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== Preserving whitespace in submitted parameter value ==

What's the best way to have this input:
:<code><nowiki>{{tag|!--|content= comment }}</nowiki></code>
output as (with the whitespace):
:{{tag|!--|content=&nbsp;comment&nbsp;}}
instead of killing the whitespace and doing:
:{{tag|!--|content= comment }}
as is presently the case?  

Yes, I know, we can do:
:<code><nowiki>{{tag|!--|content=&amp;nbsp;comment&amp;nbsp;}}</nowiki></code>
but that's not the question. 

My immediate guess would be that we already have a module capable of this, but that there's probably also an old-school way to do it, too. My {{em|fear}} is that leading/trailing whitespace is killed by the parser upon transmission (instead of after receipt and initial processing and before re-output), i.e. that the desired output isn't possible without hard-coding spaces in the template, or in the input. <span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family:'Trebuchet MS'"> — [[User:SMcCandlish|'''SMcCandlish''']] [[User talk:SMcCandlish|☏]] [[Special:Contributions/SMcCandlish|¢]] 😼 </span> 01:53, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
:You could modify {{tlx|tag}}?  Barring that, perhaps something like this:
::<code><nowiki>{{#invoke:String|replace|source={{tag|!--|content=comment}}|pattern=&amp;lt;!%-%-%s*(.-)%s*%-%-&amp;gt;|replace=&amp;lt;!--&amp;#32;%1&amp;#32;--&amp;gt;|plain=false}}</nowiki></code>
:::{{#invoke:String|replace|source={{tag|!--|content=comment}}|pattern=&lt;!%-%-%s*(.-)%s*%-%-&gt;|replace=&lt;!--&#32;%1&#32;--&gt;|plain=false}}
:—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 03:08, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
::{{Ping|Trappist the monk}} I meant that {{tlx|tag}} should be able to tell the difference between {{nowrap|<code><nowiki>{{tag|!--|content= comment }}</nowiki></code>}} and {{nowrap|<code><nowiki>{{tag|!--|content=comment}}</nowiki></code>}} with output matching the input. <span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family:'Trebuchet MS'"> — [[User:SMcCandlish|'''SMcCandlish''']] [[User talk:SMcCandlish|☏]] [[Special:Contributions/SMcCandlish|¢]] 😼 </span> 05:37, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
:Re the parser, your fear is well founded because the value of any parameter set with <code>=</code> has leading and trailing whitespace removed. That applies to templates and modules. The traditional workaround is to use <code>|content=&amp;#32;comment&amp;#32;</code> for the input which generates something equivalent to a space before and after. To handle a variety of input you would need code such as that from Trappist. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 03:32, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
::Yeah, we can't do that hard-coding of the space in the template, because <code><nowiki>{{tag|!--|content=comment}}</nowiki></code> should produce {{nowrap|{{tag|!--|content=comment}}}} not {{nowrap|{{tag|!--|content=&nbsp;comment&nbsp;}}}}. <span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family:'Trebuchet MS'"> — [[User:SMcCandlish|'''SMcCandlish''']] [[User talk:SMcCandlish|☏]] [[Special:Contributions/SMcCandlish|¢]] 😼 </span> 05:37, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
:Weirdly, {{tlx|tlx}} preserves {{em|some}} space. With {{nowrap|<code><nowiki>{{tlx|abbr|foo|bar}}</nowiki></code>}} you get {{nowrap|{{tlx|abbr|foo|bar}}}}, but with {{nowrap|<code><nowiki>{{tlx|abbr |foo|bar}}</nowiki></code>}} you get {{nowrap|{{tlx|abbr |foo|bar}}}}. But it doesn't work consistently on all the parameters: {{nowrap|<code><nowiki>{{tlx| abbr | foo | bar }}</nowiki></code>}} gives {{nowrap|{{tlx| abbr | foo | bar }}}}. <span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family:'Trebuchet MS'"> — [[User:SMcCandlish|'''SMcCandlish''']] [[User talk:SMcCandlish|☏]] [[Special:Contributions/SMcCandlish|¢]] 😼 </span> 05:43, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
::It is documented somewhere that numbered parameters (those without <code>=</code>) are not trimmed, whereas named parameters (those with <code>=</code>) are. I have done some experiments. Assuming numbered parameters <code>{{nowrap|<nowiki>| abc | def | ghi </nowiki>}}</code> the results are:
<pre>
({{{1}}}+{{{2}}}+{{{3}}}) → ( abc + def + ghi )
({{#if: abc | abc }}) → (abc)
({{#if:{{{1|}}}|{{{1}}}}}+{{#if:{{{2|}}}|{{{2}}}}}+{{#if:{{{3|}}}|{{{3}}}}}) → (abc+def+ghi)
({{#if:{{{1|}}}|&amp;#124;{{{1}}}}}{{#if:{{{2|}}}|&amp;#124;{{{2}}}}}{{#if:{{{3|}}}|&amp;#124;{{{3}}}}}) → (| abc| def| ghi)
</pre>
::That is, <code>#if</code> is doing something funky and inconsistent with spaces. I didn't bother setting up a reproducible experiment but if one were available the next step would be [[WP:VPT]]. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 07:57, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
::: {{tl|if}} exists to preserve that whitespace.  [[User:Pppery|&#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery]] ([[User talk:Pppery|talk]]) 12:09, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
::::{{code|#if}} removes (trims) outer spaces for all parameters (named and unnamed), and consistently so. {{tl|Trim}}} uses this feature.
::::Demo lines 2 and 3 by Johnuniq above show this effect. Line 4 still has the prefixed space, because by the addition of a character (&amp;#124;), the prefixed space has become an internal space and so is not affected by trimming. 
::::{{tlx|tlx}} shows spaces with parameter 1 only because that is the only parameter not #if-ed in code.
::::This saves us in situations with #ifeq, because the logic should not depend on spaces added in code:
::::<code><nowiki>{{#ifeq: {{{1|}}} |{{{1|}}}|a|b}}</nowiki></code> best be equal to <code><nowiki>{{#ifeq:{{{1|}}}|{{{1|}}}|a|b}}</nowiki></code>. -[[User:DePiep|DePiep]] ([[User talk:DePiep|talk]]) 11:58, 8 July 2018 (UTC)
:::::Thanks, I was confused but see now that it is consistent. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 22:52, 8 July 2018 (UTC)

== Need help with module to replace [[Template:NYC bus link]] and [[Template:LI bus link]] ==

Hi, I'm trying to write a module named [[Module:NYC bus link]], which will replace [[Template:NYC bus link]] (and later, [[Template:LI bus link]]).  Currently, the NYC bus link templates creates comma-separated lists of links to multiple NYC bus routes, linking to pages with suffixes of "(New York City bus)". This will work for NYC bus routes with various prefixes ''excluding'' "N", e.g. the code {{code|<nowiki>{{NYC bus link|M60|Q44}}</nowiki>}} will produce "{{NYC bus link|M60|Q44}}". The LI bus link template does the same thing with suffixes of "(Long Island bus)". This will work for any NYC-area bus route with the prefix "N", e.g. the code {{code|<nowiki>{{LI bus link|N22|N22A}}</nowiki>}} will produce "{{LI bus link|N22|N22A}}". I have tried to put code in [[Module:Sandbox/Epicgenius/NYC bus link]], but I don't know Lua.

However, both templates only allow up to 20 links. I want to extend that to an infinite number of links. Since I have never written a Lua template before, I was wondering if someone could give me advice on how I could write this module. Thanks in advance. [[User:Epicgenius|epicgenius]] ([[User talk:Epicgenius|talk]]) 21:48, 8 July 2018 (UTC)
:Like this?
::<code><nowiki>{{#invoke:Sandbox/Epicgenius/NYC bus link|getLink|city=NYC|M60|Q44}}</nowiki></code>
:::{{#invoke:Sandbox/Epicgenius/NYC bus link|getLink|city=NYC|M60|Q44}}
::<code><nowiki>{{#invoke:Sandbox/Epicgenius/NYC bus link|getLink|city=LI|N22|N22A}}</nowiki></code>
:::{{#invoke:Sandbox/Epicgenius/NYC bus link|getLink|city=LI|N22|N22A}}
:—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 22:17, 8 July 2018 (UTC)
::{{re|Trappist the monk}} Yes, that's exactly what I was looking for. Thank you. [[User:Epicgenius|epicgenius]] ([[User talk:Epicgenius|talk]]) 22:19, 8 July 2018 (UTC)
:::The above is mindless; it should be improved to accept any case for {{para|city}}: nyC, Li, etc; it should be improved to do something sensible when given a nonsensical city abbreviation.
:::—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 22:21, 8 July 2018 (UTC)
::::Definitely. I just needed this template to replace {{tl|NYC bus link}} and {{tl|LI bus link}} for the time being. More cities could be added if necessary. [[User:Epicgenius|epicgenius]] ([[User talk:Epicgenius|talk]]) 22:24, 8 July 2018 (UTC)
== Ebola epidemy / lua error on ln.wiki ==

