Module:String2/doc
This is the documentation page for Module:String2
This Lua module is used on approximately 1,450,000 pages, or roughly 3604% of all pages. To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the module's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own module sandbox. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them. |
This module depends on the following other modules: |
Module:String2 (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
The module String2 contains a number of string manipulation functions that are much less commonly used than those in Module:String. Because Module:String is cascade-protected (some of its functions are used on the Main Page), it cannot be edited or maintained by template editors, only by admins. While it is true that string-handling functions rarely need maintenance, it is useful to allow that by template editors where possible, so this module may be used by template editors to develop novel functionality.
The module contains three case-related calls that convert strings to first letter uppercase, sentence case or title case and two calls that are useful for working with substrings. There are other utility calls that strip leading zeros from padded numbers and transform text so that it is not interpreted as wikitext, and several other calls that solve specific problems for template developers such as finding the position of a piece of text on a given page.
The functions are designed with the possibility of working with text returned from Wikidata in mind. However, a call to Wikidata may return empty, so the functions should generally fail gracefully if supplied with a missing or blank input parameter, rather than throwing an error.
Functions
trim
The trim function simply trims whitespace characters from the start and end of the string.
title
The title function capitalises the first letter of each word in the text, apart from a number of short words recommended by The U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual: a, an, the, at, by, for, in, of, on, to, up, and, as, but, or, and nor.
sentence
The sentence function finds the first letter and capitalises it, then renders the rest of the text in lower case. It works properly with text containing wiki markup. Compare {{#invoke:String2|sentence|[[action game]]}}
→ Action game with {{ucfirst:{{lc:[[action game]]}}}}
→ action game. Piped wiki-links are handled as well:
{{#invoke:String2|sentence|[[trimix (breathing gas)|trimix]]}}
→ Trimix
So are lists:
{{#invoke:String2 |sentence |{{hlist ||[[apples]] |[[pears]] |[[oranges]]}}}}
→
ucfirst
The ucfirst function is similar to sentence; it renders the first alphabetical character in upper case, but leaves the capitalisation of the rest of the text unaltered. This is useful if the text contains proper nouns, but it will not regularise sentences that are ALLCAPS, for example. It also works with text containing piped wiki-links and with html lists.
findlast
- Function findlast finds the last item in a list.
- The first unnamed parameter is the list. The list is trimmed of leading and trailing whitespace
- The second, optional unnamed parameter is the list separator (default = comma space). The separator is not trimmed of leading and trailing whitespace (so that leading or trailing spaces can be used).
- It returns the whole list if the separator is not found.
One potential issue is that using Lua special pattern characters (^$()%.[]*+-?
) as the separator will probably cause problems.
Case | Wikitext | Output |
---|---|---|
Normal usage | {{#invoke:String2 |findlast | 5, 932, 992,532, 6,074,702, 6,145,291}} |
6,145,291 |
Space as separator | {{#invoke:String2 |findlast | 5 932 992,532 6,074,702 6,145,291 }} |
5 932 992,532 6,074,702 6,145,291 |
One item list | {{#invoke:String2 |findlast | 6,074,702 }} |
6,074,702 |
Separator not found | {{#invoke:String2 |findlast | 5, 932, 992,532, 6,074,702, 6,145,291 |;}} |
5, 932, 992,532, 6,074,702, 6,145,291 |
List missing | {{#invoke:String2 |findlast |}} |
split
The split function splits text at boundaries specified by separator and returns the chunk for the index idx (starting at 1). It can use positional parameters or named parameters (but these should not be mixed):
{{#invoke:String2 |split |text |separator |index |true/false}}
{{#invoke:String2 |split |txt=text |sep=separator |idx=index |plain=true/false}}
Any double quotes (") in the separator parameter are stripped out, which allows spaces and wikitext like ["[
to be passed. Use {{!}}
for the pipe character |
.
If the optional plain parameter is set to false / no / 0
then separator is treated as a Lua pattern. The default is plain=true, i.e. normal text matching.
The index parameter is optional; it defaults to the first chunk of text.
The Template:Stringsplit is a convenience wrapper for the split function.
stripZeros
The stripZeros functions finds the first number in a string of text and strips leading zeros, but retains a zero which is followed by a decimal point. For example: "0940" → "940"; "Year: 0023" → "Year: 23"; "00.12" → "0.12"
nowiki
The nowiki function ensures that a string of text is treated by the MediaWiki software as just a string, not code. It trims leading and trailing whitespace.
val2percent
The val2percent functions scans through a string, passed as either the first unnamed parameter or |txt=, and converts each number it finds into a percentage, then returns the resulting string.
one2a
The one2a function scans through a string, passed as either the first unnamed parameter or |txt=, and converts each occurrence of 'one ' into either 'a ' or 'an ', then returns the resultant string.
