Help:Variables

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 Template:Mediawiki.

There are three general types of magic words:

• Behavior switches: these are uppercase words surrounded by double underscores, e.g. __FOO__
• Variables: these are uppercase words surrounded by double braces, e.g. {{FOO}}. As such, they look a lot like templates.
• Parser functions: these take parameters and are either of the form {{foo:...}} or {{#foo:...}}. See also Template:Mediawiki.

Page-dependent magic words will affect or return data about the current page (by default), even if the word is added through a transcluded template or included system message.

Behavior switches

A behavior switch controls the layout or behaviour of the page and can often be used to specify desired omissions and inclusions in the content.

Word	Description	Versions
Template:Hl3 colspan="3"| 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.
Template:Hl3 colspan="3"| 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 Template:Mediawiki).	1.7+
__NONEWSECTIONLINK__	Removes the link beside the "edit" tab on pages in talk namespaces.	Template:Mediawiki
Template:Hl3 colspan="3"| 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+
Template:Hl3 colspan="3"| 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).
Template:Hl3 colspan="3"| Other
__START__	No effect.
__END__	Explicitly marks the end of the article, to prevent MediaWiki from removing trailing whitespace. Removed in Template:Mediawiki.	1.1 - 1.8
__INDEX__	Tell search engines to index the page (overrides Template:Mediawiki, but not robots.txt).	1.14+
__NOINDEX__	Tell search engines not to index the page (ie, do not list in search engines' results).	Template:Mediawiki
__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".	Template:Mediawiki

Variables

Variables return information about the current page, wiki, or date. Their syntax is similar to templates. Variables marked as "[expensive]" are tracked by the software, and the number that can be included on a page is limited.

If a template name conflicts with a variable, the variable will be used (so to transclude the template Template:PAGENAME you would need to write {{Template:PAGENAME}}). In some cases, adding parameters will force the parser to treat a variable as a template; for example, {{CURRENTDAYNAME|x}} transcludes Template:CURRENTDAYNAME.

Date & time

The following variables return the current date and time in UTC.

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

Variable	Output	Description	Versions
Template:Hl3 colspan="4"| Year
{{CURRENTYEAR}}	2024	Year
Template:Hl3 colspan="4"| Month
{{CURRENTMONTH}}	11	Month (zero-padded number)
{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}	November	Month (name)
{{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}}	November	Month (genitive form)
{{CURRENTMONTHABBREV}}	Nov	Month (abbreviation)	1.5+
Template:Hl3 colspan="4"| Day
{{CURRENTDAY}}	27	Day of the month (unpadded number)
{{CURRENTDAY2}}	27	Day of the month (zero-padded number)	1.6+
{{CURRENTDOW}}	3	Day of the week (unpadded number)
{{CURRENTDAYNAME}}	Wednesday	Day of the week (name)
Template:Hl3 colspan="4"| Time
{{CURRENTTIME}}	10:16	Time (24-hour HH:mm format)
{{CURRENTHOUR}}	10	Hour (24-hour zero-padded number)
Template:Hl3 colspan="4"| Other
{{CURRENTWEEK}}	48	Week (number)
{{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}}	20241127101625	YYYYMMDDHHmmss timestamp	1.7+

The following variables do the same as the above, but using the site's server config or $wgLocaltimezone.

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

For more thorough time formatting, you may want to install Extension:ParserFunctions to use the #time parser function

