Help:Variables

Variables are strings of text the site associates with a return value or function, such as time, site details, or page names. This page is about usage of standard variables.

There are three general types of variables:
 * Behavior switches: these are uppercase words surrounded by double underscores (eg __FOO__)
 * Variables: these are uppercase words surrounded by double braces (eg  ). As such, they look a lot like templates
 * Parser functions: these take parameters and are either of the form   or   .

Page-dependent variables will affect or return data about the current page, even if the word is added through a transcluded template or included system message.

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

Variables
Variables return information about the current page, site, or date. Their syntax is similar to templates. If a template name conflicts with a variable, the variable will be used (so to transclude the template    :PAGENAME you would need to write  ). In some cases, adding parameters will force the parser to treat a variable as a template; for example,  transcludes     :CURRENTDAYNAME.

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

The following variables do the same as the above, but using the site's local timezone instead of user preferences and UTC:
 *  2024 
 *  August 
 *  </tt>
 *  </tt>
 *  </tt>
 *  27 </tt>
 *  </tt>
 *  </tt>
 *  Tuesday </tt>
 *  </tt>
 *  </tt>
 *  </tt>
 *  </tt>

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

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,  &rarr;  and   &rarr; ). Use "|R" for variables that require a parameter like PAGESINCATEGORY (for example  and  ).

Page names
The following are URL-encoded equivalents:
 *  </tt>
 *  </tt>
 *  </tt>
 *  </tt>
 *  </tt>
 * <tt> </tt>

Namespaces
The following are URL-encoded equivalents:
 * <tt> </tt>
 * <tt> </tt>
 * <tt> </tt>

Parser functions
Parser functions are very similar to variables, but operate on user input instead of the current page.

This page only describes parser functions that are integral to the site software.

Namespaces
returns the localized name for the namespace with that index.