Help:Magic words

This page has been deprecated by "Help:Magic words" on MediaWiki.org, and is kept here for the convenience of users following links from other wikis. Any modifications, if still appropriate, should be made on that page.

Template:H:hThis 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:

• a behavior switch, called using 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.

Behavior switches

A behavior switch is a directive to the page software to include or omit certain elements of the page interface, or otherwise constitutes a call to various parts of the pages standard layout. It is characterised by capitalised identifiers with double underscores either side.

Table of contents

For details see Help:Section

Template:H:TOC variables

Other

Word	Explanation
__NOEDITSECTION__	Hides the edit links beside headings. Also, will no longer automatically edit only one section at a time when double- or right-clicking a heading (if you have that feature enabled in your preferences)
__NEWSECTIONLINK__	[MW1.7+] Gives a "+"-link next to the edit-tab to make a new section on a non-talk page (post-a-comment feature).
__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__	[MW1.7+] This magic word allows images in category pages to be displayed as inline links instead of gallery.
__NOTITLECONVERT__ __NOTC__	Like __NOCC__ but affecting article title only.
__END__	Allows for trailing whitespace to be included in the page save. Removed in 19213.
__START__	This magic word has no effect but an ID in MagicWord.php (MAG_START).
__HIDDENCAT__	[MW1.13+] When placed anywhere on a category page, this magic word causes that category not to appear in the horizontal box near the bottom of every member page. See Help:Category#Hidden_categories for further detail.
__NOINDEX__	[MW1.13+] Search engines won't index the page.
__INDEX__	[MW1.13+] Search engines will index the page. (Overrides $wgArticleRobotPolicies, but not robots.txt.)
__STATICREDIRECT__	[MW1.13+] Redirects marked with this will not be fixed when someone moves a page and checks "Update any redirects that point to the original title".

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.

Word	Example	Explanation
{{CURRENTDAY}}	13	Displays the current day in numeric form.
{{CURRENTDAY2}}	13	[MW1.6+] Same as {{CURRENTDAY}}, but with leading zero (01 .. 31).
{{CURRENTDAYNAME}}	Wednesday	Name of the day in the language of the project or English.
{{CURRENTDOW}}	3	Same as {{CURRENTDAYNAME}}, but as a number (0=Sunday, 1=Monday...).
{{CURRENTMONTH}}	11	The number 01 .. 12 of the month.
{{CURRENTMONTHABBREV}}	Nov	[MW1.5+] Same as {{CURRENTMONTH}}, but in abbreviated form (Jan .. Dec).
{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}	November	Same as {{CURRENTMONTH}}, but in named form (January .. December).
{{CURRENTTIME}}	08:42	The current time (00:00 .. 23:59).
{{CURRENTHOUR}}	08	The current hour (00 .. 23).
{{CURRENTWEEK}}	46	Number of the current week (1-53) according to ISO 8601 with no leading zero.
{{CURRENTYEAR}}	2024	Returns the current year.
{{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}}	20241113084221	[MW1.7+] ISO 8601 time stamp.

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+] )

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}}	Wednesday	Name of the day in the language of the project or English.
{{LOCALDOW}}	3	Same as {{LOCALDAYNAME}}, but as a number (0=Sunday, 1=Monday...).
{{LOCALMONTH}}	11	The number 01 .. 12 of the month.
{{LOCALMONTHABBREV}}	Nov	Same as {{LOCALMONTH}}, but in abbreviated form as Jan .. Dec.
{{LOCALMONTHNAME}}	November	Same as {{LOCALMONTH}}, but in named form as January .. December.
{{LOCALTIME}}	01:42	The local time (00:00 .. 23:59).
{{LOCALHOUR}}	01	The local hour (00 .. 23).
{{LOCALWEEK}}	46	Number of the local week (1-53) according to ISO 8601 with no leading zero.
{{LOCALYEAR}}	2024	Returns the local year.
{{LOCALTIMESTAMP}}	20241113014221	ISO 8601 time stamp.

• 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). When using these magic words in expressions, :R or |R is required. Without the :R or |R, an error will occur if the returned number is greater than 999 since the commas will interfere with the calculation.

