "Template:CURRENTDAYNAME".

Parser functions are very similar to variables, but operate on user input instead of the current page. The first parameter is delimited by a colon (:) instead of a pipe (|). (This page does not document custom parser functions added by the ParserFunctions extension.)

Date & time

The following variables return the current date and time according to the user's timezone preferences, defaulting to the UTC timezone.

Due to MediaWiki and browser caching, these variables frequently show when the page was cached rather than the current time.

Variable	Output	Description	Versions
Year
{{CURRENTYEAR}}	2024	Year
Month
{{CURRENTMONTH}}	11	Month (zero-padded number)
{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}	November	Month (name)
{{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}}	November	Month (genitive form)
{{CURRENTMONTHABBREV}}	Nov	Month (abbreviation)	1.5+
Day
{{CURRENTDAY}}	29	Day of the month (unpadded number)
{{CURRENTDAY2}}	29	Day of the month (zero-padded number)	1.6+
{{CURRENTDOW}}	5	Day of the week (unpadded number)
{{CURRENTDAYNAME}}	Friday	Day of the week (name)
Time
{{CURRENTTIME}}	12:02	Time (24-hour HH:mm format)
{{CURRENTHOUR}}	12	Hour (24-hour zero-padded number)
Other
{{CURRENTWEEK}}	48	Week (number)
{{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}}	20241129120235	ISO 8601 time stamp	1.7+

The following variables do the same as the above, but using the site's local timezone instead of user preferences and UTC:

• {{LOCALYEAR}}
• {{LOCALMONTH}}
• {{LOCALMONTHNAME}}
• {{LOCALMONTHNAMEGEN}}
• {{LOCALMONTHABBREV}}
• {{LOCALDAY}}
• {{LOCALDAY2}}
• {{LOCALDOW}}
• {{LOCALDAYNAME}}
• {{LOCALTIME}}
• {{LOCALHOUR}}
• {{LOCALWEEK}}
• {{LOCALTIMESTAMP}}

Technical metadata

Revision variables return data about the latest edit to the current page, even if viewing an older version of the page.

Variable	Output	Description	Versions
Site
{{SITENAME}}	A Tale in the Desert	The wiki's site name ($wgSitename).
{{CURRENTVERSION}}	1.35.2	The wiki's MediaWiki version.	1.7+
{{CONTENTLANGUAGE}}	en	The wiki's default interface language ($wgLanguageCode)	1.7+
Latest revision to current page
{{REVISIONID}}	175	Unique ID	1.5+
{{REVISIONDAY}}	7	Day edit was made (unpadded number)	1.8+
{{REVISIONDAY2}}	07	Day edit was made (zero-padded number)	1.8+
{{REVISIONMONTH}}	12	Month edit was made (unpadded number)	1.8+
{{REVISIONYEAR}}	2008	Year edit was made	1.8+
{{REVISIONTIMESTAMP}}	20081207031602	Timestamp as of time of edit	1.8+

Statistics

Numbers returned by these variables contain number separators, but can return raw numbers with the ":R" flag (for example, {{NUMBEROFPAGES}} = 13,402 and {{NUMBEROFPAGES:R}} = 13402). Use "|R" for magic words that require a parameter like PAGESINCATEGORY (for example {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Help}} and {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Help|R}}).

Variable	Output	Description	Versions
Entire wiki
{{NUMBEROFPAGES}}	13,402	Number of wiki pages.	1.7+
{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}	3,152	Number of pages in main namespace.
{{NUMBEROFFILES}}	3,535	Number of uploaded files.	1.5+
{{NUMBEROFEDITS}}	239,961	Number of page edits.	1.10+
{{NUMBEROFUSERS}}	14	Number of registered users.	1.7+
{{NUMBEROFADMINS}}	8	Number of users in the sysop group.	1.7+
{{NUMBERINGROUP:groupname}}	5 ({{NUMBERINGROUP:bureaucrat}} used here)	Number of users in a specific group.	1.14+
Per namespace
{{PAGESINNS:2}} {{PAGESINNAMESPACE:2}}	not enabled	Number of pages in the given namespace (replace 2 with the relevant namespace ID). E.g. {{PAGESINNAMESPACE:14}} equals the number of categories. Disabled by default, enable with $wgAllowSlowParserFunctions.	1.7+
Other
{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Help}} {{PAGESINCAT:Help}}	38 38	Number of pages in the given category (replace "Help" with the relevant category name).	1.13+
{{PAGESIZE:Help:Magic_words}}	18,851	Returns the byte size of the specified page.	1.13+

URL data

URLs

Variable	Output	Description	Versions
{{SERVER}}	http://www.atitd.org	domain URL ($wgServer)
{{SERVERNAME}}	www.atitd.org	domain name ($wgServerName)
{{SCRIPTPATH}}	/wiki/t4w	relative script path ($wgScriptPath)
{{localurl:page name}} {{localurl:page name|query string}}	/wiki/tale4/Page_name /wiki/t4w/index.php?title=Page_name&query string	relative path to title
{{fullurl:page name}} {{fullurl:page name|query_string}}	http://www.atitd.org/wiki/tale4/Page_name http://www.atitd.org/wiki/t4w/index.php?title=Page_name&query_string	absolute path to title	1.5+
{{filepath:Wiki.png}}		The absolute URL to a media file.	1.12+
{{urlencode:x y z}}	x+y+z	The input encoded for use in URLs.	1.7+
{{anchorencode:x y z}}	x_y_z	The input encoded for use in URL section anchors (after the '#' symbol in a URL).	1.8+