Hello, someone with IP copied medicall infoboxes from fr.wiki to ln.wiki to emprove the article about Ebola virus. Unfortunately, there are a lot of lua errors in the infobox. See here: https://ln.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokono_ya_Ebola 
Can this be fixed? This is quiet urgent, as the article about Ebola is written by a medical doctor an in the lingala speaking area there is once again a Ebola epidemy. --[[User:Bombo|Bombo]] ([[User talk:Bombo|talk]]) 00:39, 24 May 2018 (UTC)
:@[[User:Bombo|Bombo]]: The immediate problem is that [[:ln:Module:Wikidata]] does not have a <code>formatStatements</code> function. [[Module:Wikidata]] mentions that function is implemented at ruwiki but is not in the enwiki version. The fundamental problem is that a consistent set of templates/modules are needed. Editing [[:ln:Bokono ya Ebola]] and looking under "Templates used on this page" shows what is being used and what might need to be updated for a consistent set. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 00:58, 24 May 2018 (UTC)
:@Bombo: The page with errors is apparently using templates/modules from frwiki which are not used at enwiki so asking at frwiki might be better if you do not want to switch to the enwiki system.
:@[[User:Doc James|Doc James]]: You have probably helped to translate [[Ebola virus disease]] in various places. Do you have an example that might be used as a model to fix the errors at [[:ln:Bokono ya Ebola]]? [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 01:03, 24 May 2018 (UTC)
::I no nothing about how to get Lua to work. [[User:RexxS]] might? [[User:CFCF]] installed the medical infobox in hundreds of languages. I do not know if they did ln.
::[[User:Doc James|<span style="color:#0000f1">'''Doc James'''</span>]] ([[User talk:Doc James|talk]] · [[Special:Contributions/Doc James|contribs]] · [[Special:EmailUser/Doc James|email]]) 01:10, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

:::Ah here we go [[:ln:Template:Infobox medical condition]] [[User:Doc James|<span style="color:#0000f1">'''Doc James'''</span>]] ([[User talk:Doc James|talk]] · [[Special:Contributions/Doc James|contribs]] · [[Special:EmailUser/Doc James|email]]) 01:11, 24 May 2018 (UTC)
::::Better [https://ln.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokono_ya_Ebola] [[User:Doc James|<span style="color:#0000f1">'''Doc James'''</span>]] ([[User talk:Doc James|talk]] · [[Special:Contributions/Doc James|contribs]] · [[Special:EmailUser/Doc James|email]]) 01:12, 24 May 2018 (UTC)
:::::Brilliant, thanks! I tweaked your link to the infobox CFCF set up in 2015. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 01:23, 24 May 2018 (UTC)
::Matando malámu, thank you very much! [[User:RexxS]], [[User:CFCF]], [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]], [[User:Doc James|<span style="color:#0000f1">'''Doc James'''</span>]] --[[User:Bombo|Bombo]] ([[User talk:Bombo|talk]]) 13:43, 11 July 2018 (UTC)
== Idea ==

Would it be a good idea to create a "For every numbered parameter, do X" with X being specified as a parameter to the module (aka an extension of [[Module:For nowiki]], except directly invoked)? This seems like it would obsolete a lot of pre-existing lua modules and make it easier to make templates not have arbitrary limits.  [[User:Pppery|&#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery]] ([[User talk:Pppery|talk]]) 01:47, 29 June 2018 (UTC)
: {{re|Pppery}} Isn't this basically [[Module:Separated entries]]? [[User:Jc86035|Jc86035]] ([[User talk:Jc86035|talk]]) 02:07, 29 June 2018 (UTC)
:: No, because that modules returns output, whereas my proposed module expands Wikitext. To give an example, one could implement {{tl|Anchor}}, which currently uses its own lua module, as <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:NAME|NAME|<nowiki>{{#tag:span|id={{{1}}}}}</nowiki></nowiki><nowiki>}}</nowiki></code>. (NAME, of course, would be replaced with the proper module name) [[User:Pppery|&#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery]] ([[User talk:Pppery|talk]]) 02:10, 29 June 2018 (UTC)
::: {{re|Pppery}} I think this is a good idea, although maybe you could work it into the existing module (maybe in a <code>template</code> function). [[User:Jc86035|Jc86035]] ([[User talk:Jc86035|talk]]) 02:31, 29 June 2018 (UTC)
:::: Which module is "the existing module" ([[Module:Separated entries]], [[Module:For nowiki]], or something else)?.  [[User:Pppery|&#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery]] ([[User talk:Pppery|talk]]) 02:32, 29 June 2018 (UTC)
::::: {{re|Pppery}} Sorry, I meant [[Module:For nowiki]]. [[User:Jc86035|Jc86035]] ([[User talk:Jc86035|talk]]) 04:10, 29 June 2018 (UTC)
:I like the idea of the intended results, however it gets done. <span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family:'Trebuchet MS'"> — [[User:SMcCandlish|'''SMcCandlish''']] [[User talk:SMcCandlish|☏]] [[Special:Contributions/SMcCandlish|¢]] 😼 </span> 02:54, 29 June 2018 (UTC)
:There's some chatter on a task related to TemplateData ([[:phab:T54582]]) that maybe the "infinite parameter" [[software design pattern|pattern]] might be an [[anti-pattern]]. I'll leave that for others to think about. --[[User:Izno|Izno]] ([[User talk:Izno|talk]]) 03:45, 29 June 2018 (UTC)
:: It's more "there was some chatter 4–5 years ago". As for the proposal here, I note that passing wikitext through <code>frame:preprocess()</code> will likely be slower than processing data more specifically and avoiding that. [[User:Anomie|Anomie]][[User talk:Anomie|⚔]] 12:31, 29 June 2018 (UTC)
::: Has that thinking changed and no-one has commented to that effect on the task? (I personally am interested in TemplateData supporting infinite parameters, but that doesn't drive task consensus or implementation. :) --[[User:Izno|Izno]] ([[User talk:Izno|talk]]) 12:52, 29 June 2018 (UTC)
:::: It's not clear how much that thinking was established in the first place. And letting people continue to proliferate it for 4 years doesn't help the case. [[User:Anomie|Anomie]][[User talk:Anomie|⚔]] 13:01, 29 June 2018 (UTC)
::::: {{re|Izno|Anomie}} I personally prefer {{tl|hlist}} (unlimited parameters) to {{tl|flatlist}} (div wrapper) purely because it doesn't take up so much vertical space in the wikitext editor. I was aware this sort of thing created TemplateData issues but I didn't think anyone would actually care about it. Since {{u|Pppery}}'s proposed module function would mainly be replacing other modules which already contribute to this anti-pattern, T54582 is probably not much of a concern here. [[User:Jc86035|Jc86035]] ([[User talk:Jc86035|talk]]) 21:41, 29 June 2018 (UTC)
::::::this idea (or rather, and extended version of it) was implemented in hewiki in [[:he:Module:תבנית חוזרת]]. instead of "doing something" with every numerical (unnamed) parameter, you give it a prefix, say, "game_". the module then will collect all parameters of the form game_1, game_2, game_77, and apply some common behavior - most likely pass their value to some other template (also passed as parameter to this module). it was written by [[User:ערן]] - he may want to expand, and maybe correct any error i made describing the module. i'm not sure if the module supports "naked" prefix, which will do what the OP suggested, but even if it doesn't, it should not be that hard to teach it to perform this trick. the whole module is some 50 lines long, so it should not be that hard to read, understand, and modify if you want to spin your own derivative. peace - [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש (aka kipod)]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|talk]]) 05:49, 30 June 2018 (UTC)
:::::::That's how [[Module:Release timeline]] does it. [[Module:Citation/CS1]] does it quite a bit differently. --[[User:Izno|Izno]] ([[User talk:Izno|talk]]) 14:29, 30 June 2018 (UTC)
: {{ping|Izno|קיפודנחש|Anomie|Jc86035|SMcCandlish}} I believe I've implemented this in [[Module:For nowiki/sandbox]], and converted [[Template:Anchor/sandbox]] to wikitext as a trivial example. What do you think?  [[User:Pppery|&#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery]] ([[User talk:Pppery|talk]]) 16:51, 17 July 2018 (UTC)
:: {{re|Pppery}} I think this could be very useful, although for {{tl|Anchor/sandbox}} maybe a standard span tag might be better than using the parser function. [[User:Jc86035|Jc86035]] ([[User talk:Jc86035|talk]]) 17:13, 17 July 2018 (UTC)
::: I wasn't able to get that to work, since the {{tag|nowiki}} tags were escaping the < and > in the code. Perhaps I need to borrow some code from [[Module:Demo]] to handle that.  [[User:Pppery|&#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery]] ([[User talk:Pppery|talk]]) 17:14, 17 July 2018 (UTC)
nitpick: your doLoop func looks like so:
<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
local function doLoop(frame, args, code, sep, offset, argstosub)
	local result = ""
	code = mw.text.unstripNoWiki(code)
	for i, value in ipairs(args) do
		if i > offset + 1 then
			result = result .. sep
		end
		if i > offset then
			argstosub["i"] = i - offset
			argstosub["1"] = value
			local actualCode = code:gsub("{{{([^{}|]*)|?[^{}]*}}}", argstosub)
			result = result .. frame:preprocess(actualCode)
		end
	end
	return result
end
</syntaxhighlight>
this means you call frame:preprocess() N times, concatenating the result. this is bad form: you want to minimize concatenation, and even more, you want to minimize calls to preprocess. it would be better to prepare everything, and call preprocess once:
<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
-- this outline gets rid of "offset" (just b/c i did not understand what you are trying to do with it... - does not mean it should not be there)
local function doLoop(frame, args, code, sep, argstosub)
	local result = {}
	code = mw.text.unstripNoWiki(code)
	for _, value in ipairs(args) do
		table.insert(result, code:gsub("{{{([^{}|]*)|?[^{}]*}}}", value)) -- collect <whatever> in "result" table
	end
	return frame:preprocess(table.concat(result, sep)) -- call preprocess only once, at the end; use table.concat() instead of concatenating yourself
end
</syntaxhighlight>
note that this is just an outline, not pretending to be correct, and completely botches the notion of "offset" (which i do not understand). i guess if you want to use this mode, you'll have to inject it back somewhere. my main point is, there's no advantage to calling "preprocess" separately for each item - build the whole !@#$%^ thing, and call preprocess() once, for the whole lot. peace - [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש (aka kipod)]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|talk]]) 17:43, 17 July 2018 (UTC)
: Calling preprocess multiple times actually seems better to me, because it syncs better with [[Module:For loop]], and because it isolates each input from the next one, which makes semantically more sense. In any case, all of that code was inherited from {{u|Petr Matas}}, who must have thought there was some reason to do it that way rather than concatenating the code.  [[User:Pppery|&#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery]] ([[User talk:Pppery|talk]]) 17:57, 17 July 2018 (UTC)
:: Yes, I had isolation of inputs on mind. Note that in ordinary template transclusion a template is expanded in isolation as well. I would expect the cost of the preprocess() call to be comparable to the template tranclusion, which would be fine for me, but it is just a guess. Concatenating before preprocess() is a possible optimization, but are the potential problems worth it? <span style="font-family:Segoe Script">[[User:Petr Matas|Petr Matas]]</span> 18:56, 17 July 2018 (UTC)
:::it is very much possible my comment was misdirected. the source of it was the explanation of preprocess() in the documentation ([[mw:Extension:Scribunto/Lua reference manual#frame:preprocess]]): it says something like 
<div style="border:solid black 1px; margin-left:5em;">
This expands wikitext in the context of the frame, i.e. templates, parser functions, and parameters such as <code><nowiki>{{{1}}}</nowiki></code> are expanded. Certain special tags ....(skipping)