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
Template:Hl3 colspan="4"| Site
{{SITENAME}}	ATITD7	The wiki's site name (Template:Mediawiki).
{{SERVER}}	http://www.atitd.org	domain URL (Template:Mediawiki)
{{SERVERNAME}}	www.atitd.org	domain name (Template:Mediawiki)
{{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+
{{SCRIPTPATH}}	/wiki/t7w	relative script path (Template:Mediawiki)
{{STYLEPATH}}	/wiki/t7w/skins	relative style path (Template:Mediawiki)	1.16+
{{CURRENTVERSION}}	1.35.2	The wiki's MediaWiki version.	1.7+
{{CONTENTLANGUAGE}} {{CONTENTLANG}}	en en	The wiki's default interface language (Template:Mediawiki)	1.7+
Template:Hl3 colspan="4"| Latest revision to current page
{{REVISIONID}}	31186	Unique revision ID	1.5+
{{REVISIONDAY}}	6	Day edit was made (unpadded number)	1.8+
{{REVISIONDAY2}}	06	Day edit was made (zero-padded number)	1.8+
{{REVISIONMONTH}}	11	Month edit was made (zero-padded number)	1.8+ Changed to zero-padded number in Template:Mediawiki
{{REVISIONYEAR}}	2015	Year edit was made	1.8+
{{REVISIONTIMESTAMP}}	20151106183338	Timestamp as of time of edit	1.8+
{{REVISIONUSER}}	DonQuiHotep	The username of the user who made the most recent edit to the page	Template:Mediawiki
{{PAGESIZE:page name}}	0	[expensive] Returns the byte size of the specified page.	Template:Mediawiki
{{PROTECTIONLEVEL:action}}	protection level	Outputs the protection level (e.g. 'autoconfirm', 'sysop') for a given action (e.g. 'edit', 'move') on the current page or an empty string if not protected.	Template:Mediawiki
Template:Hl3 colspan="4"| Affects page content
{{DISPLAYTITLE:title}}		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 Template:Mediawiki; disabled by default before 1.10+, enabled by default thereafter.	1.7+
{{DEFAULTSORT:sortkey}} {{DEFAULTSORTKEY:sortkey}} {{DEFAULTCATEGORYSORT:sortkey}}		Used for categorizing pages, sets a default category sort key. For example if you put {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, John}} at the end of John Smith, the page would be sorted under "S" by default in categories.	1.10+

Statistics

Numbers returned by these variables normally contain separators (commas or spaces, depending on the local language), but can return raw numbers with the ":R" flag (for example, {{NUMBEROFPAGES}} → 11,007 and {{NUMBEROFPAGES:R}} → 11007). Use "|R" for magic words that require a parameter like PAGESINCATEGORY (for example {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Help}} and {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Help|R}}).

Variable	Output	Description	Versions
Template:Hl3 colspan="4"| Entire wiki
{{NUMBEROFPAGES}}	11,007	Number of wiki pages.	1.7+
{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}	3,322	Number of pages in Template:Mediawiki.
{{NUMBEROFFILES}}	2,833	Number of uploaded files.	1.5+
{{NUMBEROFEDITS}}	144,432	Number of page edits.	Template:Mediawiki
{{NUMBEROFVIEWS}}	Template:NUMBEROFVIEWS	Number of page views. Usually useless on a wiki using caching.	Template:Mediawiki
{{NUMBEROFUSERS}}	794	Number of registered users.	1.7+
{{NUMBEROFADMINS}}	9	Number of users in the sysop Template:Mediawiki.	1.7+
{{NUMBEROFACTIVEUSERS}}	56	Number of active users, based on the criteria used in Special:Statistics.	Template:Mediawiki
{{PAGESINCATEGORY:categoryname}} {{PAGESINCAT:Help}}	20 20	[expensive] Number of pages in the given category (replace "Help" with the relevant category name).	Template:Mediawiki
{{NUMBERINGROUP:groupname}} {{NUMINGROUP:groupname}}	6 6 ({{NUMBERINGROUP:bureaucrat}} used here)	Number of users in a specific Template:Mediawiki.	Template:Mediawiki
{{PAGESINNS:index}} {{PAGESINNAMESPACE:index}}	not enabled	Number of pages in the given namespace (replace index with the relevant namespace index). For instance, {{PAGESINNAMESPACE:14}} will output the number of category pages. {{PAGESINNS:0}} differs from {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} in that the former includes redirects and disambiguation pages. Disabled by default, enable with Template:Mediawiki.	1.7+

Page names

Variable	Output	Description	Versions
{{FULLPAGENAME}}	Help:Variables	Namespace and page title.	1.6+
{{PAGENAME}}	Variables	Page title.
{{BASEPAGENAME}}	Variables	Page title excluding the current subpage and namespace ("Title/foo" on "Title/foo/bar"). For more complex splitting, use {{#titleparts: }} from ParserFunctions extension.	1.7+
{{SUBPAGENAME}}	Variables	The subpage title ("foo" on "Title/foo").	1.6+
{{SUBJECTPAGENAME}}	Help:Variables	The namespace and title of the associated content page.	1.7+
{{TALKPAGENAME}}	Help talk:Variables	The namespace and title of the associated talk page.	1.7+

The {{BASEPAGENAME}} and {{SUBPAGENAME}} magic words only work in namespaces that have subpages enabled. See Template:Mediawiki for information on enabling subpages.

