Template:!/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:!.
It contains usage information, categories and other informational content that is best arranged so that it is not part of the original template page, such as in many cases, examples of how to use the template in question. Documentation subpages were developed to reduce server demands, or to protect the code version of widely used templates.

Usage

This is the {{!}} meta-template. Its use is analogous to an escape_character.

This is an auxiliary template allowing the encoding of "|" within template parameters, because the pipe character is normally interpreted as a separator. This template is necessary if the character is used in wiki table syntax, or if the parameter is automatically wikilinked and you wish to use a pipe to specify different link text from the target page name. In other cases it is better to use "|".

This template cannot be used for putting the character as text in a wiki table; in that case, again, "|" can be used.

Note that no special template is needed for "!" (exclamation mark).

This is a high-risk template, and it usually cannot be substituted (see conditions for substring on the section below).

Substitution

It is possible to substitute {{!}} only if an unescaped "|" works as expected, i.e. after substituting the template containing {{!}}, or after eliminating an #if containing {{!}}.

A simple example

The following template code for {{Quotation}} using an ordinary pipe character,

• {{Quotation|It is not possible to use an ordinary pipe character | in template parameters, as it will be interpreted as a separator.|[[Help:Template#Usage hints and workarounds]]}}

produces:

It is not possible to use an ordinary pipe character {{#if: in template parameters, as it will be interpreted as a separator. |

— in template parameters, as it will be interpreted as a separator.{{#if:Help:Template#Usage hints and workarounds |, Help:Template#Usage hints and workarounds }}{{#if: |, {{{4}}} }}

}}

whereas this code using the {{!}} meta-template,

• {{Quotation|It is not possible to use an ordinary pipe character {{!}} in template parameters, as it will be interpreted as a separator.|[[Help:Template#Usage hints and workarounds]]}}

produces:

It is not possible to use an ordinary pipe character | in template parameters, as it will be interpreted as a separator. {{#if:Help:Template#Usage hints and workarounds |

— Help:Template#Usage hints and workarounds{{#if: |, {{{3}}} }}{{#if: |, {{{4}}} }}

}}

See also

• {{!!}} creates ||
• {{!-}} creates |-
• {{-!}} creates  |
• {{'}} and related
• Wikipedia:wikipedia:Conditional tables
• {{pipe}} - Note that this one looks like {{{{#if:!|!| tlf|...}}{{#ifeq:x|| |{{{2}}} | }}{{#ifeq:x|| |{{{3}}} | }}{{#ifeq:x|| |{{{4}}} | }}{{#ifeq:x|| |{{{5}}} | }}{{#ifeq:x|| |{{{6}}} | }}{{#ifeq:x|| |{{{7}}} | }}{{#ifeq:x|| |{{{8}}} | }}{{#ifeq:x|| |{{{9}}} | }}}} but has a very different meaning for the MediaWiki parser and thus has different functionality.
• {{(}} creates {
• {{((}} creates {{
• {{)}} creates }
• {{))}} creates }}
• {{!(}} creates [
• {{)!}} creates ]
• {{(!}} creates {|
• {{!)}} creates |}
• {{=}} creates =
• {{Bar box}} — since {{Bar}} redirects here