Template:Var/doc

For mathematical variables, see Template:mvar.

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. Alternately, editors may use <var>...</var> tags directly in Wikitext to produce identical output.

The use of <var> or {{var}} 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.

Usage

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.

Examples

Wikitext	HTML	Renders as
{{var|username}}	<var>username</var>	username

Markup	Renders as
<var>username</var>	username
{{var|username}}	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 for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Var in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Var

Marks text as an HTML variable

Template parameters

This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
variable	1	Text to display	Line	required
CSS class	class	CSS classes to apply to the text. Separate classes with spaces.	String	optional
ID	id	HTML ID for the text, for customizing display and anchoring links	String	optional
Language tag	lang	An IETF BCP 47 language tag Example en-UK	Line	optional
CSS style	style	CSS styling for the text	String	optional
HTML title (hovertext)	title	Plain text displayed on hover	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