Template:Excerpt

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This template is used on approximately 6,400 pages and changes may be widely noticed. Test changes in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

This template uses Lua:

Module:Excerpt

This template is used for reusing parts of pages in other pages. This practice has the following advantages:

Reduces maintenance by avoiding duplicate content that must be updated multiple times
Improves content quality by encouraging editors to merge related content, rather than having multiple versions in various stages of development
Fosters collaboration by channeling contributors into one place, rather than working in parallel
Promotes rapid development of articles, especially those written in summary style

It also has the following disadvantages:

Impediment to editing as you have to go to the sub article to make changes to the main article (though excerpts include a hatnote with an [edit] button to edit the excerpted article in one click)
Reduces accuracy as an excerpt of one article is not always a perfect fit into a new article (but see #Refinement using inclusion control)
Decreases visibility as changes to the sub article will not appear on the watchlist of editors of the main article (see phab:T55525)

This template extends the capabilities of the built-in normal transclusion and labeled section transclusion.

Usage

Basic usage

{{Excerpt|Page title}} — Transclude the lead section (example)
{{Excerpt|Page title|Section title}} — Transclude a specific section, excluding any subsections (example)

Parameters

1 or article or page — Required. Name of the article or page to transclude. By default the lead section is transcluded (example). If the page contains an infobox, the image and caption of the infobox will be transcluded (unless files=0 is set). Also, templates listed at Module:Excerpt/config will not be transcluded (unless requested explicitly with |templates=, see below).
2 or section or fragment — Name of the section to transclude (example) or of the <section> tag to transclude (example). Must be marked with <section begin=Name of the fragment/> and <section end=Name of the fragment/> in the transcluded page. Notice that this template provides other ways of targeting specific fragments of a page without having to resort to section tags.
only — Elements to transclude. By default all elements are transcluded (except templates blacklisted at Module:Excerpt/config)
- only=file — Transclude only the first file
- only=files — Transclude only files
- only=list — Transclude only the first list
- only=lists — Transclude only lists
- only=table — Transclude only the first table
- only=tables — Transclude only tables (example)
- only=template — Transclude only the first template
- only=templates — Transclude only templates
- only=paragraph — Transclude only the first paragraph
- only=paragraphs — Transclude only paragraphs
paragraphs — Paragraphs to transclude. By default all paragraphs are transcluded.
- paragraphs=0 — Transclude no paragraphs
- paragraphs=1 — Transclude the first paragraph
- paragraphs=2 — Transclude the second paragraph
- paragraphs=1,3 — Transclude the first and third paragraphs
- paragraphs=1-3 — Transclude the first, second and third paragraphs
- paragraphs=1-3,5 — Transclude the first, second, third and fifth paragraphs
- paragraphs=-1 — Transclude all paragraphs except the first
- paragraphs=-2 — Transclude all paragraphs except the second
- paragraphs=-1,3 — Transclude all paragraphs except the first and third
- paragraphs=-1-3 — Transclude all paragraphs except the first, second and third
- paragraphs=-1-3,5 — Transclude all paragraphs except the first, second, third and fifth
lists — Lists to transclude. By default all lists are transcluded. Same syntax as when transcluding paragraphs.
files — Files to transclude. By default all files are transcluded. Same syntax as when transcluding paragraphs, but also:
- files=A.jpg — Transclude the file named 'A.jpg'
- files=A.jpg, B.png, C.gif — Transclude the files named 'A.jpg', 'B.png' and 'C.gif'
- files=.+%.png — Transclude all PNG files
- files=-A.jpg — Transclude all files except the one named 'A.jpg'
- files=-A.jpg, B.png, C.gif — Transclude all files except the ones named 'A.jpg', 'B.png' and 'C.gif'
- files=-.+%.png — Transclude all non-PNG files
tables — Tables to transclude. By default all tables are transcluded. Same syntax as when transcluding paragraphs, but also:
- tables=Stats2020 — Transclude the table with id 'Stats2020'
- tables=Stats2020, Stats2019, Stats2018 — Transclude the tables with ids 'Stats2020', 'Stats2019' and 'Stats2018'
- tables=-Stats2020 — Transclude all tables except the one with id 'Stats2020'
- tables=-Stats2020, Stats2019, Stats2018 — Transclude all tables except the ones with ids 'Stats2020', 'Stats2019' and 'Stats2018'
templates — Templates to transclude. By default all templates are transcluded except those blacklisted at Module:Excerpt/config. Using a hyphen before a comma-delimited list of templates adds those templates to the blacklist.
- templates=-Ocean — Add the template 'Ocean' to the blacklist
- templates=-Ocean, Nature — Add the templates 'Ocean' and 'Nature' to the blacklist
- templates=Infobox person — Ignore the blacklist and transclude the template 'Infobox person'
- templates=Infobox person, Ocean — Ignore the blacklist and transclude the templates 'Infobox person' and 'Ocean'
- templates=.* — Ignore the blacklist and transclude all templates
this — Change the initial text of the hatnote. For example, if the transcluded content is a gallery, you can set this=This gallery is so that the hatnote reads "This gallery is an excerpt from..." (example).
displaytitle — Change the text of the link in the hatnote. For example, add italics, subscripts, etc.
hat=no — Hide the hatnote "This section is an excerpt from..."
bold=yes — Preserve bold text.
links=no — Remove all wikilinks.
quote=yes — Wrap the excerpt with <blockquote> tags.
inline=yes — Remove the hatnote and <div> tags around the excerpt, to use it inside other text.
onlyfreefiles=no — Enables transclusion of non-free files.
briefdates=yes — Abbreviate birth and death information to (YYYY-YYYY) format
references=no — Remove all references.
subsections=yes — Include subsections of the transcluded section. Notice that if the transclusion is done from a section level 3, and the transcluded subsections are level 3 too, then the transcluded subsections will show with the same hierarchy as the transcluding section, which is probably not desirable, so use with caution.

