Module:String2

This module is rated as ready for general use. It has reached a mature form and is thought to be bug-free and ready for use wherever appropriate. It is ready to mention on help pages and other Wikipedia resources as an option for new users to learn. To reduce server load and bad output, it should be improved by sandbox testing rather than repeated trial-and-error editing.

The module String2 contains five case-related calls that convert strings to upper, lower, sentence or title case and two calls that are useful for working with substrings. There are two utility calls that strip leading zeros from padded numbers and transform text so that it is not interpreted as wikitext.

The upper function simply converts all characters to upper case.

The lower function simply converts all characters to lower case.

The title function capitalises the first letter of each word in the text, apart from a number of short words recommended by The U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual: a, an, the, at, by, for, in, of, on, to, up, and, as, but, or, and nor.

The sentence function finds the first letter and capitalises it, then renders the rest of the text in lower case. It works properly with text containing wiki-markup. Compare {{#invoke:String2|sentence|[[action game]]}} -> Action game with {{ucfirst:{{lc:[[action game]]}}}} -> action game. Piped wiki-links are handled as well:

• {{#invoke:String2|sentence|[[trimix (breathing gas)|trimix]]}} -> Trimix

So are lists:

• {{#invoke:String2 |sentence |{{hlist ||[[apples]] |[[pears]] |[[oranges]]}}}} →
  • Apples
  • pears
  • oranges

The ucfirst function is similar to sentence; it renders the first alphabetical character in upper case, but leaves the capitalisation of the rest of the text unaltered. This is useful if the text contains proper nouns, but it will not regularise sentences that are ALLCAPS, for example. It also works with text containing piped wiki-links and with html lists. label is an alias to this function for backward compatibility.(now obselete)

• posnq (position, no quotes) returns the numerical start position of the first occurrence of one piece of text ("match") inside another ("str").
• It returns nil if no match is found, or if either parameter is blank.
• It takes the text to be searched in as the first unnamed parameter, which is trimmed.
• It takes the text to match as the second unnamed parameter, which is trimmed and any double quotes " are stripped out. That allows spaces at the beginning or end of the match string to be included in a consistent manner.

The split function splits text at boundaries specified by separator and returns the chunk for the index idx (starting at 1). It can use positional parameters or named parameters (but these should not be mixed):

• {{#invoke:String2 |split |text |separator |index |true/false}}
• {{#invoke:String2 |split |txt=text |sep=separator |idx=index |plain=true/false}}

Any double quotes (") in the separator parameter are stripped out, which allows spaces and wikitext like ["[ to be passed. Use {{!}} for the pipe character |.

If the optional plain parameter is set to false / no / 0 then separator is treated as a Lua pattern. The default is plain=true, i.e. normal text matching.

The index parameter is optional; it defaults to the first chunk of text.

The Template:Stringsplit is a convenience wrapper for the split function.

The stripZeros functions finds the first number in a string of text and strips leading zeros, but retains a zero which is followed by a decimal point. For example: "0940" -> "940"; "Year: 0023" -> "Year: 23"; "00.12" -> "0.12"

The nowiki function ensures that a string of text is treated by the MediaWiki software as just a string, not code. It trims leading and trailing whitespace.

The val2percent functions scans through a string, passed as either the first unnamed parameter or |txt=, and converts each number it finds into a percentage, then returns the resulting string.

The one2a function scans through a string, passed as either the first unnamed parameter or |txt=, and converts each occurrence of 'one ' into either 'a ' or 'an ', then returns the resultant string.

The Template:One2a is a convenience wrapper for the one2a function.

• {{#invoke:String2 | upper |…}} - Shifts all characters to uppercase
• {{#invoke:String2 | lower |…}} - Shifts all characters to lowercase
• {{#invoke:String2 | sentence |…}} - Capitalizes the first character and shifts the rest to lowercase
  • Although similar to magic words' {{ucfirst:}} function, this call works even with piped wiki-links because it searches beyond leading brackets and other non-alphanumeric characters.
  • It now also recognises when it has an html list passed to it and capitalises the first alphabetic letter beyond the list item markup (<li>) and any piped links that may be there.
• {{#invoke:String2 | ucfirst |…}} - Capitalizes the first alphabetic character and leaves the rest unaltered
  • Works with piped wiki-links and html lists
• {{#invoke:String2 | title |…}} - Capitalizes all words, except for a, an, the, at, by, for, in, of, on, to, up, and, as, but, or, and nor.
• {{#invoke:String2 | stripZeros |…}} - Removes leading padding zeros from the first number it finds in the string
• {{#invoke:String2 | title |…}} - Renders the string as plain text without wikicode

These functions take one unnamed parameter comprising (or invoking as a string) the text to be manipulated:

• upper
• lower
• title
• sentence
• ucfirst

Template:Posnq is a convenience wrapper for the posnq function.