The Template:One2a is a convenience wrapper for the one2a function.
findpagetext
The findpagetext function returns the position of a piece of text in the wikitext source of a page. It takes up to four parameters:
- First positional parameter or |text is the text to be searched for.
- Optional parameter |title is the page title, defaults to the current page.
- Optional parameter |plain is either true for a plain search (default), or false for a Lua pattern search.
- Optional parameter |nomatch is the value returned when no match is found; default is nothing.
- Examples
{{#invoke:String2 |findpagetext |text=Youghiogheny}}
→ 7100{{#invoke:String2 |findpagetext |text=Youghiogheny |nomatch=not found}}
→ 7100{{#invoke:String2 |findpagetext |text=Youghiogheny |title=Boston Bridge |nomatch=not found}}
→ not found{{#invoke:String2 |findpagetext |text=river |title=Boston Bridge |nomatch=not found}}
→ not found{{#invoke:String2 |findpagetext |text=[Rr]iver |title=Boston Bridge |plain=false |nomatch=not found}}
→ not found{{#invoke:String2 |findpagetext |text=%[%[ |title=Boston Bridge |plain=f |nomatch=not found}}
→ not found{{#invoke:String2 |findpagetext |text=%{%{[Cc]oord |title=Boston Bridge |plain=f |nomatch=not found}}
→ not found
The search is case-sensitive, so Lua pattern matching is needed to find river
or River
. The last example finds {{coord
and {{Coord
. The penultimate example finds a wiki-link.
The Template:Findpagetext is a convenience wrapper for this function.
strip
The strip function strips the first positional parameter of the characters or pattern supplied in the second positional parameter.
matchAny
The matchAny function returns the index of the first positional parameter to match the source parameter. If the plain parameter is set to false (default true) then the search strings are Lua patterns. This can usefully be put in a switch statement to pick a switch case based on which pattern a string matches. Returns the empty string if nothing matches, for use in {{#if}}.
{{#invoke:String2|matchAny|123|abc|source=abc 124}}
returns 2.
hyphen2dash
Extracted hyphen_to_dash() function from Module:Citation/CS1.
Converts a hyphen to a dash under certain conditions. The hyphen must separate like items; unlike items are returned unmodified. These forms are modified:
- letter - letter (A - B)
- digit - digit (4-5)
- digit separator digit - digit separator digit (4.1-4.5 or 4-1-4-5)
- letterdigit - letterdigit (A1-A5) (an optional separator between letter and digit is supported – a.1-a.5 or a-1-a-5)
- digitletter - digitletter (5a - 5d) (an optional separator between letter and digit is supported – 5.a-5.d or 5-a-5-d)
Any other forms are returned unmodified.
The input string may be a comma- or semicolon-separated list. Semicolons are converted to commas.
{{#invoke:String2|hyphen2dash|1=1-2}}
returns 1–2.
{{#invoke:String2|hyphen2dash|1=1-2; 4–10}}
returns 1–2, 4–10.
Accept-this-as-written markup is supported, e.g. {{#invoke:String2|hyphen2dash|1=((1-2)); 4–10}}
returns 1-2, 4–10.
By default, a normal space is inserted after the separating comma in lists. An optional second parameter allows to change this to a different character (i.e. a thin space or hair space).
startswith
A startswith function similar to {{#invoke:string|endswith}}. Both parameters are required, although they can be blank. Leading and trailing whitespace is counted, use named parameters to avoid this if required. Outputs "yes" for true and blank for false so may be passed directly to #if.
Markup | Renders as |
---|---|
{{#invoke:string2|startswith|search|se}} |
yes |
{{#invoke:string2|startswith|search|ch}} |
|
Usage
{{#invoke:String2 | sentence |…}}
- Capitalizes the first character and shifts the rest to lowercase- Although similar to magic words'
{{ucfirst:}}
function, this call works even with piped wiki-links because it searches beyond leading brackets and other non-alphanumeric characters. - It now also recognises when it has an html list passed to it and capitalises the first alphabetic letter beyond the list item markup (
<li>
) and any piped links that may be there.