Replacing Template:Main

How to replace a section for an excerpt.

Sections are often summaries of more precise subpages (generally linked with Template:Main). Sometimes it's convenient to replace the content of such sections for excerpts of the subpages (after merging any valuable content of the section into the subpage). In such cases, an efficient way to proceed is:

Open the section in one tab and the subpage in another.
Edit both.
Copy the text of the section and paste it below the lead section of the subpage.
Delete repeated content and adjust using common sense.
Save the changes in the subpage with an edit summary like: Bring content from [[Page]].
Back to the section, delete all content and replace it for an excerpt of the subpage.
Save the changes in the section with an edit summary like: Move content to [[Subpage]] and leave an excerpt.

Refinement using inclusion control

Sometimes, a passage will almost fit for a transclusion, but not quite. In these cases, you can edit the source page to add <noinclude>...</noinclude> tags around content you don't want in the excerpt and <includeonly>...</includeonly> tags around content you want only in the excerpt.

For instance, the page COVID-19 misinformation begins The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in misinformation.... However, when excerpting this lead to the misinformation section of COVID-19 pandemic, we don't need to specify which pandemic we're referring to. Therefore, the code The <noinclude>[[COVID-19 pandemic]]</noinclude><includeonly>pandemic</includeonly> has resulted in [[misinformation]] can be used at the misinformation page, so that it will appear at the pandemic page as The pandemic has resulted in misinformation....

For pages with a high volume of edits, it may be a good idea to leave a hidden comment explaining why the tags are there, so that no one will be tempted to remove them.

Please note that when the </noinclude> tag is wrapped into a new line, a character next to it would be interpreted as a line beginning. This can lead to some formatting problems. For example, when a </noinclude> at line beginning is succeeded by a whitespace character, the page engine would translate this as a leading space that renders the subsequent paragraph in code block and monospaced font with preserved formatting. For this reason, no spaces should separate the </noinclude> tag from the text it precedes.

Compared to #section

For simple cases of transcluding sections of articles, the {{#section}}, {{#section-x}}, and {{#section-h}} (abbreviated {{#lst}}, {{#lstx}}, and {{#lsth}})) parser functions can be used instead of this template. {{#lsth:article|fragmentname}} will transclude the section of "article" with the header "fragmentname", and {{#lsth:article}} will transclude the lead section of "article". Excerpting only specific paragraphs can be done by marking up the source article with <section begin=fragmentname/>...<section end=fragmentname/> tags and using {{#lst:article|fragmentname}} to transclude those fragments, which is equivalent to using the |fragment=fragmentname parameter with this template. {{#lsth:article|fragmentname}} can also be used to transclude everything but those fragments.

The text will not be trimmed of excess whitespace, there will not be a header (equivalent to |hat=no, and all files, templates, tables, references, and subsections will be included unless the source article is marked up with <section begin=fragmentname/>...<section end=fragmentname/>, <noinclude>...</noinclude>, or <onlyinclude>...</onlyinclude> tags. Self links will appear in bold.

Excerpt trees

When a very general article uses excerpts from more specific articles, which in turn use excerpts from even more specific articles, then a tree structure emerges, called an "Excerpt tree".

Here you can navigate the main excerpt trees on the English Wikipedia. It's useful for editors interested in expanding or improving them. To navigate the trees, click the following button^(S):

See the excerpt trees

Template data

This template is used for transcluding part of an article into another article.

Template parameters[Edit template data]
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Article	`1` `article` `page`	Name of the article or page to transclude Example Science	Page name	required
Section	`2` `section` `fragment`	Name of the section or <section> tag to transclude Example History	String	optional
Only	`only`	Transclude only this kind of element Example table	String	optional
Paragraphs	`paragraphs` `paragraph`	Paragraphs to transclude Example 1-3,5	String	optional
Files	`files` `file`	Files to transclude Default 1 Example 1-3,5	String	optional
Tables	`tables` `table`	Tables to transclude Example Stats2020	String	optional
Lists	`lists` `list`	Lists to transclude Example 1	String	optional
Templates	`templates` `template`	Templates to transclude Example Infobox person	String	optional
References	`references`	Whether to transclude the references Example no	Boolean	optional
Subsections	`subsections`	Whether to transclude the subsections of the requested section Example yes	Boolean	optional
Hatnote	`hat`	Whether to include the hatnote Default yes Example no	Boolean	optional
Bold	`bold`	Whether to preserve bold text Default yes Example no	Boolean	optional
Wikilinks	`links`	Whether to preserve wikilinks Default yes Example no	Boolean	optional
Quote	`quote`	Wraps the excerpt in <blockquote> tags Default no Example yes	Boolean	optional
This	`this`	Change the initial text of the hatnote Example This gallery is	String	optional
Display title	`displaytitle`	Change the text of the link in the hatnote	String	optional
Inline	`inline`	Remove the hatnote and <div> tags around the excerpt, to use it inside other text Default no Example yes	Boolean	optional
Only free files	`onlyfreefiles`	Enable transclusion of non-free files Default no Example yes	Boolean	optional
Brief dates	`briefdates`	Abbreviate birth and death information to (YYYY-YYYY) format Default no Example yes	Boolean	optional
Class	`class`	Additional CSS class Example noprint	String	optional

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Excerpt/doc.
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox and testcases pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.