...If you are expanding a single template, use <code>frame:expandTemplate()</code> instead of trying to construct a wikitext string to pass to this method. It's faster and less prone to error if the arguments contain pipe characters or other wikimarkup.


If you are expanding a single parser function, use <code>frame:callParserFunction()</code> for the same reasons.
</div>
:::to me, it reads: preprocess() is for processing large and ugly chunks of wikitext (and is not cheap, relatively speaking). with this in mind, my understanding is that it's better to call it once, with the whole enchilada, rather than inside the loop. if one cares about "isolation" and cleanliness, one should probably resort to frame:expandTemplate(). peace - [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש (aka kipod)]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|talk]]) 20:09, 17 July 2018 (UTC)
:::: No template exists to be expanded in this case.  [[User:Pppery|&#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery]] ([[User talk:Pppery|talk]]) 23:30, 17 July 2018 (UTC)
Ok, I've synced the sandbox of [[Module:For nowiki]], so this is now live.  <br/><big> <em> And here comes the end of many modules! </em> </big> <br/>  [[User:Pppery|&#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery]] ([[User talk:Pppery|talk]]) 23:30, 17 July 2018 (UTC)

I wonder how many of the ~1000 modules (excluding /data, /doc, /sandbox, /testcases, [[Module:Sandbox]], and a few examples of modules whose subpages don't follow that format) can be replaced by this.  [[User:Pppery|&#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery]] ([[User talk:Pppery|talk]]) 03:36, 18 July 2018 (UTC)
==Date & Wikidata help==
I wish to explore how Lua imports dates from Wikidata. I'm interested in testing edge cases, like hears at the edge of a century, years BC, and years with more than 4 digits. I have experience [[Module:Zodiac date|one Lua module]] and have a Lua textbook, but could use some help, so I don't have to find and wander through reams of Lua/Wikidata documentation for one simple task.

I want to put a date in the Wikidata Sandbox (Q4115189)‎. Then I want to view a page in my userspace and see the date that has been imported from Lua. I'd appreciate any help.

Also, in places like infoboxes, are dates usually used "raw", or are there certain functions that are usually used to make them look more palatable? [[User:Jc3s5h|Jc3s5h]] ([[User talk:Jc3s5h|talk]]) 20:36, 17 July 2018 (UTC)
:
: {{re|Jc3s5h}} In Wikidata, data of type "time" are stored as timestamps that look like "+2018-07-17T00:00:00Z" along with a precision which can be from a day to a billion years. The year in the datestamp now has a minimum of 4 digits, but may have more. The month and day may be "00" if the precision means their value is not significant.
: In [[Module:WikidataIB]], which is intended for use in infoboxes, we also have to deal with preferences for "dmy" vs "mdy" and for "BC/AD" vs "BCE/CE", because different articles will use different preferences. The wikibase client offers a method <code>mw.wikibase.entity:formatPropertyValues</code> that returns a string that looks like "1 August 30 BCE" for the stored timestamp value "-0030-08-01T00:00:00Z". That doesn't cope with ranks, but might be useful at some point, so the code in WikidataIB first converts each timestamp into the recognisable dMy/BCE format, then passes that into a routine that deals with dmy/mdy and BC/BCE preferences. It doesn't presently cope with years that have more than four digits, but that's not difficult to patch with a regex. I've left it for now because every date with a 5 digit year that I've come across so far has been a typo, so I find it useful to flag up. YMMV.
: If you're dealing with Wikidata, you'll need to cope with timestamps like "+1872-00-00T00:00:00Z", which is how the geniuses over there decided to store "1872 (precision year)". The standard libraries treat that as the day before 1872-01-01, which is 1871-12-31, so of course the year turns out wrong.
: Please feel free to re-use as much of the code in that module as you find useful. I've tried to annotate as much of it as I could. Let me know if I can help any further. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 23:10, 17 July 2018 (UTC)
::I think I need to look at a higher level view. For example, could I create a simple infobox in my user space, or are there presumptions in place that looks at the Wikidata item that corresponds to the article the infobox appears in, so maybe the extraction can be worked with is in an article that has a corresponding Wikidata item. If that obstacle does not exist, can you suggest a simple infobox with a date that I could instantiate in my user space? [[User:Jc3s5h|Jc3s5h]] ([[User talk:Jc3s5h|talk]]) 01:01, 18 July 2018 (UTC)
::: {{re|Jc3s5h}} Is this related to the issue with Wikibase storing "20th century" as 2000-00-00 by default? [[User:Jc86035|Jc86035]] ([[User talk:Jc86035|talk]]) 07:01, 18 July 2018 (UTC)
::::There are a number of ways to store information into the Wikibase repository. There is the interactive user interface, a bot, Quickstatements, etc. The only one I personally have used is the interactive user interface. With that, you can enter the date in several formats, like January 1, 2050, then manually setting the precision to "century". Looking at the diff in a place like the Wikidata sandbox  (QQ4115189) you see it stores whatever date you provided and whatever precision you provided. But if you entered, for example "January 1, 2100" the interactive user interface will display it as "21.century" when it really should be grouped with the other years in the 2100-2199 range.
::::I did some experimenting with the interactive user interface and found that I could enter "2100" with a precision of century and it would store it as "+2100-00-00T00:00:00Z" with precision 7. [[User:Jc3s5h|Jc3s5h]] ([[User talk:Jc3s5h|talk]]) 11:52, 18 July 2018 (UTC)
::::: You are not limited to retrieving dates from within the linked article. Here are some {{q|P569}}:
:::::* For {{q|Q151973}}: <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:WikidataIB |getValue |P569 |qid=Q151973 |fwd=ALL |osd=no}}</nowiki></code> → {{#invoke:WikidataIB |getValue |P569 |qid=Q151973 |fwd=ALL |osd=no}}
:::::* For {{q|Q1817}}: <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:WikidataIB |getValue |P569 |qid=Q1817 |fwd=ALL |osd=no}}</nowiki></code> → {{#invoke:WikidataIB |getValue |P569 |qid=Q1817 |fwd=ALL |osd=no}}
:::::* For {{q|Q123150}}: <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:WikidataIB |getValue |P569 |qid=Q123150 |fwd=ALL |osd=no}}</nowiki></code> → {{#invoke:WikidataIB |getValue |P569 |qid=Q123150|fwd=ALL |osd=no}}
::::: If you want to see how the data is actually stored on Wikidata:
:::::* In {{q|Q1817}}: <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:WikidataIB |examine |P569 |qid=Q1817}}</nowiki></code> →
{{#invoke:WikidataIB |examine |P569 |qid=Q1817}}
::::: Century years are controversial. Because there was no year zero, the First Century started in year 1 and hence ended in year 100; the Second Century from 101 to 200, and so on. The Second Millennium technically started on 1 January 2001 for the same reason. However some folks will disagree with that, so you can't please everyone. Either 2100 is the last year of the 21st Century, or the first year of the 22nd Century according to taste. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 13:09, 18 July 2018 (UTC)
::::::Thanks very much; in the last several hours I've been trying to figure out how to use #invoke in an ordinary page rather than in a module (which was totally off-track) or a template. I'd figured out Wikidata, but not WikidataIB. I can get started without having to write any Lua myself. If we figure out what to do with some of the dates, I might want to try some sandbox changes to the WikidataIB code later on. Can you suggest how to set up a simple test environment?
::::::As for the substance of your date questions, I need some time to digest it and some other stuff to do today. [[User:Jc3s5h|Jc3s5h]] ([[User talk:Jc3s5h|talk]]) 13:32, 18 July 2018 (UTC)
::::::: I keep "test cases" for WikidataIB in [[Module talk:WikidataIB/testing]] for want of a better place and the same tests for [[Module:WikidataIB/sandbox]] at [[Module talk:WikidataIB/sandbox/testing]]. They should be useful for seeing examples of what can be done with the module. Feel free to add more sections or use your own user space as a test environment. When you want to try amending code, there are at least three sandboxes: [[Module:WikidataIB/sandbox]], [[Module:WikidataIB/sandbox1]], and [[Module:WikidataIB/sandbox2]]. They are not used much lately, so you can experiment as much as you like in those without disturbing any articles (they may need to be synchronised with the main module by copy-paste). --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 16:00, 18 July 2018 (UTC)
== Can't get require() working ==

