This is the {{str ≠ len}} meta-template.
It helps other templates check if a string is "not equal" vs. "equal" to a given length.
Note! For most usage cases it might be better to use {{str ≥ len}}. (See the see also section below.)
Usage
This template takes 3 to 4 unnamed parameters.
Here is how to check if the string "abcde" is exactly 5 characters:
{{str ≠ len | abcde | 5
| Not equal.
| Equal.
}}
Which returns this:
- Equal.
Templates have a problem to handle parameter data that contains equal signs "=
". But that is easily solved by using numbered parameters. Here we check if the string "ab=cde" is exactly 100 characters:
{{str ≠ len
| 1 = ab=cde
| 2 = 100
| 3 = Not equal, "!=".
| 4 = Equal, "=".
}}
Which returns this:
- Not equal, "!=".
It probably is a good habit to always use the numbered parameters, since you might not know beforehand exactly how the data will look that your template will feed to this meta-template.
Parameters
Detailed parameter explanation:
{{str ≠ len
| 1 = A string
| 2 = A length
| 3 = Data to return/render when "not equally long".
| 4 = Data to return/render when "equally long".
}}
Empty or undefined strings are considered to be of 0 length.
Length values below 0 are considered to be 0.
Technical details
This template would be equivalent to templates named {{str != len}} or {{str == len}}, but we can't use those template names since they don't work well in MediaWiki.
Even though this is a string handling template it uses efficient code. (While some of the other string handling templates are probably so heavy on the servers that we perhaps should not use them.)
Templates have problems to handle parameter data that contains pipes "|
", unless the pipe is inside another template {{name|param1}}
or inside a piped link [[Help:Template|help]]
. Thus templates can not handle wikitables as input unless you escape them by using the {{!}} template. This makes it hard to use wikitables as parameters to templates. Instead the usual solution is to use "HTML wikimarkup" for the table code, which is more robust.
See also
String-handling templates |
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By counting | {{str mid}} | To return a substring specified by position and length.
| {{trunc}} | To trim down to a specified number of characters.
| {{str left}} | To trim down to a specified number of characters or duplicate the string to a specified number.
| {{str crop}} | To crop a specified number of characters off the end.
| {{chop head and tail}} | To crop a specified number of characters off the beginning and end.
|
| {{str right}} | To trim the first specified number of characters.
| {{str rightc}} | To return a number of characters from the end, returns a parameter if the string is empty.
| {{str rightmost}} | To trim down to the last specified number of characters.
| {{str sub old}} | To trim down to a specified number, starting at a given number from the left.
| {{str sub new}} | Select a substr based on starting and ending index.
| {{str index}} | Returns a given character from a string, but not accented letters.
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By checking | |
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Dedicated | {{unlink}} | Removes wikilink brackets (wikicode).
| {{remove file prefix}} | Removes "File:" (or "Image:") from filenames.
| {{PAGENAMEBASE}} | To trim off any parenthesis text at the end of a string (disambiguation).
| {{title disambig text}} | Returns text in parenthesis at the end of a string (disambiguation).
|
| {{WikiProjectbasename}} | Removes "WikiProject" from a pagename.
| {{remove unranked}} | Removes the string "unranked_" from the left of a string (taxonomy).
| {{ship prefix}} | Returns the length of a ship's name prefix, if listed (ship names).
| {{title year}} | Returns the 4-digit year from a pagename, if any.
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Insertion, replacement and length |
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{{strloc insert}} | Inserts a string at character location strloc, or appends if strloc<=0.
| {{loop}} | Repeat character string a specified number of times.
| {{repeat}} | Repeat a string a specified number of times.
| {{replace}} | Returns the string, after replacing all occurrences of a specified string with another string.
| {{str rep}} | Returns the string, after replacing the first occurrence of a specified string with another string.
| {{str len}} | Returns a string's length.
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{{iflenge}} | [if len]gth [g]reater than or [e]qual to.
| {{str ≥ len}} | To check if a string is "longer or equally long" or "shorter" than a given length.
| {{str ≤ len}} | To check if a string is "shorter or equally long" or "longer" than a given length.
| {{str ≠ len}} | To check if a string is "not equal" or "equal" to a given length.
| {{str ≤ ≥ len}} | To check if a string is "shorter", "equal", or "longer" than a given length.
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Analysis and technical |
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{{str endswith}} | To check if a string ends with a given string.
| {{str find}} {{strfind short}} | Returns the numerical location of a given string in a string.
| {{str find0}} | Zero-based substring search.
| {{str sub find}} | Searches a substring in a string at the given offset.
| {{str letter}} | Returns the number of letters that begin a string.
| {{str number}} | Returns the number of numbers that begin a string.
| {{str gtr str}} | Compares two strings for alphabetical order, and returns a value accordingly.
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