Template:Var/doc

Usage

This template is to help facilitate the displaying of variable names (in mathematics, computer source code, wikimarkup in template documentation, metasyntactic variables, etc.) with the semantically correct <var>...</var> tags, which also renders the variable in italics, as is customary. This method is preferred to simply italicizing for many reasons, including accessibility, separation of presentation and content, semantic Web, and metadata; In XHTML and HTML, the <var> element has semantic meaning, while simple italicization does not. This template provides a tiny hint of kerning to compensate for the italicization and enhance readability.

"Variable" in this sense may include arbitrary or unknown names or terms, examples of human input, arithmetical variables in equations, etc. This template (and the underlying XHTML) are generally not used if MediaWiki's <math>...</math> tags (or any other stand-alone mathematical markup) are being used.

Examples

Example

{{var|username}}

outputs the following HTML:

<var>username</var>

which renders as:

username

Note that on the screen or in print, this renders as simple italicization, as does ​''username''​ (using pairs of apostrophes) or <i>username</i> (using HTML), yet it carries more semantic meaning than either of these methods.

At times, you may wish to use a serif font. This is especially true when attempting to render single-letter variables like "I" (upper-case "i") and "l" (lower-case "L"), since they are nearly indistinguishable (if at all). In such situations, use the {{varserif}} template instead of {{var}}, to make them more distinguishable, like these serif examples: I, l.

More examples

Markup	Renders as
The HTML code: {{block indent|{{tag|var|content=username}}}} renders as: {{block indent|{{var|username}}}}	The HTML code: <var>username</var> renders as: username
The commandline should read: {{samp|%}} {{kbd|1=ssh {{var|hostname}}}}<br />(where {{var|hostname}} is the IP address or ...)<br />If it is correct, press {{key press|Enter}}.	The commandline should read: % ssh hostname (where hostname is the IP address or ...) If it is correct, press ↵ Enter.
in this equation, let {{var|x}}{{=}}1 and {{var|y}}{{=}}120 ...	in this equation, let x=1 and y=120 ...
{{para|accessdate|{{var|todays_date}}}}	|accessdate=todays_date

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData documentation for the template used by the new VisualEditor.

Var

Marks text as an HTML variable

Template parameters

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
variable	1	no description	Line	required
class	class	no description	String	optional
ID	id	no description	String	optional
CSS style	style	no description	String	optional
language	lang	no description Example c++	String	optional
HTML title (hovertext)	title	no description	String	optional

See also

• {{mvar}} which makes the argument italic and formats as mathematics
• {{math}} which formats its argument as mathematics
• {{bigmath}}, the same as {{math}} but makes it bigger