In [[Module:track gauge/sandbox]] I want to add [[Module:Preview warning]], but I can't get it working. Can someone take a look? The preview message should appear in this situation in preview:
: {{Track gauge/sandbox|9999 mm}}
-[[User:DePiep|DePiep]] ([[User talk:DePiep|talk]]) 11:35, 8 July 2018 (UTC)
:: This has nothing to do with require, but rather with [[Module:Preview warning]] (sidenote: which I've just nominated for deletion as unnecessary module forking), which is coded to only accept a frame, rather than a string.  [[User:Pppery|&#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery]] ([[User talk:Pppery|talk]]) 11:51, 8 July 2018 (UTC)
:::I said "require" to indicate  it is an internal module call, not an #invoke. Anyway, I see the original code [[Module:If preview]] also needs a frame not an argument. Is there a workaround for this? - [[User:DePiep|DePiep]] ([[User talk:DePiep|talk]]) 12:06, 8 July 2018 (UTC)
::::Solved. (Hardcoded module core code). - [[User:DePiep|DePiep]] ([[User talk:DePiep|talk]]) 12:23, 8 July 2018 (UTC)
::::: {{re|DePiep}} In general, a solution can usually be constructed by writing the desired code to be a local ("private") function, something like:
:::::* <code>local _myfunc = function( param1, param2 )</code>
::::: and then creating a "public" function which acts as a wrapper to the local function:
:::::* <code>p.myfunc = function( frame )</code>
:::::* <code>return _myfunc( frame.args[1], frame.args[2] )</code>
::::: Obviously, you tailor the parameter(s} to what the call needs (or pass the entire table of frame.args). That allows you to include the module code in another module without having to use a frame object to call it. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 14:42, 8 July 2018 (UTC)
::::::I see, will use this a next time. thx. - [[User:DePiep|DePiep]] ([[User talk:DePiep|talk]]) 14:56, 8 July 2018 (UTC)
:::::::not sure what [[user:RexxS]] meant when discussing "public" and "private" functions, so allow me to clarify: 
:::::::modules can export functions to be used by templates. such functions take a single argument of type "frame", and by convention is also called "frame", and return a string. modules can also export any other function, to be used by other modules. such functions can take any number of parameters, of any type, including scalars, tables, and functions. the same module can export both types, e.g., [[Module:String]] exports template function "replace", used by calling <nowiki>{{#invoke:String|replace| .. parameters}}</nowiki>, and it also exports _escapePattern(), to be consumed by other modules, as in <syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
local escaped = require('Module:String')._escapePattern(unescaped_string)
-- or, if you want to use it multiple times, like so:
local str = require('Module:String')
local escaped = str._escapePattern(unescaped_string)
</syntaxhighlight>so, in essence, both replace() and _escapePattern() are "public", but it's a different type of public... (granted, even the "template" functions can be called by other modules, but this is usually not a good practice, except the case where the caller simply passes the "frame" received from a "real" template) 
:::::::peace - [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש (aka kipod)]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|talk]]) 19:34, 12 July 2018 (UTC)
::::::::
:::::::: Sorry if I was unclear. The idea of "public" and "private" functions became important concepts for object-oriented programming, where code would make certain functions available externally ("public") and others would not be accessible from external code ("private"). Those concepts were commonly used in languages like C++ and Java. In Scribunto, as kipod says, a Lua module can return a table (often called p) of functions that are available to the #invoke: call. Whereas <code>require()</code> effectively transcludes an entire module, so all of its code becomes available to the calling module. I tend to think of those functions available to the #invoke: as "public" and all of ones that are not as "private". Of course, there are lots of ways of looking at programming, so I apologise if my mindset introduced any confusion. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 22:31, 12 July 2018 (UTC)
:::::::::{{re|RexxS}} - you were not "unclear" - you are simply wrong. in scribuntu, after calling <code> x = require('Module:MyModule')</code> the value of x is _exactly_ whatever the module returns, which by convention, is a single table (which in enwiki is usually called "p"). none of the functions in the module which are not explicitly returned are accessible to the requirer. peace - [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש (aka kipod)]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|talk]]) 23:21, 17 July 2018 (UTC)
:::::::::: Unless they're global.  [[User:Pppery|&#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery]] ([[User talk:Pppery|talk]]) 23:23, 17 July 2018 (UTC)
::::::::::: {{re|קיפודנחש}} Sorry, but your understanding or reading of what I wrote is not correct. You can see the differences in documentation of 'require' between Scribunto and Lua 5.1: [[:mw:Extension:Scribunto/Lua_reference_manual#require]] and http://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/manual.html#pdf-require - it's interesting to observe what is meant by "Loads the specified module." Unless something odd happens, you will find that all of the code in the loaded module is available (but not directly accessible) to the calling module. You are correct that the module's local functions are not ''directly'' callable from the calling module, but their code is available to all of the exported functions that makes use of them. Look at the example I gave above. 
::::::::::: [Edit]: Okay, I can see where I was misleading you. Yes, you still have to have a "wrapper" like <code>p._myfunc = function( param1, param2 )</code> to export a non-frame version of the local function.  --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 23:54, 17 July 2018 (UTC)
::::::::::::{{re|RexxS}} you were not "misleading me" - you simply made some wrong statements. in scribuntu (which, i guess is different than standard lua, and definitely different than many other frameworks such as node, go, php, .net etc.), you can't simply require a module and then access it's functions. here is the execrpt from the documentation explaining this:
<div style="border:solid 1px black;margin-left:12em;">
Note that every required module is loaded in its own sandboxed environment, so it cannot export global variables as is sometimes done in Lua 5.1. Instead, everything that the module wishes to export should be included in the table returned by the module.
</div>
::::::::::::as i tried to explain above. ({{re|Pppery}} - as you can see, there is no such thing as "globals" your module can export. it can only export a single  table, that's returned both to #invoke and to require().) peace - [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש (aka kipod)]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|talk]]) 16:05, 18 July 2018 (UTC)
::::::::::::: I'm not sure if you're being deliberately obtuse, or just don't understand English. The original question was effectively "how do I make use of a public function that takes a frame as its argument?" The answer I gave was to rewrite the function as a local function with non-frame arguments and use a public function as a wrapper to call the local function. That makes the '''code''' (not the call) of the local function available to the external call. Which part of that don't you understand? I can see that only giving an example that exported a public frame-based function (for #invoke) could have been supplemented by a near identical example of exporting a public non-frame-based function (for use in another module), but I guess I assumed that most folks reading here would be smart enough to figure that one out for themselves. Perhaps I was wrong. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 16:37, 18 July 2018 (UTC)
::::::::::::::you can call me names, and question my ability to understand english - i don't mind. 
::::::::::::::you wrote {{Quote|require() effectively transcludes an entire module, so all of its code becomes available to the calling module.}} 
::::::::::::::this is simply wrong (it may be correct in "standard" lua, but is wrong in scribuntu). all the code of the required module '''is not''' available to the calling module - the only thing available is the single table returned by the required module. i understand you have difficulty admitting to a simple mistake - this is not a unique trait, and very common amongst humans. [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש (aka kipod)]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|talk]]) 21:00, 18 July 2018 (UTC)
::::::::::::::: That's nonsense. You just don't seem to understand how require works in Scribuntu. I did indeed write "{{tq|require() effectively transcludes an entire module, so all of its code becomes available to the calling module}}" and that is correct no matter how many times you deny it. I can simply demonstrate the accuracy of what I wrote. Look at [[Module:WikidataIB/sandbox]]. There's a piece of code at lines 202-254 that takes a date and applies the users' preferences for dmy/mdy and bc/bce, returning a string. That's a local function called "format_Date". At lines 1367-1378 there are two public wrapper functions, one to allow #invoke access to the code, and the other to allow another module access to the code. When the module is loaded via require(), all of the code in the local function between lines 202-254 is available to any calling module through the wrapper function <code>_formatDate(datetime, dateformat, bc)</code>. When the module is #invoked, all of the code in the local function between lines 202-254 is available to any page via the wrapper function <code>formatDate(frame)</code>. Anybody can verify the truth of that, and that's what I described in my original reply above. Think about it this way: when a module is loaded through require, its entire code is loaded as if it were a "class" within the calling module, so the scope of any private objects inside that class is solely within that class, but public methods exposed by the class can be used to make all of the code inside it available. The technique I describe works, and I can use it to make any part of the code in any module available, so I can't see how you get the notion that it's somehow "wrong". --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 22:26, 18 July 2018 (UTC)