- Although similar to magic words'
{{#invoke:String2 | ucfirst |…}}
- Capitalizes the first alphabetic character and leaves the rest unaltered- Works with piped wiki-links and html lists
{{#invoke:String2 | title |…}}
- Capitalizes all words, except fora
,an
,the
,at
,by
,for
,in
,of
,on
,to
,up
,and
,as
,but
,or
, andnor
.{{#invoke:String2 | stripZeros |…}}
- Removes leading padding zeros from the first number it finds in the string{{#invoke:String2 | title |…}}
- Renders the string as plain text without wikicode
Parameters
These functions take one unnamed parameter comprising (or invoking as a string) the text to be manipulated:
- title
- sentence
- ucfirst
Examples
Input | Output |
---|---|
{{#invoke:String2| ucfirst | abcd }} | Abcd |
{{#invoke:String2| ucfirst | abCD }} | AbCD |
{{#invoke:String2| ucfirst | ABcd }} | ABcd |
{{#invoke:String2| ucfirst | ABCD }} | ABCD |
{{#invoke:String2| ucfirst | 123abcd }} | 123Abcd |
{{#invoke:String2| ucfirst | }} | |
{{#invoke:String2| ucfirst | human X chromosome }} | Human X chromosome |
{{#invoke:String2| sentence | abcd }} | Abcd |
{{#invoke:String2| sentence | abCD }} | Abcd |
{{#invoke:String2| sentence | ABcd }} | Abcd |
{{#invoke:String2| sentence | ABCD }} | Abcd |
{{#invoke:String2| sentence | [[action game]] }} | Action game |
{{#invoke:String2| sentence | [[trimix (breathing gas)|trimix]] }} | Trimix |
{{#invoke:String2 | sentence | {{#invoke:WikidataIB |getValue | P136 |fetchwikidata=ALL |onlysourced=no |qid=Q1396889}} }} |
|
{{#invoke:String2 | sentence | {{#invoke:WikidataIB |getValue | P106 |fetchwikidata=ALL |list=hlist |qid=Q453196}} }} |
|
{{#invoke:String2| sentence | }} | |
{{#invoke:String2| title | abcd }} | Abcd |
{{#invoke:String2| title | abCD }} | Abcd |
{{#invoke:String2| title | ABcd }} | Abcd |
{{#invoke:String2| title | ABCD }} | Abcd |
{{#invoke:String2| title | }} | |
{{#invoke:String2| title | the vitamins are in my fresh california raisins}} | The Vitamins Are in My Fresh California Raisins |
String split
Template:String split is a convenience wrapper for the split function.
{{String split |This is a piece of text to be split |" "}}
→ This{{String split |This is a piece of text to be split |" "| 4}}
→ piece{{String split |This is a piece of text to be split |x| 2}}
→ t to be split
Modules may return strings with | as separators like this: {{#invoke:carousel | main | name = WPDogs | switchsecs = 5 }}
→ Dobermann Fond Blanc.jpg | Female Dobermann with docked tail
{{String split |{{#invoke:carousel | main | name = WPDogs | switchsecs = 5 }}|{{!}}| 2}}
→ Female Dobermann with docked tail
Lua patterns can allow splitting at classes of characters such as punctuation:
{{String split |Apples, pears, oranges; Cats, dogs|"%p"| 2 |false}}
→ pears{{String split |Apples, pears, oranges; Cats, dogs|"%p"| 4 |false}}
→ Cats
Or split on anything that isn't a letter (no is treated as false):
{{String split |Apples pears oranges; Cats dogs|"%A+"| 4 |no}}
→ Cats
Named parameters force the trimming of leading and trailing spaces in the parameters and are generally clearer when used:
{{String split | txt=Apples pears oranges; Cats dogs | sep="%A+" | idx=3 | plain=false }}
→ oranges
One2a
Template:One2a is a convenience wrapper for the one2a function.
Capitalisation is kept. Aimed for usage with {{Convert}}.
{{one2a |One foot. One mile. One kilometer. One inch.One amp. one foot. one mile. one inch. Alone at last. Onely the lonely. ONE ounce. One monkey.}}
→
- A foot. A mile. A kilometer. An inch.An amp. a foot. a mile. an inch. Alone at last. Onely the lonely. ONE ounce. A monkey.
{{convert|1|ft|spell=on}}
→ one foot (zero point three zero metres){{one2a|{{convert|1|ft|spell=on}}}}
→ a foot (zero point three zero metres){{convert|2.54|cm|0|disp=out|spell=on}}
→ one inch{{one2a|{{convert|2.54|cm|0|disp=out|spell=on}}}}
→ an inch
See also
Module:String for the following functions:
- len
- sub
- sublength
- match
- pos
- str_find
- find
- replace
- rep
Templates and modules related to capitalization
- {{R from other capitalisation}} – for categorizing WP:Redirects from titles to article (or other pages) where the redirect is just a different capitalization
- {{Template capitalization}} – ??
- Module:String2
Magic words that rewrite the output (copy-paste will get the text as displayed, not as entered):
{{lc:}}
– lower case output of the full text{{uc:}}
– upper case output of the full text{{lcfirst:}}
– lower case output of the first character only{{ucfirst:}}
– upper case output of the first character only
Templates that implement <nowiki>