Help:Variables

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MediaWiki variables are strings of text that output as information such as time, site details, or page names.

Parsing

The syntax of most variables is similar to templates, but capitalized to help avoid conflicts. If a template has the same name and case as a variable, the variable will be used. Usage of the template can be forced by adding the "msg:" modifier (for example, "{{msg:CURRENTYEAR}}").

Page-dependent variables will return data about the currently-viewed page, regardless of whether the variable is in the page code or a transcluded template.

Variables

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

Variable	Output	Description
Year
{{CURRENTYEAR}}	2024	Year
Month
{{CURRENTMONTH}}	11	Month (zero-padded number)
{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}	November	Month (name)
{{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}}	November	Month (genitive form)
{{CURRENTMONTHABBREV}}	Nov	Month (abbreviation)
Day
{{CURRENTDAY}}	22	Day of the month (unpadded number)
{{CURRENTDAY2}}	22	Day of the month (zero-padded number)
{{CURRENTDOW}}	5	Day of the week (unpadded number)
{{CURRENTDAYNAME}}	Friday	Day of the week (name)
Time
{{CURRENTTIME}}	05:43	Time (24-hour HH:mm format)
{{CURRENTHOUR}}	05	Hour (24-hour zero-padded number)
Other
{{CURRENTWEEK}}	47	Week (number)
{{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}}	20241122054343	ISO 8601 time stamp

The following variables do the same as the above, but using the site's local timezone instead of user preferences and UTC:

• {{LOCALYEAR}}
• {{LOCALMONTH}}
• {{LOCALMONTHNAME}}
• {{LOCALMONTHABBREV}}
• {{LOCALDAY}}
• {{LOCALDAY2}}
• {{LOCALDOW}}
• {{LOCALDAYNAME}}
• {{LOCALTIME}}
• {{LOCALHOUR}}
• {{LOCALWEEK}}
• {{LOCALTIMESTAMP}}

Statistics and technical details

Site

Variable	Output	Description
{{SITENAME}}	SacredWiki	Name of the wiki ($wgSitename)
{{CONTENTLANGUAGE}}	en	Default interface language ($wgLanguageCode)
{{NUMBEROFPAGES}}	24,981	Number of wiki pages
{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}	4,966	Number of pages in main namespace
{{NUMBEROFFILES}}	13,083	Number of uploaded files

Latest revision to a page

The following variables return data about the latest edit to the current page, even if viewing an older version of the page.

Variable	Output	Description
{{REVISIONID}}	21231	Unique ID
{{REVISIONDAY}}	28	Day edit was made (unpadded number)
{{REVISIONDAY2}}	28	Day edit was made (zero-padded number)
{{REVISIONMONTH}}	10	Month edit was made (unpadded number)
{{REVISIONYEAR}}	2008	Year edit was made
{{REVISIONTIMESTAMP}}	20081028202308	Timestamp as of time of edit

URL data

URLs

Variable	Output	Description
{{SERVER}}	https://www.sacredwiki.org	domain URL ($wgServer)
{{SERVERNAME}}	www.sacredwiki.org	domain name ($wgServerName)
{{SCRIPTPATH}}		relative script path ($wgScriptPath)
{{localurl:pagename}} {{localurl:pagename|query string}}	/index.php/Pagename /index.php?title=Pagename&query string	relative path to title

Page names

Variable	Output	Description
{{FULLPAGENAME}}	Help:Variables	Namespace and page title
{{BASEPAGENAME}}	Variables	The namespace and page title excluding the current subpage ("Title" on "Title/foo")
{{PAGENAME}}	Variables	Page title
{{SUBPAGENAME}}	Variables	The subpage title ("foo" on "Title/foo")
{{SUBJECTPAGENAME}}	Help:Variables	The title of the associated content page.
{{TALKPAGENAME}}	Help talk:Variables	The title of the associated talk page.

The following are URL-encoded equivalents:

• {{FULLPAGENAMEE}}
• {{PAGENAMEE}}
• {{BASEPAGENAMEE}}
• {{SUBPAGENAMEE}}
• {{SUBJECTPAGENAMEE}}
• {{TALKPAGENAMEE}}

Namespaces

Variable	Output	Description
{{NAMESPACE}}	Help	Namespace (name)
{{SUBJECTSPACE}}	Help	Name of the associated content namespace
{{TALKSPACE}}	Help talk	Name of the associated talk namespace

The following are URL-encoded equivalents:

• {{NAMESPACEE}}
• {{SUBJECTSPACEE}}
• {{TALKSPACEE}}

{{ns:}} returns the localized namespace name for that number of constant. The default values are:

Usage	Output
{{ns:-2}} or {{ns:Media}}	Media
{{ns:-1}} or {{ns:Special}}	Special
{{ns:0}} or {{ns:Main}}
{{ns:1}} or {{ns:Talk}}	Talk
{{ns:2}} or {{ns:User}}	User
{{ns:3}} or {{ns:User_talk}}	User talk
{{ns:4}} or {{ns:Project}}	SacredWiki
{{ns:5}} or {{ns:Project_talk}}	SacredWiki talk
{{ns:6}} or {{ns:Image}}	File
{{ns:7}} or {{ns:Image_talk}}	File talk
{{ns:8}} or {{ns:MediaWiki}}	MediaWiki
{{ns:9}} or {{ns:MediaWiki_talk}}	MediaWiki talk
{{ns:10}} or {{ns:Template}}	Template
{{ns:11}} or {{ns:Template_talk}}	Template talk
{{ns:12}} or {{ns:Help}}	Help
{{ns:13}} or {{ns:Help_talk}}	Help talk
{{ns:14}} or {{ns:Category}}	Category
{{ns:15}} or {{ns:Category_talk}}	Category talk

Custom variables

MediaWiki also supports custom variables defined as part of extensions or specific to a particular installation. For example, some installations might find it helpful to have a variable that identifies the name of the sponsoring organization or the portion of the wiki URL that precedes the title if it is liable to change or more complex than http://{{SERVERNAME}}.

For more information, please see Manual:Variables.

External links

Metawiki Help:Variable