I don't know what the manual's "cannot export global variables" refers to. While it is very bad idea to use globals, they do in fact work as can be seen in a test I just set up: [[Module:Sandbox/Johnuniq/testpre|main]] + [[Module:Sandbox/Johnuniq/temp|required]] + [[Module talk:Sandbox/Johnuniq/testpre|results]]. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 01:02, 19 July 2018 (UTC)
:let me explain what "can't export" means: your [[Module:Sandbox/Johnuniq/temp|required]] contains 2 functions. "square" and "cube". it returns a table that contains cube. anything in the returned table is available to the requirer, and anything else isn't, so your main() can use r.cube(). what RexxS wrote above is that requiring the module is akin to "transcluding" it, and all the functions in "temp" (including square() ) are available to the caller. i think RexxS thinks that in order for a function to be available it needs some kind of "wrapper" magic, which is plain silly. his sandbox contains the following superstitious segment:
<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
p._formatDate = function(datetime, dateformat, bc)
	return format_Date(datetime, dateformat, bc)
end
</syntaxhighlight>
:there is no "wrapper" magic, and the above code is just silly. all you need in order to make format_Date() available to the requirer, is to add it to the returned table, like so: <syntaxhighlight inline lang="lua">p._formatDate = format_Date</syntaxhighlight>. it is possible he does not fully comprehend how require works in scribunto: calling require() by itself (i.e., without assigning or using the return value) has zero effect. the return value of require() is exactly the value of the table returned by the module. this table can contain functions, scalars, other tables, and whatever you wish. nothing in the required module except the returned table is exposed to the reuirer. there is no "wrapper" magic - only the returned table. talking about "classes", "private", "public" is just confusing yourself with metaphors that do not belong to scribuntu. it is very simple: when you call require(), it returns exactly one table - the one returned by the module (which someone in enwiki decided needs to be called "p"). 
:as a side, i personally think this pattern used in enwiki (creating an empty table at the beginning of the module, and accumulation values to it throughout the module, and at the bottom writing "return p"), is bad, and make it less clear and less readable. it is better to use the pattern (as in  [[Module:Sandbox/Johnuniq/temp]]) of returning, at the end of the module, an explicit and anonymous table, that lists exactly what the module returns/exposes. for instance, the module RexxS linked to, [[Module:WikidataIB/sandbox]], exports dozen or more functions, but it's a pain in the ass to figure out which, exactly. it would be better if there was no "p", and the statement at the end of the module, instead of "return p", would read:
<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
   return {
-- list anyting you want to return here, e.g.
   _formatDate = formatDate,
-- or even
  ['any string'] = formatDate,
  anotherExportedFunction = someOtherFunction,
-- etc.
   }
</syntaxhighlight>
: this way the list of things returned by the module is clear and accessible. i cannot think of a single advantage to the pattern used in enwiki, but apparently some people think it's mandatory. peace - [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש (aka kipod)]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|talk]]) 06:55, 19 July 2018 (UTC)
::"''calling require() by itself ... has zero effect''" We are being pedantic here so while that statement is correct in practice, it is not literally correct. Executing <code>require</code> would leave global variables/functions available for use in the requirer. Re your last point, while I agree, I have read strong opinions to the contrary that point out that while reading a module, seeing "local" in front of everything suggests that everything is local and the reader would find their expectations confounded by the export which turns some of the local functions into effectively global. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 07:20, 19 July 2018 (UTC)
:: I see that kipod has changed his tune. It now seems that what I wrote wasn't wrong, but he just doesn't like how I write code. He calls it "silly", and then makes up what he thinks I'm thinking, just so that he can criticise it. Strawman. He apparently doesn't realise that his function assignment <code>p._formatDate = format_Date</code> and my explicit function declaration have exactly the same effect. The difference is that explicitly defining the function is much clearer for others to read than that sort of assignment. You use a wrapper here to make clear you are defining a public function; it's not "magic". Shortening code to the minimum is how script-kiddies write programs, making them as obscure as possible in the hope that only they can understand them. [[Module:WikidataIB]] actually has all of its local (private) functions defined in the first section (labelled "private functions") and all of the exported (public) functions in the second section (labelled "public functions"), so figuring out what is exported is just a matter of looking at that section, or reading the f***ing documentation.
:: Nevertheless, I do have a lot of sympathy with his suggestion of collecting all of the public functions at the end of the module and returning a table of functions to export there, but since that is not the style currently used on enwiki and in all of the examples for new programmers, I don't intend to complicate matters any further for new Lua editors by offering an alternative style. We have few enough new Lua editors without putting any of them off with multiple variations that all do the same job. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 13:16, 19 July 2018 (UTC)

::::this begins to get personal, so maybe it is not productive, but let me elaborate a little bit. what RexxS wrote above ("require is like transclusion") is wrong for scribuntu (while being correct for lua in general). i would not comment on the fact that the "wrapper" is useless and silly, except the fact that in his previous (wrong) comment, he said that such wrapper is actually _needed_ in order to export something (in his words: "Yes, you still have to have a "wrapper" like p._myfunc = function( param1, param2 ) to export a non-frame version of the local function"). 
::::but let's leave the personal stuff aside, and maybe we can clarify some stuff that became murky in the discussion.
; some notes about difference between vanilla lua and scribuntu, locals, globals, and require()
::::so, in vanilla lua, require() does (almost) exactly what RexxS described above: it's like transcluding all the "global" stuff (functions and variables) from the required module:
; "pure" lua:
;FILE a.lua
<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
    var1 = 'hey'
    local var2 = 'ho'

function func1()
    return 'i ma here'
end

local func2() 
    return 'i am also here'
end
</syntaxhighlight> 
;FILE b.lua
<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
   ok = require('a') 
   print(ok) -- prints "true", indicating successful require
   print(var1) -- prints 'hey' to stdout
   print(var2) -- prints 'nil' - var2 is not known in module b - it is local to module a
   print( func1() ) -- prints "i ma here"
   print( func2() ) -- throws an error: in module b 'func2' is nil
</syntaxhighlight> 

in contrast, with scribuntu, things are different: if you use the same code (well, replace "print" with mw.log(), drop the .lua, and add "Module: to the require statement... ), the first difference is that "ok" will not be true, and instead will be nil: module "A" does not have a "return" statement. everything else will be nil too, since the required module is loaded in a sandbox. in order to get some value from our required module, we will need to explicitly return the stuff we want, in a table. so let's do this exercise: 

