Help:Magic words for beginners

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Magic words are words surrounded by brackets or underscores which most often insert or display the current value of what they are called. These include parser functions, variables and behavior switches and are features of wikitext. They are interpreted by the Metawiki software and are often used in templates so that they show different information depending on which page they are on and many other conditions.

Types[edit source | edit]

There are three types of magic words:

  • Behavior switches: uppercase words surrounded by double underscores, like. __NOTOC__
  • Variables: uppercase words surrounded by double braces, like {{PAGENAME}}and function somewhat similarly to templates.
  • Parser functions: These include expressions and consist of keywords (some beginning #) in double braces with parameters following a colon, ex. {{#expr:2+2}}

Things To Remember[edit source | edit]

A Notepad
Remember...
  • Most magic words are not case-sensitive, although some are, so you should be careful
  • Whitespace is not counted in from the front and back of keywords and parameters and the same also applies to template code.
  • "{{ Nofeed |Art=Wikiafripedia }}" and {{Nofeed|Art=Wikiafripedia}} will both succeed in producing the "Nofeed" template.
  • Page-dependent magic words will change or show information about the current page, even if the word is from a template, though in most cases, this is the desired effect.
  • If I insert {{exampletemplate}} and it says {{PAGENAME}}, I will see "Magic words for beginners" even though it is from "Template:example template".
  • If you want a magic word to paste in its value at the time of saving, you can substitute it in the same way that templates are substituted (using the subst: keyword).
  • {{CURRENTTIME}} will always display the current time and remain as is, while {{subst:CURRENTTIME}} will result in, for example, 9:45 being inserted and always remaining as regular text.

Behavior Switches[edit source | edit]

A Magic Wand
The implementation of magic words.

For a more detailed explanation, refer to the behavior switches MediaWiki page.

Table Of Contents[edit source | edit]

  • __NOTOC__ (can be placed anywhere in the wikitext; prevents a table of contents)
  • __FORCETOC__ (can be placed anywhere in the wikitext; makes a table of contents appear in its normal position)
  • __TOC__ (places a table of contents at its position)

Edit/Section Links[edit source | edit]

  • __NOEDITSECTION__ (hides section edit links beside headings)
  • __NEWSECTIONLINK__ (adds a "+" or "new section" link for adding a new section on a non-talk page)
  • __NONEWSECTIONLINK__ (removes the "+" or "new section" link on "Talk" pages)

Categories and Indexing[edit source | edit]

  • __NOGALLERY__ (on category pages, replaces thumbnails with normal links)
  • __HIDDENCAT__ (on category pages, makes it a hidden category)
  • __INDEX__ (tells search engines to index the page (show in results))
  • __NOINDEX__ (tells search engines not to index the page (not show in results))

Titles and Sorting[edit source | edit]

  • {{DISPLAYTITLE:title}} (changes the displayed form of the page title)
  • {{DEFAULTSORT:sortkey}} (sets a default category sorting key)

Variables[edit source | edit]

The Square Root of x
A variable in math.
A mathematical plot.
A plot of variables in algebra.
(Though Magic Words are much easier!)

For documentation, you may wish to read the variables MediaWiki page.

  • Shown here: Help:Magic words for beginners (Ex. User:QwerpQwertus/Adoption)
  • {{PAGENAME}} (page title without namespace)
  • Shown here: Magic words for beginners (Ex. User:QwerpQwertus/Adoption)
  • {{BASEPAGENAME}} (the page title without the current subpage or namespace — the parent page without the namespace.)
  • Shown here: Magic words for beginners (Ex. User:QwerpQwertus/Adoption)
  • {{SUBPAGENAME}} (subpage part of title)
  • Shown here: Magic words for beginners (Ex. User:QwerpQwertus/Adoption)
  • {{SUBJECTPAGENAME}} (associated non-talk page)
  • Shown here: Help:Magic words for beginners (Ex. "Talk:Wikiafripedia" makes "Wikiafripedia")
  • {{TALKPAGENAME}} (associated talk page)
  • Shown here: Help talk:Magic words for beginners (Ex. "Wikiafripedia" makes "Talk:Wikiafripedia")
  • {{NAMESPACE}} (namespace of current page)
  • Shown here: Help (Ex. User:QwerpQwertus/Adoption makes "User")
  • {{SUBJECTSPACE}}, {{ARTICLESPACE}} (associated non-talk namespace)
  • Shown here: Help, Help (Ex. User talk:QwerpQwertus/Adoption makes "User")
  • {{TALKSPACE}} (associated talk namespace)
  • Shown here: Help talk (Ex. "Wikiafripedia" makes "Talk:Wikiafripedia")
  • {{FULLPAGENAMEE}}, {{NAMESPACEE}} etc. (URL-encoded equivalents)
  • Shown here: Help:Magic_words_for_beginners (Ex. "Wikiafripedia" makes "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikiafripedia")

See also[edit source | edit]

For more detailed information on all magic words (behaviour switches, variables and parser functions), consider reading:
https://en.wikiafripedia.org/wiki/Help:Magic_words_for_beginners
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