Help:Magic words

Shortcut H:MAGIC

Magic words (including parser functions, variables and behavior switches) are features of wikicode that give instructions to Bulbapedia's underlying MediaWiki software and are especially useful for templates.

• Behavior switches (e.g. __NOTOC__) will change the behavior of a page, rather than return a value.
• Variables (e.g. {{PAGENAME}}) will return a value in their place.
• Parser functions (e.g. {{#ifexpr:Y|Yes|No}}) will take a value and return a value.

Variables and parser functions can use substitution, just like templates. 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 behavior of the page (if supported by the skin) and can often be used to specify desired omissions and inclusions in the content. Notably some of these are not supported by the Minerva Neue skin.

Word	Description
__NOTOC__	Hides the table of contents.
__FORCETOC__	Forces the TOC to appear at the normal location regardless of the number of headings.
__TOC__	Forces the TOC to appear at the point where the magic word is inserted instead of the normal location.
__NOEDITSECTION__	Hides the section edit links beside headings.
__NEWSECTIONLINK__	Adds a link beside the "Edit" tab for adding a new section on a non-talk page.
__NONEWSECTIONLINK__	Removes the link beside the "Edit" tab on pages in talk namespaces.
__HIDDENCAT__	Used on a category page, hides the category from the lists of categories in its members and parent categories.
__EXPECTUNUSEDCATEGORY__	Used on a category page, removes the category from Special:UnusedCategories.
__DISAMBIG__	Identifies a disambiguation page.

Variables

Variables return information about the current page, wiki, or date. Their syntax is similar to templates.

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.

Word	Output	Description
{{CURRENTYEAR}}	2024	Year.
{{CURRENTMONTH}}	12	Month (zero-padded number).
{{CURRENTMONTH1}}	12	Month (unpadded number).
{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}	December	Month (name).
{{CURRENTMONTHABBREV}}	Dec	Month (abbreviation).
{{CURRENTDAY}}	14	Day of the month (unpadded number).
{{CURRENTDAY2}}	14	Day of the month (zero-padded number).
{{CURRENTDAYNAME}}	Saturday	Day of the week (name).
{{CURRENTTIME}}	21:04	Time (24-hour HH:mm format).

Technical metadata

Word	Output	Description
{{SITENAME}}	Bulbapedia	The wiki's site name.
{{SERVERNAME}}	bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net	Subdomain and domain name.
{{REVISIONDAY}}	9	Day latest revision to current page was made (unpadded number).
{{REVISIONDAY2}}	09	Day latest revision to current page was made (zero-padded number).
{{REVISIONMONTH}}	10	Month latest revision to current page was made (zero-padded number).
{{REVISIONMONTH1}}	10	Month latest revision to current page was made (unpadded number).
{{REVISIONYEAR}}	2024	Year latest revision to current page was made.
{{REVISIONUSER}}	4iamking	The username of the user who made the most recent edit to the page (or the current user when previewing an edit).

Statistics

Numbers returned by these variables normally contain commas but can return raw numbers with the ":R" flag (for example, {{NUMBEROFPAGES}} → 281,064 and {{NUMBEROFPAGES:R}} → 281064).

Word	Output	Description
{{NUMBEROFPAGES}}	281,064	Number of wiki pages.
{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}	55,128	Number of pages in content namespaces that qualify as articles.
{{NUMBEROFEDITS}}	4,213,096	Number of wiki edits.
{{NUMBEROFFILES}}	0	Number of uploaded files (only useful on Bulbagarden Archives).
{{NUMBEROFUSERS}}	370,209	Number of registered users.
{{NUMBEROFADMINS}}	32	Number of users in the sysop group.
{{NUMBEROFACTIVEUSERS}}	509	Number of active users, based on the criteria used in Special:Statistics.

Page modifiers

Word	Description
{{DISPLAYTITLE:title}}	Format the current page's title header. The value must be equivalent to the default title: only capitalization changes to certain parts of the title (not all), adding italics, and replacing spaces with underscores are allowed.
{{DEFAULTSORT:sortkey}}	Used for categorizing pages, sets a default category sort key. For example, if you put {{DEFAULTSORT:Underground, The}} at the end of The Underground, the page would be sorted under "U" by default in categories.

Page names

Word	Output	Description
{{FULLPAGENAME}}	Help:Magic words	Namespace and full page title (including all subpage levels).
{{PAGENAME}}	Magic words	Full page title (including all subpage levels) without the namespace.
{{BASEPAGENAME}}	Magic words	Page title of the page in the immediately superior subpage level without the namespace. For example, it would return Title/Foo on page Help:Title/Foo/Bar.
{{ROOTPAGENAME}}	Magic words	Name of the root of the current page. Would return Title on page Help:Title/Foo/Bar.
{{SUBPAGENAME}}	Magic words	The subpage title. Would return Bar on page Help:Title/Foo/Bar. If no subpage exists the value of {{PAGENAME}} is returned.
{{SUBJECTPAGENAME}}	Help:Magic words	Full page name of the associated subject (e.g. article or file). Useful on talk pages.
{{TALKPAGENAME}}	Help talk:Magic words	Full page name of the associated talk page.

Namespaces

Word	Output	Description
{{NAMESPACE}}	Help	Name of the page's namespace (except for main space).
{{NAMESPACENUMBER}}	12	ID of the page's namespace.
{{SUBJECTSPACE}}	Help	Name of the associated content namespace. Useful on talk pages.
{{TALKSPACE}}	Help talk	Name of the associated talk namespace.

Other

Word	Output	Description
{{!}}	|	Used to include a pipe character as part of a template argument or table cell contents.
{{=}}	=	Used to include an equal sign as part of a template argument or table cell contents.

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.

Parser functions can have an impact on system resources, and thus should be used sparingly, and only when strictly necessary. Typically, parser functions are only used in templates.

For details on available parser functions and how to use them, see:

• mw:Help:Magic words#Parser functions
• mw:Help:Extension:ParserFunctions
• mw:Extension:WikiSEO

See also

• mw:Help:Magic words

Help