; scribuntu example:
;module a
<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
    var1 = 'hey'  
    local var2 = 'ho'
    var3 = 'here'
    local var4 = 'there'

function func1()
    return 'i ma here'
end

local func2() 
    return 'i am also here'
end

return {
   v3 = var3,
   v4 = var4, -- expose var4 - the fact that it's declared "local" has no effect
   func2WithFancyName = func2, -- again, we expose func2 (as func2WithFancyName), regardless of the fact that it was declared "local"
   -- all the "global" things, variables or functions, which are not exported via this table are not accessible outside this module, so their "globality" is an illusion.
}   
</syntaxhighlight> 
;module b
<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
   a = require('a') 
   -- here, a.v3 is 'here', a.v4 is 'there', and a.func2WithFancyName is a function which will return 'i am here'
</syntaxhighlight> 

so with scribuntu, "local" and "global" (or "private" and "public") are meaningless notions, when discussion require(), and have no effect on visibility (since everything is made "local" anyway, by the scribuntu framework). the only meaningful thing is the table that require() returns. 

now, as Johnuniq pointed out, my statement above that calling "require()" by itself (i.e., without using the value returned by it) has zero effect, is not technically correct: when you call require(), in addition to consuming some memory for the module's code, all the "free" code (i.e. code outside of any function) in the module will execute. however, b/c of scribuntu's sandboxing, the only effect of such require, can be consumption of memory and cpu, and posting to the "scribuntu logs" by calling mw.log() and it's brethren (modulo bugs in scribuntu, of course). scribuntu guards against any other effect. peace - [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש (aka kipod)]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|talk]]) 16:54, 19 July 2018 (UTC)
:
: You're quite right: I misspoke when I said you need a wrapper function. I should have said you need ''some means'' for a calling module to access the code that is loaded by require(), and a wrapper is not the only way to do that (although in the circumstances of the original post, it would be my preferred way, in order to keep a parallel with accessing the code via #invoke). --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 17:33, 19 July 2018 (UTC)
:
:I'm trying to understand what Scribunto "sandboxes". I always assumed that mention of Lua sandboxing was referring to code to ensure that a module could not do anything other than generate text to be used for the expansion of a #invoke. At any rate, I have modified my example: [[Module:Sandbox/Johnuniq/testpre|main]] + [[Module:Sandbox/Johnuniq/temp|required]] + [[Module talk:Sandbox/Johnuniq/testpre|results]]. The results are the same as before but the required module does not return anything. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 05:08, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

amazing. so it turns out i'm the one who does not understand how scribuntu's require() actually works. i always took the documentation (or rather, my understanding of the docs) at face value, and never bothered to actually test it. i owe an appology to RexxS then - sorry for insisting you were wrong when i was the one in error. i still suspect this may be a bug that crept into scribuntu at some point, but more likely, my faulty undersanding is the real bug... sorry for the confusion. maybe [[User:Anomie]] can explain what the sandboxing comment really means? should i go back to all the modules i wrote and make sure everything is local? peace - [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש (aka kipod)]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|talk]]) 16:30, 20 July 2018 (UTC)
: There are two levels of sandboxing in Scribunto. The first removes various features that could be used to access the filesystem of the server or to affect other running processes. The second prevents the code from one <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:}}</nowiki></code> from affecting or communicating with code from a different <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:}}</nowiki></code> on the page.
: As for the comment I'm removing from the reference manual in [[mw:Special:Diff/2833647]], it looks like it was a bug which was fixed as part of {{phab|T49300}}. Due to that bug, the globals were being loaded into the wrong scope which is why it seemed like it wasn't possible at the time. [[User:Anomie|Anomie]][[User talk:Anomie|⚔]] 16:56, 20 July 2018 (UTC)
== Simplifying invocations of Lua modules when designing templates ==

One of the nuisances of designing infoboxes and similar templates that draw data from Wikidata is that we often want that value to appear only if it exists (or in other cases if it's not equal to a particular value). That usually involves making two calls to the Lua module to fetch the Wikidata – once to test it, and a second time to display its value. Using a "helper" template that takes the <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:}}</nowiki></code> as a parameter and uses that parameter twice is a possible work-around that simplifies the infobox (or other template) design. I've created two new templates [[Template:If then show]] and [[Template:Ifnoteq then show]] as illustrations of the technique, along with some simple documentation of they may be used. Hopefully they may prove useful. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 12:45, 27 July 2018 (UTC)
== Convert Infobox Chinese/Chinese ==

Would someone mind converting [[Template:Infobox Chinese]] to Lua? It's so the order of the romanization options can be changed (such as displaying Cantonese first in the uncollapsed/expanded template when the subject is Hong Kong) - From [[Template_talk:Infobox_Chinese#Reversing_the_order_of_Mandarin%2C_Cantonese%2C_and_Hakka_in_the_case_of_Hong_Kong_and_Macau_articles%3F]]

{{ping|Kdm852}} {{ping|Citobun}}

Thanks
[[User:WhisperToMe|WhisperToMe]] ([[User talk:WhisperToMe|talk]]) 13:56, 30 July 2018 (UTC)
: (I asked WhisperToMe to post here since I probably don't have the time to deal with this.) There's also a section on the template's talk page about the merger with another template which is stalled because both templates are fairly complicated and presumably difficult to work with. This might require modification to [[Module:Infobox]] to allow modules to use it, or the new module could just generate its own table (which might be somewhat easier). [[User:Jc86035|Jc86035]] ([[User talk:Jc86035|talk]]) 14:02, 30 July 2018 (UTC)
== First Lua module review: sfnt ==

I just made some {{Compare pages|Module:Footnotes|Module:Footnotes/sandbox|changes}} to [[Module:Footnotes/sandbox]] for to be used by the new [[Template:sfnt]]. I'm new to Lua and Scribuntu, so I was hoping a more experienced editor could review my work. I also have a couple specific questions:
# Rather than just stripping Talk from the page name via gsub, I'd like to use the equivalent of the magic word {{tl|SUBJECTPAGENAME}}, but I don't see how to do this in Lua.
# The template currently emits an error via {{tl|sfnt}} (as I want it to) when used in any non-talk namespace. Is it a best practice for this to be included in the Module ([[Module:Footnotes/sandbox]]), or in the Template ({{tl|sfnt}})? If this should be done in the module, then I would welcome suggestions for sample modules with similar behavior.
Thanks! [[User:Daask|Daask]] ([[User talk:Daask|talk]]) 15:29, 23 July 2018 (UTC)
:Whoops, it actually doesn't work. {{code|frame:getParent():getTitle()}} is always returning [[Template:sfnt]] rather than the page that {{tl|sfnt}} is transcluded in. I'm not sure how to fix this. [[User:Daask|Daask]] ([[User talk:Daask|talk]]) 15:48, 23 July 2018 (UTC)
::I think you want <code>mw.title.getCurrentTitle().namespace</code> to get the article namespace (see [[mw:Extension:Scribunto/Lua_reference_manual#mw.title.getCurrentTitle]])  There are other object there that may be handy.
::—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 16:01, 23 July 2018 (UTC)
:::{{reply to|Trappist the monk}} Thanks for the tip. It's working fine now. Do you have guidance on my second question, or other suggestions? [[User:Daask|Daask]] ([[User talk:Daask|talk]]) 19:34, 27 July 2018 (UTC)
::::Only this: put the <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:}}</nowiki></code> inside the <code><nowiki>{{#ifeq:}}</nowiki></code>
:::::<code><nowiki>{{#ifeq:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|{{TALKPAGENAME}}|{{#invoke:Footnotes/sandbox|sfnt}}|{{error-small|{{tl|sfnt}} should only be used in [[Wikipedia:Namespace#Talk namespaces|Talk namespaces]].}}}}</nowiki></code>
::::—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 11:31, 29 July 2018 (UTC)
:It's also fine in "Wikipedia:" namespace. All the "talk" formatting templates are also used in noticeboards which function like talk pages in most respects. <span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family:'Trebuchet MS'"> — [[User:SMcCandlish|'''SMcCandlish''']] [[User talk:SMcCandlish|☏]] [[Special:Contributions/SMcCandlish|¢]] 😼 </span> 21:45, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
== [[Template:JCW-selected]] ==

This is getting called a lot (2600+ times) by [[WP:CRAPWATCH/SETUP]], so any help in making it more efficient would be appreciated, as well as scale to an infinite number of unnamed arguments. <span style="font-variant:small-caps; whitespace:nowrap;">[[User:Headbomb|Headbomb]] {[[User talk:Headbomb|t]] · [[Special:Contributions/Headbomb|c]] · [[WP:PHYS|p]] · [[WP:WBOOKS|b]]}</span> 16:46, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
:Well, I did make it lua (with infinite args), not sure if that actually made it more efficient or anything though [[User:Galobtter|Galobtter]] ([[User talk:Galobtter|pingó mió]]) 17:50, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

:{{Re|Galobtter}} it seems speedier from what I can tell. The template page throws an error right now but it's nothing that can't be solved with no include tags. <span style="font-variant:small-caps; whitespace:nowrap;">[[User:Headbomb|Headbomb]] {[[User talk:Headbomb|t]] · [[Special:Contributions/Headbomb|c]] · [[WP:PHYS|p]] · [[WP:WBOOKS|b]]}</span> 19:07, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
== need help to localize parameter ==