• {{Posnq |This is a piece of text to be searched |piece of }} → Fyrimynd:Posnq
• {{Posnq |This is a piece oftext to be searched |piece of }} → Fyrimynd:Posnq
• {{Posnq |This is a piece of text to be searched |"piece of "}} → Fyrimynd:Posnq
• {{Posnq |This is a piece oftext to be searched |"piece of "}} → Fyrimynd:Posnq

Template:Stringsplit is a convenience wrapper for the split function.

• {{Stringsplit |This is a piece of text to be split |" "}} → Fyrimynd:Stringsplit
• {{Stringsplit |This is a piece of text to be split |" "| 4}} → Fyrimynd:Stringsplit
• {{Stringsplit |This is a piece of text to be split |x| 2}} → Fyrimynd:Stringsplit

Modules may return strings with | as separators like this: {{#invoke:carousel | main | name = WPDogs | switchsecs = 5 }} → Script feilur: Onki sovorði modul "carousel".

• {{Stringsplit |{{#invoke:carousel | main | name = WPDogs | switchsecs = 5 }}|{{!}}| 2}} → Fyrimynd:Stringsplit

Lua patterns can allow splitting at classes of characters such as punctuation:

• {{Stringsplit |Apples, pears, oranges; Cats, dogs|"%p"| 2 |false}} → Fyrimynd:Stringsplit
• {{Stringsplit |Apples, pears, oranges; Cats, dogs|"%p"| 4 |false}} → Fyrimynd:Stringsplit

Or split on anything that isn't a letter (no is treated as false):

• {{Stringsplit |Apples pears oranges; Cats dogs|"%A+"| 4 |no}} → Fyrimynd:Stringsplit

Named parameters force the trimming of leading and trailing spaces in the parameters and are generally clearer when used:

• {{Stringsplit | txt=Apples pears oranges; Cats dogs | sep="%A+" | idx=3 | plain=false }} → Fyrimynd:Stringsplit

Template:One2a is a convenience wrapper for the one2a function.

Capitalisation is kept. Aimed for usage with {{Convert}}.

• {{one2a |One foot. One mile. One kilometer. One inch.One amp. one foot. one mile. one inch. Alone at last. Onely the lonely. ONE ounce. One monkey.}} →

Fyrimynd:One2a

• {{convert|1|ft|spell=on}} → eitt foot (null point trý null metres)
• {{one2a|{{convert|1|ft|spell=on}}}} → Fyrimynd:One2a
• {{convert|2.54|cm|0|disp=out|spell=on}} → eitt hundrað inches
• {{one2a|{{convert|2.54|cm|0|disp=out|spell=on}}}} → Fyrimynd:One2a

Module:String for the following functions:

• len
• sub
• sublength
• match
• pos
• str_find
• find
• replace
• rep

Other templates Fyrimynd:Case templates see also

local p = {}


p.upper = function(frame)
	local s = mw.text.trim(frame.args[1] or "")
	return string.upper(s)
end

p.lower = function(frame)
	local s = mw.text.trim(frame.args[1] or "")
	return string.lower(s)
end

p.sentence = function (frame )
	frame.args[1] = string.lower(frame.args[1])
	return p.ucfirst(frame)
end

p.ucfirst = function (frame )
	local s =  mw.text.trim( frame.args[1] or "" )
	local s1 = ""
	-- if it's a list chop off and (store as s1) everything up to the first <li>
	local lipos = mw.ustring.find(s, "<li>" )
	if lipos then
		s1 = mw.ustring.sub(s, 1, lipos + 3)
		s = mw.ustring.sub(s, lipos + 4)
	end
	-- s1 is either "" or the first part of the list markup, so we can continue
	-- and prepend s1 to the returned string
	local letterpos
	if mw.ustring.find(s, "^%[%[[^|]+|[^%]]+%]%]") then
		-- this is a piped wikilink, so we capitalise the text, not the pipe
		local _
		_, letterpos = mw.ustring.find(s, "|%A*%a") -- find the first letter after the pipe
	else
		letterpos = mw.ustring.find(s, '%a')
	end
	if letterpos then
		local first = mw.ustring.sub(s, 1, letterpos - 1)
		local letter = mw.ustring.sub(s, letterpos, letterpos)
		local rest = mw.ustring.sub(s, letterpos + 1)
		return s1 .. first .. mw.ustring.upper(letter) .. rest
	else
		return s1 .. s
	end
end