Word	Example	Explanation
{{CURRENTVERSION}}	1.34.2	[MW1.7+] Template:H:mwg [1]
{{NUMBEROFEDITS}} {{NUMBEROFEDITS:R}}	5,966 5966	[MW1.10+ (r21319)] Returns the total number of page edits since MediaWiki, the software that runs this site, was installed.
{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} {{NUMBEROFARTICLES:R}}	195 195	A variable which returns the total number of articles on the Wiki. See mw:Manual:Article for information on what constitutes an article.
{{NUMBEROFPAGES}} {{NUMBEROFPAGES:R}}	2,127 2127	[MW1.7+] Returns the total number of pages. [2]
{{NUMBEROFFILES}} {{NUMBEROFFILES:R}}	391 391	[MW1.5+] Returns the number of uploaded files (rows in the image table).
{{NUMBEROFUSERS}} {{NUMBEROFUSERS:R}}	514 514	[MW1.7+] Returns the number of registered users (rows in the user table).
{{NUMBEROFADMINS}} {{NUMBEROFADMINS:R}}	8 8	[MW1.7+] Returns the number of administrators (users in the sysop group).
{{NUMBERINGROUP:groupname}} {{NUMBERINGROUP:groupname|R}}	{{NUMBERINGROUP:bureaucrat}} {{NUMBERINGROUP:bureaucrat|R}} (returns 3)	[MW1.14+] Returns the number of users in a specific group.
{{PAGESINNAMESPACE}}	disabled here	Longer alias of PAGESINNS
{{PAGESINNS:ns}} {{PAGESINNS:ns|R}}	{{PAGESINNS:2}}  {{PAGESINNS:2|R}}  disabled here	[MW1.7+] Returns the number of pages in the given namespace. Disabled by default, enable with Template:H:mwg.

Other

Word	Example	Example results	Explanation
{{PAGESINCATEGORY:category}} {{PAGESINCATEGORY:category|R}}	{{PAGESINCATEGORY:User en}} {{PAGESINCATEGORY:User en|R}}	0 0	[MW1.13+, r32932] Returns the number of pages in a given category, including sub-category pages and file description pages.
{{PAGESINCAT:category}} {{PAGESINCAT:category|R}}	{{PAGESINCAT:User en}} {{PAGESINCAT:User en|R}}	0 0	[MW1.13+] Alias of PAGESINCATEGORY.
{{PAGESIZE:page}} {{PAGESIZE:page|R}}	{{PAGESIZE:Help:Magic_words}} {{PAGESIZE:Help:Magic_words|R}}	30,057 30057	[MW1.13+ r33551] Returns the byte size of the specified page.

Parser functions

For details see Help:Parser function.

Namespaces and URLs

Word	Example	Explanation
{{ns:}}	{{ns:4}} = Sonic Eats Rings Museum {{ns:project}} = Sonic Eats Rings Museum	Returns the local name of a given namespace number.
{{localurl:x y @}} {{localurle:x y @}} {{localurl:a|b=c}} {{localurl:Wikipedia:Category}}	/serwiki/index.php/X_y_@ /serwiki/index.php/X_y_@ /serwiki/index.php?title=A&b=c http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category	Returns the local URL of a page (might not exist). Optional query parameter, see Help:Variable.
{{urlencode:x y @}}	x+y+%40	[MW1.7+] Encodes variable values for use in external links. [3]
{{anchorencode:x #y @}}	x_.23y_.40	[MW1.8+] Encodes variable values for use in section anchors. [4]
{{fullurl:x y @}} {{fullurle:x y @}} {{fullurl:m:a|b=c}}	https://sofoxcentral.com/serwiki/index.php/X_y_@ https://sofoxcentral.com/serwiki/index.php/X_y_@ https://sofoxcentral.com/serwiki/index.php?title=M:a&b=c	[MW1.5+] Returns the full URL of a given page. Optional query parameter as for localurl:.
{{filepath:file name}} {{filepath:file name|nowiki}}		[MW1.?+ r25854+] Returns the absolute path to image or media file. (nowiki parameter currenty buggy)

Formatting

Word	Example	Explanation
{{#language:}}	{{#language:da}} = dansk	[MW1.7+] Native name of language code.
{{#special:}}	{{#special:userlogin}} = Special:UserLogin	[MW1.? r17321+] Local name of canonical Special: page.
{{lc:}}	{{lc:AbC dEf}} = abc def	[MW1.5+] LowerCase
{{lcfirst:}}	{{lcfirst:Ab Cd}} = ab Cd	[MW1.5+] LowerCase first char.
{{uc:}}	{{uc:aBc DeF}} = ABC DEF	[MW1.5+] UpperCase
{{ucfirst:}}	{{ucfirst:aB cD}} = AB cD	[MW1.5+] UpperCase first char.
{{formatnum:}}	{{formatnum:-299792458.56789}} = -299,792,458.56789 {{formatnum:-299,792,458.56789|R}} = -299792458.56789	[MW1.7+] Changes the decimal separator and adds digit group separators (before the decimal separator only) according to the wiki's default locale. Also changes the digits into the local script. Leading minus and plus are recognized. [MW1.13+] Can be reversed with an R parameter.
{{padleft:}} {{padright:}}	{{padleft:7|3|0}} = 007 {{padleft:0|3|0}} = 000 {{padleft:bcd|6|a}} = aaabcd {{padleft:cafe|8|-}} = ----cafe {{padleft:bcd|6|{{!}}}} = |||bcd {{padright:bcd|6|a}} = bcdaaa {{padright:0|6|a}} = 0aaaaa	First case is, for example, applicable to years in a category... giving an ordered year to sort by pipetricks order, or any such ordering where left extended zeros allow a proper sorting. [MW1.8+] 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. Also, giving a non-ASCII character as a character to replicate results in a "?" character. bugzilla:12324
{{#tag:}}	{{#tag:myextension | content | attr=val | attr2=val2 }} = <myextension attr=val attr2=val2>content</myextension>	[MW1.12+, r29482] Passes attributes and inner content to an XML-style parser tag, parsing template variables along the way. See Bug 2257 and Extension:TagParser.