Hello, i need to localize [[Module:Webarchive]] for bnwiki. I tried [https://bn.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%A1%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%89%E0%A6%B2%3A%E0%A6%93%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BC%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%AC_%E0%A6%86%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%87%E0%A6%AD&type=revision&diff=3093475&oldid=3093467 this], It works but not always. I listed some problems [[:bn:টেমপ্লেট আলোচনা:ওয়েব আর্কাইভ|here]]. Please take a look, feel free to edit [[:bn:মডিউল:ওয়েব আর্কাইভ|here]] (no need to explain anything to me). --[[User:আফতাবুজ্জামান|আফতাবুজ্জামান]] ([[User talk:আফতাবুজ্জামান|talk]]) 18:16, 26 August 2018 (UTC)
:I'm guessing that your problem for {{para|শিরোনাম২}} and {{para|ইউআরএল২}} might be because <code>parseExtraArgs()</code> doesn't know about the bn equivalent names.
:
:One of the things that I did for [[bn:Module:Citation/CS1]] was to create a table that replaced bn digits with western digits in enumerated parameter names because Lua only understands western digits (the table for that is at [[bn:Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration]] and is named <code>local_digits</code>).  You might need to do something similar if you will be supporting bn digits in your parameter names.
:—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 18:53, 26 August 2018 (UTC)
::{{ping|Trappist the monk}} Thank you for answer. Problem is i don't where to put it, which line. Even though i did [[:bn:special:diff/3093475|this edit]] but i even don't know it was right or wrong. Could please do it there? --[[User:আফতাবুজ্জামান|আফতাবুজ্জামান]] ([[User talk:আফতাবুজ্জামান|talk]]) 20:10, 26 August 2018 (UTC)

===date localization===
Above problem is solved. But this module still have date related problem, you can [[:bn:টেমপ্লেট আলোচনা:ওয়েব আর্কাইভ|see here]] (first two section). Can someone help. --[[User:আফতাবুজ্জামান|আফতাবুজ্জামান]] ([[User talk:আফতাবুজ্জামান|talk]]) 16:12, 27 August 2018 (UTC)

:To make it work for dates, it would need to translate from Bengali to English early in the program, then back to Bengali late in the program .. this way the program remains mostly unmodified. It looks like there is মডিউল:ConvertDigit from English to Bengali - need a way to convert Bengali date to English. -- [[User:GreenC|<span style="color: #006A4E;">'''Green'''</span>]][[User talk:GreenC|<span style="color: #093;">'''C'''</span>]] 20:50, 27 August 2018 (UTC)
== Wikidata queries  ==

Is it possible to do complex queries like [https://query.wikidata.org/#%23%20Wikidata%20holiday%20calendar%20for%202018%0A%23%20by%20Jura1%2C%202018-08-26%0ASELECT%20%3Fd%20%3Focc%20%3FoccLabel%20%3Fholiday%20%3FholidayLabel%20%3FholidayDescription%20%3Fitem%20%3FitemLabel%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ47150325.%0A%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP585%20%3Fd.%0A%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP31%20%3Focc.%0A%20%20%3Fholiday%20wdt%3AP837%20%3Focc.%20%0A%20%20%3Fholiday%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FholidayLabel%20.%0A%20%20FILTER%28CONTAINS%28%3FholidayLabel%2C%20%22Hanukkah%22%29%29%20.%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%22.%20%7D%0A%20%20FILTER%28%28YEAR%28%3Fd%29%29%20%3D%202018%29%0A%7D%0AORDER%20BY%20DESC%28%3Fd%29%0ALIMIT%20200 this] in Lua to Wikidata? -- [[User:GreenC|<span style="color: #006A4E;">'''Green'''</span>]][[User talk:GreenC|<span style="color: #093;">'''C'''</span>]] 20:21, 27 August 2018 (UTC)
:No, SPARQL queries are not supported directly on wiki. Queries have a future, but it was put off after the structured Commons work came in (and associated multi-content revisions). Outside of the mainspace, you can set up {{noping|ListeriaBot}} for complex queries. --[[User:Izno|Izno]] ([[User talk:Izno|talk]]) 22:35, 27 August 2018 (UTC)
::Oh well, as I thought. It's for a template used in infoboxes, which might be a bad idea anyway due to performance. Glad to hear it might/could happen though. -- [[User:GreenC|<span style="color: #006A4E;">'''Green'''</span>]][[User talk:GreenC|<span style="color: #093;">'''C'''</span>]] 23:31, 27 August 2018 (UTC)
:::You can usually get infoboxes to work by traversing the edges between nodes if you're starting from a particular item, with the use of one or another of the Wikidata modules. --[[User:Izno|Izno]] ([[User talk:Izno|talk]]) 01:17, 28 August 2018 (UTC)
::::I don't know what traversing the edges between nodes means. Could the above query can be replicated with reasonable performance and without a major amount of Lua code? -- [[User:GreenC|<span style="color: #006A4E;">'''Green'''</span>]][[User talk:GreenC|<span style="color: #093;">'''C'''</span>]] 01:58, 28 August 2018 (UTC)
:::::
::::: No, it's not really feasible to search entries using the functionality exposed at present to Lua via the Wikibase client. There are 15,000,000 entities and 50,000,000 pieces of data, so without access to any form of indexing to query the database, any attempt to look through every item to find everything that matches particular criteria is going to be slow and resource-hungry. What Izno is suggesting is to start with an known item (usually the item connected to the page where the infobox is) and use links from there to read other items, then repeat until you arrive at the result you want. As an example look at the location function in [[Module:WikidataIB]].
:::::* Starting from {{q|Q7373617}} and iteratively following {{q|P131}}:
:::::* <code><nowiki>{{#invoke: WikidataIB |location |qid=Q7373617}}</nowiki></code> → {{#invoke: WikidataIB |location |qid=Q7373617}}
::::: Lua's good for that sort of data manipulation, but you'll still need query-language based software, or similar, to efficiently do searches on the Wikidata database. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 15:26, 28 August 2018 (UTC)
::::::Yes, I think I may have misunderstood the original intent. --[[User:Izno|Izno]] ([[User talk:Izno|talk]]) 15:36, 28 August 2018 (UTC)
== Issue with test case / TemplateStyles ==

Does anyone know how modules treat TemplateStyles? {{tl|Test case}} thought {{tl|Adjacent stations/sandbox}} and {{tl|Adjacent stations/sandbox2}}, with identical wikitext, were different, but when I removed the TemplateStyles tag on each of them the template said they were the same. [[User:Jc86035|Jc86035]] ([[User talk:Jc86035|talk]]) 12:38, 24 July 2018 (UTC)

It's a strip marker issue, but [[Module:Template test case]] is supposed to handle strip markers with the <code>TestCase:templateOutputIsEqual()</code> function. Both of the transcluded pages below contain the same content. [[User:Jc86035|Jc86035]] ([[User talk:Jc86035|talk]]) 10:12, 27 July 2018 (UTC)

<pre>{{Hidden begin|showhide=left|title=Test cases}}
{{collapsible test case|_template1=User:Jc86035/sandbox3|_template2=User:Jc86035/sandbox4|_showcode=yes}}
{{collapsible test case|_template1=User:Jc86035/sandbox3|_template2=User:Jc86035/sandbox4|_showcode=yes|1=this displays a nowiki tag instead of the templatestyles tag}}
}}
{{Hidden end}}</pre>
<small>Notifying {{u|Mr. Stradivarius}}, who wrote the function. [[User:Jc86035|Jc86035]] ([[User talk:Jc86035|talk]]) 10:16, 27 July 2018 (UTC)</small>

Never mind; this was because the strip marker format was changed in 2015. I've updated the module. [[User:Jc86035|Jc86035]] ([[User talk:Jc86035|talk]]) 10:26, 27 July 2018 (UTC)

== [[Template:Demo]] demo_kill_categories alias nocat ==
I've did [[Special:Diff/841233019/856477054|this change]], but it doesn't seem to work.  Can somebody with more Lua knowledge take a look?
See example here: [[User:Andrybak/sandbox/demonocat]] -- note, that page is added to [[:Category:Wikipedians in Russia]], but shouldn't be. <code>demo_kill_categories</code> still works: [[User:Andrybak/sandbox/demonocat2]]. —&#8288;[[User:Andrybak|andrybak]] ([[User talk:Andrybak|talk]]) 11:27, 29 August 2018 (UTC)
:you modified the function <code>module()</code>, but in this case it is not called, but rather <code>get()</code>, which you did not touch. [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש (aka kipod)]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|talk]]) 21:45, 31 August 2018 (UTC)
:: Thanks, [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש (aka kipod)]]! I've added it also to function <code>get()</code> —&#8288;[[User:Andrybak|andrybak]] ([[User talk:Andrybak|talk]]) 17:14, 1 September 2018 (UTC)
{{resolved}}
== Calculating moveable dates ==

The moveable date problem on Wikipedia is extensive. Infoboxes that display dates for a holiday with moveable dates largely need to be updated manually and there are thousands (many don't even bother trying). Currently there are two calculators [[Module:Easter]] and {{tlx|Hebrew year}} both of which I'm integrating into {{tlx|Moveable date}} (see [[Module:Calendar date/Events]]). These are good, but there are surprisingly no other calculators available on Wikipedia.