The following are equivalents encoded for use in MediaWiki URLs (i.e. spaces replaced with underscores and some characters percent-encoded):

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

As of Template:Mediawiki, these can all take a parameter, allowing specification of the page to be operated on, instead of just the current page:

• {{PAGENAME:Template:Main Page}} → Main Page

Template:Warning

Namespaces

Variable	Output	Description	Versions
{{NAMESPACE}}	Help	Name of the page's namespace
{{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 equivalents encoded for use in MediaWiki URLs (spaces replaced with underscores and some characters percent-encoded):

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

As of Template:Mediawiki, these can take a page name parameter and will return the namespace of the page name parameter, instead of the current page's:

• {{NAMESPACE:Template:Main Page}} → Template
• {{SUBJECTSPACE:Template:Main Page}} → Template
• {{TALKSPACE:Template:Main Page}} → Template talk

Parser functions

Parser functions are very similar to variables, but take one or more parameters (technically, any magic word that takes a parameter is a parser function), and the name is sometimes prefixed with a hash to distinguish them from templates.

This page only describes parser functions that are integral to the MediaWiki software. Other parser functions may be added by MediaWiki extensions such as the Template:Mediawiki. For those see Help:Extension:ParserFunctions.

URL data

Parser function	Input → Output	Description	Versions
{{localurl:page name}} {{localurl:page name|query string}}	{{localurl:MediaWiki}} → /wiki/tale7/MediaWiki {{localurl:MediaWiki|printable=yes}} → /wiki/t7w/index.php?title=MediaWiki&printable=yes	The relative path to the title.
{{fullurl:page name}} {{fullurl:page name|query_string}} {{fullurl:interwiki:remote page name|query_string}}	{{fullurl:Category:Top level}} → http://www.atitd.org/wiki/tale7/Category:Top_level {{fullurl:Category:Top level|action=edit}} → http://www.atitd.org/wiki/t7w/index.php?title=Category:Top_level&action=edit	The absolute path to the title. This will also resolve Interwiki prefixes.	1.5+
{{filepath:file name}} {{filepath:file name|nowiki}}	{{filepath:Wiki.png}} → {{filepath:Wiki.png|nowiki}} →	The absolute URL to a media file.	Template:Mediawiki
{{urlencode:string}}	{{urlencode:x y z á é}} → x+y+z+%C3%A1+%C3%A9	The input encoded for use in URLs.	Template:Mediawiki
{{anchorencode:string}}	{{anchorencode:x y z á é}} → x_y_z_.C3.A1_.C3.A9	The input encoded for use in URL section anchors (after the '#' symbol in a URL).	Template:Mediawiki

Namespaces

{{ns:}} returns the localized name for the namespace with that index. {{nse:}} is the equivalent encoded for MediaWiki URLs. It does the same, but it replaces spaces with underscores, making it usable in external links.