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

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}}	Same as {{MediaWiki:xyz}}, except standard message translation is applied depending on subpages and content/user/uselang language. Another difference is: this doesn't appear under "Templates used on this page:". Rendered as ⧼xyz⧽ if MediaWiki:xyz doesn't exist. See also Help:System message.
{{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 unexpanded wikitext is rendered (more or less, for details see msgnw).
{{raw:xyz}}	[MW1.6+] Equivalent to {{msg:xyz}} above<ref>Wikimedia SVN revision 12925</ref>.
{{subst:xyz}}	In the wikitext, the tag is substituted by the content (single-level evaluation only), see Help:Substitution.

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

Word	Usage	Explanation
framed frame enframed	[[Image:Mediawiki.png|framed]]	Places an image in a frame with a description. Uses original size and stubbornly ignores width parameter if given. In general, far better to use thumb, as is only suitable for small images.
border	[[Image:Mediawiki.png|border]]	Shows a 1px border around the image.
thumbnail thumb	[[Image:Mediawiki.png|thumbnail]]	Modifies image size, sets it dependent on user's favorite thumbnail size in one's preferences, or on the given width parameter (see below).
thumb=xyz	[[Image:Mediawiki.png|thumb=Wiki.png]]	Manualthumb: instead of displaying an automatically-sized thumbnail for Mediawiki.png, display the image Wiki.png.
width px 100x200px	[[Image:Mediawiki.png|40px]] [[Image:Mediawiki.png|100x200px]]	Scales image to given width  in pixels Scales image to no more than 100 pixels wide and no more than 200 high, but image scaled to retain its true aspect ratio within the boundary specified.

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.

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.

Miscellany

Word	Example	Explanation
{{DISPLAYTITLE:xyz}}	no inline output	[MW 1.7+] Modify the page's title [5], enabled in Wikimedia projects since June 2007 ([6]). Also see Template:H:mwg.
{{DIRMARK}} {{DIRECTIONMARK}}	‎ ‎	[MW1.7+] u+200E left to right or u+200D right to left mark
{{CONTENTLANGUAGE}}	en	[MW1.7+] code of the site's default interface language (Template:H:mwg)
{{DEFAULTSORT:xyz}}	no inline output	[MW1.10+] Sets a default category sort key for the whole current page (also applying for category tags before this tag)<ref>"Technology report", en-Wikipedia Signpost, January 2007</ref>.
#REDIRECT	#REDIRECT [[target]] at top of source page	Creates a redirect to another page (to the target page).

Despite of its name MAGICNUMBER is no magic word, the ISBN magic works only on the MediaWiki:Booksources page used by Special:Booksources, but talking about [[{{ns:4}}:{{int:Booksources}}|{{ns:8}}:Booksources]] in a way working on any MediaWiki installation is esoteric enough to be noted here.

Language-dependent word conversions

Word	Example	Explanation
{{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}}	November	Genitive form of month name used for Czech, Polish, Ukrainian[7]
{{LOCALMONTHNAMEGEN}}	November	Genitive form of month name used for Czech, Polish, Ukrainian (local time)
{{grammar:case | word }}	{{grammar:7sg|Wikipedie}} on cs: is Wikipedií.	Derived word forms in inflected languages like Czech [8]
{{plural:count |form1 |form2 }} {{plural:count |1st | 2nd | 3rd }}	{{plural: 2 | is | are }} outputs are {{plural: 1 | this | these }} outputs this {{plural: 0 | his | their }} outputs their	count 1 yields form1 (singular), plural transformations are used for languages like Russian [9] based on "count mod 10".

"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, which uses a grammar case for amounts ending in 1 (1, 21, 31,...), another case for amounts ending in 2 to 4 (2, 3, 4, 22, 23, 24, ...) and still another case for the remaining quantities.

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. Template:Msg, 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

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