Help:Variables

MediaWiki variables are strings of text that output 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.

Template:Hl2| Variable	Template:Hl2| Output	Template:Hl2| 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}}	1	Day of the month (unpadded number)
{{CURRENTDAY2}}	01	Day of the month (zero-padded number)
{{CURRENTDOW}}	5	Day of the week (unpadded number)
{{CURRENTDAYNAME}}	Friday	Day of the week (name)
Time
{{CURRENTTIME}}	03:32	Time (24-hour HH:mm format)
{{CURRENTHOUR}}	03	Hour (24-hour zero-padded number)
Other
{{CURRENTWEEK}}	44	Week (number)
{{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}}	20241101033256	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

Template:Hl2| Variable	Template:Hl2| Output	Template:Hl2| Description
{{SITENAME}}	PeformIQ Upgrade	Name of the wiki (Template:Mediawiki)
{{CONTENTLANGUAGE}}	en	Default interface language (Template:Mediawiki)
{{NUMBEROFPAGES}}	1,702	Number of wiki pages
{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}	696	Number of pages in main namespace
{{NUMBEROFFILES}}	219	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.

Template:Hl2| Variable	Template:Hl2| Output	Template:Hl2| Description
{{REVISIONID}}	1108	Unique ID
{{REVISIONDAY}}	10	Day edit was made (unpadded number)
{{REVISIONDAY2}}	10	Day edit was made (zero-padded number)
{{REVISIONMONTH}}	02	Month edit was made (unpadded number)
{{REVISIONYEAR}}	2008	Year edit was made
{{REVISIONTIMESTAMP}}	20080210164652	Timestamp as of time of edit

URL data

URLs

Template:Hl2| Variable	Template:Hl2| Output	Template:Hl2| Description
{{SERVER}}	https://performiq.com	domain URL (Template:Mediawiki)
{{SERVERNAME}}	performiq.com	domain name (Template:Mediawiki)
{{SCRIPTPATH}}	/kb	relative script path (Template:Mediawiki)
{{localurl:pagename}} {{localurl:pagename|query string}}	/kb/index.php/Pagename /kb/index.php?title=Pagename&query string	relative path to title

Page names

Template:Hl2| Variable	Template:Hl2| Output	Template:Hl2| Description
{{FULLPAGENAME}}	Help:Variables	Namespace and page title
{{BASEPAGENAME}}	Variables	Page title excluding the current subpage and without the Namespace prepended ("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

Template:Hl2| Variable	Template:Hl2| Output	Template:Hl2| 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:

Template:Hl2| Usage	Template:Hl2| 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}}	PeformIQ Upgrade
{{ns:5}} or {{ns:Project_talk}}	PeformIQ Upgrade 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 Template:Mediawiki.