p.title = function (frame )
	-- http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/capitalization/rules-for-capitalization-in-titles.html
	-- recommended by The U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual:
	-- "Capitalize all words in titles of publications and documents,
	-- except a, an, the, at, by, for, in, of, on, to, up, and, as, but, or, and nor."
	local alwayslower = {['a'] = 1, ['an'] = 1, ['the'] = 1,
		['and'] = 1, ['but'] = 1, ['or'] = 1, ['for'] = 1,
		['nor'] = 1, ['on'] = 1, ['in'] = 1, ['at'] = 1, ['to'] = 1,
		['from'] = 1, ['by'] = 1, ['of'] = 1, ['up'] = 1 }
	local res = ''
	local s =  mw.text.trim( frame.args[1] or "" )
	local words = mw.text.split( s, " ")
	for i, s in ipairs(words) do
		s = string.lower( s )
		if( i > 1 and alwayslower[s] == 1) then
			-- leave in lowercase
		else
			s = mw.getContentLanguage():ucfirst(s)
		end
		words[i] = s
	end
	return table.concat(words, " ")
end

-- stripZeros finds the first number and strips leading zeros (apart from units)
-- e.g "0940" -> "940"; "Year: 0023" -> "Year: 23"; "00.12" -> "0.12"
p.stripZeros = function(frame)
	local s = mw.text.trim(frame.args[1] or "")
	local n = tonumber( string.match( s, "%d+" ) ) or ""
	s = string.gsub( s, "%d+", n, 1 )
	return s
end

-- nowiki ensures that a string of text is treated by the MediaWiki software as just a string
-- it takes an unnamed parameter and trims whitespace, then removes any wikicode
p.nowiki = function(frame)
	local str = mw.text.trim(frame.args[1] or "")
	return mw.text.nowiki(str)
end

-- posnq (position, no quotes) returns the numerical start position of the first occurrence
-- of one piece of text ("match") inside another ("str").
-- It returns nil if no match is found, or if either parameter is blank.
-- It takes the text to be searched in as the first unnamed parameter, which is trimmed.
-- It takes the text to match as the second unnamed parameter, which is trimmed and
-- any double quotes " are stripped out.
p.posnq = function(frame)
	local str = mw.text.trim(frame.args[1] or "")
	local match = mw.text.trim(frame.args[2] or ""):gsub('"', '')
	if  str == "" or match == "" then return nil end
	-- just take the start position
	local pos = str:find(match, 1, true)
	return pos
end

-- split splits text at boundaries specified by separator
-- and returns the chunk for the index idx (starting at 1)
-- #invoke:String2 |split |text |separator |index |true/false
-- #invoke:String2 |split |txt=text |sep=separator |idx=index |plain=true/false
-- if plain is false/no/0 then separator is treated as a Lua pattern - defaults to plain=true
p.split = function(frame)
	local args = frame.args
	if not(args[1] or args.txt) then args = frame:getParent().args end
	local txt = args[1] or args.txt or ""
	if txt == "" then return nil end
	local sep = (args[2] or args.sep or ""):gsub('"', '')
	local idx = tonumber(args[3] or args.idx) or 1
	local plain = (args[4] or args.plain or "true"):sub(1,1)
	plain = (plain ~= "f" and plain ~= "n" and plain ~= "0")
	local splittbl = mw.text.split( txt, sep, plain )
	if idx < 0 then idx = #splittbl + idx + 1 end
	return splittbl[idx]
end

-- val2percent scans through a string, passed as either the first unnamed parameter or |txt=
-- it converts each number it finds into a percentage and returns the resultant string.
p.val2percent = function(frame)
	local args = frame.args
	if not(args[1] or args.txt) then args = frame:getParent().args end
	local txt = mw.text.trim(args[1] or args.txt or "")
	if txt == "" then return nil end
	local function v2p (x)
		x = (tonumber(x) or 0) * 100
		if x == math.floor(x) then x = math.floor(x) end
		return x .. "%"
	end
	txt = txt:gsub("%d[%d%.]*", v2p) -- store just the string
	return txt
end

-- one2a scans through a string, passed as either the first unnamed parameter or |txt=
-- it converts each occurrence of 'one ' into either 'a ' or 'an ' and returns the resultant string.
p.one2a = function(frame)
	local args = frame.args
	if not(args[1] or args.txt) then args = frame:getParent().args end
	local txt = mw.text.trim(args[1] or args.txt or "")
	if txt == "" then return nil end
	txt = txt:gsub(" one ", " a "):gsub("^one", "a"):gsub("One ", "A "):gsub("a ([aeiou])", "an %1"):gsub("A ([aeiou])", "An %1")
	return txt
end


return p