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Variable Modifiers¶

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. 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

Available variable modifiers:

:attr_safe
:censor
:currency
:decrypt
:encrypt
:form_prep
:json
:length
:limit
:ordinal
:raw_content
:replace
:rot13
:spellout
:url
:url_decode
:url_encode
:url_slug

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.

: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'}">

Parameters:

Parameters:	double_encode= (default: ‘no’) Whether or not to double encode already-encoded entities, e.g. should `"` become `&quot;`? end_char= (default: `…`) character to append when a limit terminates the content limit= number of characters to limit to (retains whole words) unicode_punctuation= (default: ‘yes’) Whether HTML entities for ’, ‘, ”, “, —, …, or non-breaking spaces should be decoded to the normal unicode characters.

double_encode= (default: ‘no’) Whether or not to double encode already-encoded entities, e.g. should " become &quot;?
end_char= (default: …) character to append when a limit terminates the content
limit= number of characters to limit to (retains whole words)
unicode_punctuation= (default: ‘yes’) Whether HTML entities for ’, ‘, ”, “, —, …, or non-breaking spaces should be decoded to the normal unicode characters.

: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 --}

Parameters:	currency= (default: USD) International currency code decimals= (default, standard for ICU locale) Decimal precision locale= (default: en_US.UTF-8) The ICU locale ID

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 --}

Parameters:	encode= (default: ‘yes’) Base64-decode the content (necessary for safe transport, e.g. submitted in a form) key= Custom encryption key to use. Allows you to potentially share encrypted data with another party without having to compromise your ExpressionEngine installation’s primary encryption key.

:encrypt ¶

Encrypt the content.

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

Parameters:	encode= (default: ‘yes’) Base64-encode the content (necessary for safe transport, e.g. submitted in a form) key= Custom encryption key to use. Allows you to potentially share encrypted data with another party without having to compromise your ExpressionEngine installation’s primary encryption key.

: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. May be fewer than the exact limit, as this retains whole words.

{excerpt:limit characters='20'}
{!-- A discussion&#8230; --}

Parameters:	characters= (default 500) Number of characters to limit to end_char= (default `…`) character to append when a limit terminates the content

:ordinal ¶

Formats a number with its ordinal suffix.

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

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

Parameters:	locale= (default: en_US.UTF-8) The ICU locale ID

Note

: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='the cloud' replace='my butt'}
{!-- ...enabling you to easily store mass volumes of data in my butt. --}

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

Parameters:	case_sensitive= (default: ‘yes’) Whether the Find pattern is treated as case-sensitive. Has no impact if the `regex=` parameter is used, since the regex pattern will define case-sensitivity. find= The text to search for regex= (default: ‘no’) Whether the Find pattern should be handled as a regular expression replace= The text to replace the Find pattern with

: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 --}

Parameters:	capitalize= (default: none) One of `ucfirst` (uppercase first letter) or `ucwords` (uppercase first letter of each word) locale= (default: en_US.UTF-8) The ICU locale ID

: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}
{!-- http://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> --}

Parameters:	plus_encoded_spaces= (default: ‘no’) - whether or not to encode spaces as `+` instead of `%20`

: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> --}

Parameters:	plus_encoded_spaces= (default: ‘no’) - whether or not to encode spaces as `+` instead of `%20`

: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 --}

Parameters:	lowercase= (default: ‘yes’) Whether to force a lowercase URL slug remove_stopwords= (default: ‘no’) Whether to remove common words (obeys site configuration system/user/config/stopwords.php) separator= (default: URL title separator, typically a dash) The character to use as a word separator

ExpressionEngine® User Guide

Variable Modifiers¶