Template:Hl3 colspan="2" width="50%" | Content namespaces		Template:Hl3 colspan="2" width=%50%" | Talk namespaces
Usage		Output	Usage	Output
{{ns:-2}} or {{ns:Media}}		Media
{{ns:-1}} or {{ns:Special}}		Special
{{ns:0}} or {{ns:}}			{{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}}		Project	{{ns:5}} or {{ns:Project talk}}	Project talk
{{ns:6}} or {{ns:File}} or {{ns:Image}}		File	{{ns:7}} or {{ns:File talk}} 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	Input → Output	Description	Version
{{lc:string}}	{{lc:DATA CENTER}} → data center	The lowercase input.	1.5+
{{lcfirst:string}}	{{lcfirst:DATA CENTER}} → dATA CENTER	The input with the very first character lowercase.	1.5+
{{uc:string}}	{{uc:text transform}} → TEXT TRANSFORM	The uppercase input.	1.5+
{{ucfirst:string}}	{{ucfirst:text transform}} → Text transform	The input with the very first character uppercase.	1.5+
{{formatnum:unformatted num}} {{formatnum:formatted num|R}}	{{formatnum:987654321.654321}} → 987,654,321.654321 {{formatnum:987,654,321.654321|R}} → 987654321.654321	The input with decimal and decimal group separators, and localized digit script, according to the wiki's default locale. The |R parameter can be used to unformat a number, for use in mathematical situations.	1.7+ Template:Mediawiki
{{#dateformat:date}} {{#formatdate:date}} {{#dateformat:date|format}} {{#formatdate:date|format}}	{{#dateformat:25 deC 2009|ymd}} → 2009 December 25 (your pref), 2009 DeC 25 (default) {{#formatdate:dec 25,2009|dmy}} → 25 December 2009 (your pref), 25 Dec 2009 (default) {{#dateformat:2009-12-25|mdy}} → December 25, 2009 (your pref), December 25, 2009 (default) {{#formatdate:2009 dec 25|ISO 8601}} → 2009-12-25 (your pref), 2009-12-25 (default) {{#dateformat:25 decEmber|mdy}} → December 25 (your pref), DecEmber 25 (default) Note: In the example above, "your pref" refers to your date preference on the current MediaWiki wiki only.	Formats an unlinked date based on user "Date format" preference, and adds metadata tagging it as a formatted date. For logged-out users and those who have not set a date format in their preferences, dates can be given a default: mdy, dmy, ymd, ISO 8601 (all case sensitive). If only the month and day are given, only mdy and dmy are valid. If a format is not specified or is invalid, the input format is used as a default. If the supplied date is not recognized as a valid date (specifically, if it contains any metadata such as from a nested use of these or a similar template), it is rendered unchanged, and no (additional) metadata is generated. Template:WarningAlthough the ISO 8601 standard requires that dates be in the Gregorian calendar, the ISO parameter in this function will still format dates that fall outside the usual Gregorian range (e.g. dates prior to 1583). Also, the magic word cannot properly convert between negative years (used with ISO 8601) and years BC or years BCE (used in general writing).	Template:Mediawiki
{{padleft:xyz|stringlength}} {{padleft:xyz|strlen|char}} {{padleft:xyz|strlen|string}}	{{padleft:xyz|5}} → 00xyz {{padleft:xyz|5|_}} → __xyz {{padleft:xyz|5|abc}} → abxyz	Inserts a string of padding characters (character chosen in third parameter; default '0') of a specified length (second parameter) next to a chosen base character or variable (first parameter). The final digits or characters in the base replace the final characters in the padding; i.e. {{padleft:44|3|0}} produces 044. The padding string may be truncated if its length does not evenly divide the required number of characters. Template:Mediawiki (fixed in Template:Mediawiki): multibyte characters are interpreted as two characters, which can skew width. These also cannot be used as padding characters.	1.8+
{{padright:xyz|stringlength}} {{padright:xyz|strlen|char}} {{padright:xyz|strlen|string}}	{{padright:xyz|5}} → xyz00 {{padright:xyz|5|_}} → xyz__ {{padright:xyz|5|abc}} → xyzab	Identical to padleft, but adds padding characters to the right side.
{{plural:2|is|are}}	{{plural:1|is|are}} → is {{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".
{{grammar:N|noun}}		Outputs the correct inflected form of the given word described by the inflection code after the colon (language-dependent). Grammar transformations are used for inflected languages like Polish. See also Template:Mediawiki.	1.7+

Miscellaneous

Usage	Output	Description	Version
{{int:message name}}	{{int:edit}} → Edit (depends on user language, try: fr •ja)	Internationalizes (translates) the given interface (MediaWiki namespace) message into the user language. Note that this can damage/confuse cache consistency, see bug 14404.
{{#language:language code}} {{#language:ar}} {{#language:th}}	language code العربية ไทย	The native name for the given language code, in accordance with ISO 639.	Template:Mediawiki
{{#special:special page name}} {{#special:userlogin}}	Special:Special page name Special:UserLogin	The localized name for the given canonical Special: page.	Template:Mediawiki
{{#tag:tagname |content |parameter1=value1 |parameter2=value2 }}	(depends on parser tag)	Alias for XML-style parser or extension tags, but parsing wiki code. Inner content can be passed as first parameter, and attributes as subsequent ones: <tagname attribute1="value1" attribute2="value2"> content </tagname > → {{#tag:tagname|content|attribute1=value1|attribute2=value2}} Warning : You must write {{#tag:tagname||attribute1=value1|attribute2=value2}} to pass an empty content.	Template:Mediawiki
{{gender:username |return text if user is male |return text if user is female |return text if user hasn't defined their gender}}	(depends on the named user's gender)	A switch for the gender set in Special:Preferences	Template:Mediawiki

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