Variable Modifiers

Check out our video tutorial on Variable Modifiers and applying multiple at once!

Most template variables can be modified for common formatting and output needs without requiring any plugins. For instance, making user-submitted content safe for use in a <meta> tag attribute, limiting to a certain number of characters, displaying currency, or as JSON to create structured data for SEO (search engine optimization). These modifiers apply to:

• All Channel Fields
• URL Segment Variables
• Embed Variables
• Layout Variables
• Template Route Variables
• Standard Global Variables
• User-defined Template Variables
• All add-ons that use native APIs for parsing variables in templates

Note: Some add-ons and components may have modifiers not listed here. For instance the File Fieldtype has its own file information-related modifiers. The modifiers listed here are just those universally available.

Modifiers syntax

The modifiers are being applied by adding the modifier name after the variable name, separated by a semicolon, e.g. var_name:trim.

It is possible to apply several modifiers at the same time by chaining those, e.g. var_name:trim:url_encode. The modifiers would be applied left to right, so in this case the variable’s content will first be trimmed and then URL-encoded.

To avoid conflicts in parameter names when applying several modifiers, the parameters can be prefixed with the modifier name followed by semicolon. E.g. {excerpt:limit characters='20'} could be written as {excerpt:limit limit:characters='20'}. This allows writing constructions such as {excerpt:limit:trim limit:characters='20' trim:characters='\n\r'}. A prefixed parameter has a higher precedence than a non-prefixed parameter.

Modifiers

:attr_safe

Makes content safe for use in an HTML attribute. It strips HTML tags, encodes special HTML characters, and can optionally limit the length of the content.

<meta name="description" content="{seo_descrip:attr_safe limit='150'}">

:censor

Censor naughty words, using the site’s Word Censorship settings.

{variable:censor}
{!-- Some ####### content with naughty words censored --}

:currency

Format a number as currency.

{cost:currency}
{!-- $142.73 --}

{cost:currency currency='EUR' locale='de_DE'}
{!-- 142,73 € --}

{cost:currency decimals='0'}
{!-- $399,000 --}

Note: For non-US locale support, the PHP intl extension must be installed. Thankfully the PHP intl extension is available by default, so your environment would have had to intentionally disabled it (why??) for it to be unavailable.

:decrypt

Decrypt the content.

{secret:decrypt}
{!-- No more secrets --}

:encrypt

Encrypt the content.

{secret:encrypt}
{!-- H8JwSqsqVYUCvYBUmKqaXjO4VzLsyj791dtim3EfJT8= --}

:form_prep

Make the content safe to use as the value of a form field.

<input name="myField" type="text" value="{excerpt:form_prep}">
{!-- <input name="myField" type="text" value="A &lt;em&gt;brief&lt;/em&gt; discussion about &quot;Wonko the Sane&quot;"> --}

:json

Encode the content for JSON output.

"headline": {title:json},
// "headline": "Greatest Crash in Wall Street\u2019s History",

:length

Outputs the length of the content in characters.

{excerpt:length}
{!-- 217 --}

:limit

Limits the content to the specified number of characters. Without preserve_words='n' may be fewer than the exact limit, as this retains whole words.

Note that all HTML formatting will be stripped out automatically before applying limit modifier.

{excerpt:limit characters='20'}
{!-- A discussion… --}

:number_format

Formats a number using typical options.

{volume:number_format decimals='2'}
{!-- 1,234.56 --}

:ordinal

Formats a number with its ordinal suffix.

{rank:ordinal}
{!-- 42nd --}

{rank:ordinal locale='es_ES'}
{!-- 42.º --}

Note: For non-US locale support, the PHP intl extension must be installed. Thankfully the PHP intl extension is available by default, so your environment would have had to intentionally disabled it (why??) for it to be unavailable.

:raw_content

Output the raw, unparsed content of the variable, for example as stored in the database with no typography variable interpolation. Useful for creating content export templates.

{checkbox:raw_content}
{!-- IL|OR|HI --}

:replace

Replace text within the content.

{content:replace find='vegetables' replace='pizza'}
{!-- You should eat pizza every day. --}

{full_name:replace find='/(.*?),\s*(.*)/' replace='$2 $1' regex='yes'}
{!-- John Doe (presuming {full_name} is "Doe, John") --}

{!-- Getting thumbnails from a Youtube URL --}
srcset="
    {src:replace find='/^.*(?:(?:youtu\.be\/|v\/|vi\/|u\/\w\/|embed\/)|(?:(?:watch)?\?v(?:i)?=|\&v(?:i)?=))([^#\&\?]*).*$/' replace='https://i.ytimg.com/vi/$1/default.jpg' regex='yes'} 120w,
    {src:replace find='/^.*(?:(?:youtu\.be\/|v\/|vi\/|u\/\w\/|embed\/)|(?:(?:watch)?\?v(?:i)?=|\&v(?:i)?=))([^#\&\?]*).*$/' replace='https://i.ytimg.com/vi/$1/mqdefault.jpg' regex='yes'} 320w,
    {src:replace find='/^.*(?:(?:youtu\.be\/|v\/|vi\/|u\/\w\/|embed\/)|(?:(?:watch)?\?v(?:i)?=|\&v(?:i)?=))([^#\&\?]*).*$/' replace='https://i.ytimg.com/vi/$1/hqdefault.jpg' regex='yes'} 480w
"

:rot13

Perform a ROT13 substitution cypher to the content.

<span class="spoiler" data-secret="{spoiler:attr_safe}">{content:rot13}</span>
{!-- <span class="spoiler" data-secret="He was dead the whole time!">Ur jnf qrnq gur jubyr gvzr!</span> --}

:spellout

{rank:spellout}
{!-- forty-two --}

{rank:spellout capitalize='ucfirst'}
{!-- Forty-two --}

{rank:spellout locale='de_DE'}
{!-- zwei­und­vierzig --}

:trim

Returns a string with whitespace stripped from its beginning and its end.

{if layout:header_image:trim}
    <style>
    .main-header-and-search-form {
        background-image: url('{layout:header_image:trim}');
    }
    </style>
{/if}

{hello:trim characters='Hdle'}
{!-- o Wor --}

:url

Normalize a URL to use in markup. Primarily to make sure it contains a valid protocol. For instance if {website} was www.example.com:

{website:url}
{!-- https://www.example.com/ --}

Note that it is best to use a URL field, so this is more useful for values coming from plugins or outside sources.

:url_decode

URL decode the contents.

<h1>Location: {segment_2:url_decode}</h1>
{!-- <h1>Location: New Zealand</h1> --}

:url_encode

URL encode the contents.

<a href="{path='view/{location:url_encode}'}">{location}</a>
{!-- <a href="https://example.com/view/New%20Zealand}">New Zealand</a> --}

:url_slug

Create a URL slug from the content.

{excerpt:url_slug}
{!-- a-phrase-with-words-from-the-stopwords-list --}

{excerpt:url_slug remove_stopwords='yes'}
{!-- phrase-words-stopwords-list --}

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