Page names

Variable	Output	Description	Versions
{{FULLPAGENAME}}	Help:Magic words	Namespace and page title.	1.6+
{{PAGENAME}}	Magic words	Page title.
{{BASEPAGENAME}}	Magic words	Page title excluding the current subpage and namespace ("Title" on "Title/foo").	1.7+
{{SUBPAGENAME}}	Magic words	The subpage title ("foo" on "Title/foo").	1.6+
{{SUBJECTPAGENAME}}	Help:Magic words	The namespace and title of the associated content page.	1.7+
{{TALKPAGENAME}}	Help talk:Magic words	The namespace and title of the associated talk page.	1.7+

The following are URL-encoded equivalents:

• {{FULLPAGENAMEE}}
• {{PAGENAMEE}}
• {{BASEPAGENAMEE}}
• {{SUBPAGENAMEE}}
• {{SUBJECTPAGENAMEE}}
• {{TALKPAGENAMEE}}

Namespaces

Variable	Output	Description	Versions
{{NAMESPACE}}	Help	Namespace (name)
{{SUBJECTSPACE}} {{ARTICLESPACE}}	Help Help	Name of the associated content namespace	1.7+
{{TALKSPACE}}	Help talk	Name of the associated talk namespace	1.7+

The following are URL-encoded equivalents:

• {{NAMESPACEE}}
• {{SUBJECTSPACEE}}
• {{TALKSPACEE}}

{{ns:}} returns the localized namespace name for that number constant. The default values are:

Usage	Output
{{ns:-2}} or {{ns:Media}}	Media
{{ns:-1}} or {{ns:Special}}	Special
{{ns:0}}
{{ns:1}} or {{ns:Talk}}	Talk
{{ns:2}} or {{ns:User}}	User
{{ns:3}} or {{ns:User_talk}}	User talk
{{ns:4}} or {{ns:Project}}	A Tale in the Desert
{{ns:5}} or {{ns:Project_talk}}	A Tale in the Desert talk
{{ns:6}} or {{ns:Image}}	File
{{ns:7}} or {{ns:Image_talk}}	File talk
{{ns:8}} or {{ns:MediaWiki}}	MediaWiki
{{ns:9}} or {{ns:MediaWiki_talk}}	MediaWiki talk
{{ns:10}} or {{ns:Template}}	Template
{{ns:11}} or {{ns:Template_talk}}	Template talk
{{ns:12}} or {{ns:Help}}	Help
{{ns:13}} or {{ns:Help_talk}}	Help talk
{{ns:14}} or {{ns:Category}}	Category
{{ns:15}} or {{ns:Category_talk}}	Category talk

Formatting

Usage	Output	Description	Version
{{lc:XYZ}}	xyz	The lowercase input.	1.5+
{{lcfirst:XYZ}}	xYZ	The input with the first character lowercase.	1.5+
{{uc:xyz}}	XYZ	The uppercase input.	1.5+
{{ucfirst:xyz}}	Xyz	The input with the first character uppercase.	1.5+
{{formatnum:-987654321.654321}}	-987,654,321.654321	The input with decimal and decimal group separators, and localized digit script, according to the wiki's default locale.	1.7+
{{padleft:xyz|5|_}} {{padleft:xyz|5}}	__xyz 00xyz	The input (first parameter) padded on the left side to the specified width (second parameter) using the specified character (third parameter). If a padding character isn't specified, '0' is used by default. bug: multibyte characters are interpreted as two characters, which can skew width. These also cannot be used as padding characters.	1.8+
{{padright:xyz|5|_}} {{padright:xyz|5}}	xyz__ xyz00	Identical to padleft, but adds padding characters to the right side.
{{DIRMARK}} {{DIRECTIONMARK}}	‎ ‎	Outputs a unicode-directional mark that matches the wiki's default language's direction (‎ on left-to-right wikis, ‏ on right-to-left wikis), useful in text with multi-directional text.	1.7+
{{plural:2|is|are}}	are	Outputs the correct given pluralization form (parameters except first) depending on the count (first parameter). Plural transformations are used for languages like Russian based on "count mod 10".

Miscellaneous

Usage	Output	Description	Version
{{#language:ar}} {{#language:th}}	العربية ไทย	The native name for the given language code.	1.7+
{{#special:userlogin}}	Special:UserLogin	The localized name for the given canonical Special: page.	1.9+
{{#tag:tagname}} {{#tag:tagname|inner content|parameter=value|parameter2=value}}	(depends on parser tag)	Alias for XML-style parser or extension tags, but parsing wiki code. Attribute values can be passed as parameter values ('<tagname attribute="value">' → '{{#tag:tagname|attribute=value}}'), and inner content as an unnamed parameter ('<tagname>content</tagname>' → '{{#tag:tagname|content}}').	1.12+