To get a sense how big this problem is, a [https://github.com/commenthol/date-holidays/blob/master/data/countries/US.yaml list of holidays in the United States] from a JavaScript program that determine moveable dates. For [https://github.com/commenthol/date-holidays/tree/master/data/countries other countries]. Dates can be complex like:

*Tax Day: On April 15. If a Friday then postpone to next Monday. If Saturday or Sunday then next Tuesday.
*Administrative Professionals Day: The Wednesday before April 28.

Notably, many of these dates are not calculated by the sun or moon, but by human decree which means they can change arbitrarily and thus need to be easily configured. But even dates that go by celestial guidance have trouble, for example {{tlx|Hebrew year}} can not accurately calculate dates for 3 of the Hebrew months as they are not fixed to the Gregorian calendar.

So this is a big messy problem with endless edge cases. My sense is we should try to translate a package like [https://github.com/commenthol/date-holidays date-holidays] or [https://github.com/tinohager/Nager.Date Nager.Date] into Lua but I have no skills for those source languages. Then there is the argument by [http://blog.ploeh.dk/2017/04/24/simple-holidays/ Mark Seeman] to just store the dates and not do calculations. I'm doing this for certain holidays that can't be calculated eg. [[Module:Calendar_date/localfiles/Leil_Selichot]]

If we had a Lua program that could solve for some things, like "2nd sunday in May" or "3rd monday in January" it might go a long way to calculating holidays, and provide a system for building more complex queries like Tax Day. Any thoughts?  -- [[User:GreenC|<span style="color: #006A4E;">'''Green'''</span>]][[User talk:GreenC|<span style="color: #093;">'''C'''</span>]] 14:20, 3 September 2018 (UTC)
:[[Module:Time]] has a function <code>decode_dst_event()</code> used to determine daylight saving time begin/end dates.  The function takes {{tq|"2nd sunday in May" or "3rd monday in January"}} and returns (for these examples) the ordinal (2 or 3), the day-in-the-week number (0 or 1) and the month number (5 or 1) or <code>nil</code> if the string can't be decoded or is malformed.
:—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 14:30, 3 September 2018 (UTC)
:::Sounds promising will take a look. -- [[User:GreenC|<span style="color: #006A4E;">'''Green'''</span>]][[User talk:GreenC|<span style="color: #093;">'''C'''</span>]] 16:09, 3 September 2018 (UTC)
: {{re|GreenC}} I guess you could use Wikidata items like {{Q|51224536}}. [[User:Jc86035|Jc86035]] ([[User talk:Jc86035|talk]]) 15:30, 3 September 2018 (UTC)
::See two threads above - Wikidata would only have separate items pages for moveable holidays that are hard to calculate on Wikidata. For things like "2nd sunday in May" Wikidata can calculate it through a query, so it wouldn't have an item page. And without an item page Lua can't effectively retrieve a query (I think?). Also if a calculator is available locally that is probably going to be preferable to Wikidata. Such as [[Module:Easter]]. -- [[User:GreenC|<span style="color: #006A4E;">'''Green'''</span>]][[User talk:GreenC|<span style="color: #093;">'''C'''</span>]] 16:02, 3 September 2018 (UTC)
:::
::: {{re|GreenC}} Is this the sort of functionality you want?
:::* <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:Sandbox/RexxS/CalcDate |getYearMonthDay |date=second Friday in June |year=2018}}</nowiki></code> → {{#invoke:Sandbox/RexxS/CalcDate |getYearMonthDay |date=second Friday in June |year=2018}}
:::* <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:Sandbox/RexxS/CalcDate |getYearMonthDay |last Friday in June |2018}}</nowiki></code> → {{#invoke:Sandbox/RexxS/CalcDate |getYearMonthDay |last Friday in June |2018}}
:::* <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:Sandbox/RexxS/CalcDate |getYearMonthDay |date=last Monday in February |year=2016}}</nowiki></code> → {{#invoke:Sandbox/RexxS/CalcDate |getYearMonthDay |date=last Monday in February |year=2016}}
::: It needs some error handling and can be spruced up to return other formats, but it seems to do the job as I understand it. It's adapted from [[Module:Time]] per {{u|Trappist the monk}}'s pointer. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 18:05, 3 September 2018 (UTC)
::::{{ping|RexxS}} that is awesome. It will solve a bunch of them. The next question how to take it to the next level and solve for Native American Heritage Day: friday after 4th thursday in November. There are [https://github.com/commenthol/date-holidays/blob/master/data/countries/US.yaml quite a few] taking this form. Would this be an addition to the module, or could it be calculated by invoking multiple modules, such as with [[Module:Date]] suggested by [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] (in this case adding +1 day to the output of getYearMonthDay). Or maybe RexxS/CalcDate could accept an offset option (-/+) to move the target day around relative eg. calculate for 4th thursday in November and add 1 day.  -- [[User:GreenC|<span style="color: #006A4E;">'''Green'''</span>]][[User talk:GreenC|<span style="color: #093;">'''C'''</span>]] 13:37, 4 September 2018 (UTC)
:::::Sheesh I apologize for being so uninformed, apparently holiday infobox can already do some data calculations internally, see [[Patriots' Day]]. And for [[Thanksgiving]], there is {{tlx|weekday in month}} that basically does the same thing. -- [[User:GreenC|<span style="color: #006A4E;">'''Green'''</span>]][[User talk:GreenC|<span style="color: #093;">'''C'''</span>]] 15:01, 4 September 2018 (UTC)
:::::Probably should focus next on calculators for non-Gregorian -> Gregorian, and otherwise difficult calculators like Easter. Various calendar systems are not currently available. Hindi being the most prevalent but also Japanese and Persian. -- [[User:GreenC|<span style="color: #006A4E;">'''Green'''</span>]][[User talk:GreenC|<span style="color: #093;">'''C'''</span>]] 15:18, 4 September 2018 (UTC) 
The request has been well satisfied but bear in mind that [[Module:Date]] can be used by other modules and includes stuff like this. Search [[Module:Date/example]] and its talk page for "Friday" to see examples. I never got around to finishing the documentation but [[Module:Age]] has more examples of what Module:Date can do. Time zones are not supported. If something is wanted from Module:Date, ask here or at its talk. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 23:18, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

Most of it can be done in wikicode... [[Public holidays in the United Kingdom#England, Northern Ireland and Wales]]. [[User:Cabayi|Cabayi]] ([[User talk:Cabayi|talk]]) 16:11, 4 September 2018 (UTC)
== Do you have small Lua related tasks suitable for new contributors? ==

Hi everybody! Google Code-in (GCI) will soon take place again - a seven week long contest for 13-17 year old students to contribute to free software projects. Tasks should take an experienced contributed about two or three hours and can be of the categories Code, Documentation/Training, Outreach/Research, Quality Assurance, and User Interface/Design. Do you have any Lua / template related idea for a task (needs documentation, or some code / code changes) and can imagine enjoying mentoring such a task to help a new contributor? If yes, please check out [[mw:Google Code-in/2018]] and become a mentor! Thanks in advance! --[[User:AKlapper (WMF)|AKlapper (WMF)]] ([[User talk:AKlapper (WMF)|talk]]) 13:49, 9 September 2018 (UTC)
== WikiProject College football needs assistance with Lua-based template ==

[[Wikipedia:WikiProject College football|WikiProject College football]] needs assistance with Lua-based templates: [[Template:CFB schedule]] and [[Template:CFB schedule entry]] based on [[Module:CFB schedule]].  We're going to need to make some changes to these templates and also need to make some tweaks to a conversation process for replacing older templates with these newer ones.  These templates and the module were developed by [[User:Frietjes]], but she doesn't appear to be able to assist with this any longer.  Is there anyone else here well-versed with Lua who can get involved?  Thanks, [[User:Jweiss11|Jweiss11]] ([[User talk:Jweiss11|talk]]) 06:39, 12 September 2018 (UTC)
: the most recent thread is [[Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_College_football#Unnamed_parameters_version_of_CFB_schedule_template|here]] and the subsequent changes made in response the thread are [//en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Module%3ACFB_schedule%2Fconvert&type=revision&diff=858506742&oldid=825692925 here] and [//en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Module%3ACFB_schedule&type=revision&diff=858042018&oldid=857582324 here]. [[User:Frietjes|Frietjes]] ([[User talk:Frietjes|talk]]) 12:19, 12 September 2018 (UTC)
::Frietjes, thanks for those recent edits to the module.  I follow the first one regarding the conversion process.  That looks good.  I'm not sure I follow the second edit, which appears to have something to go with the gamename field for the unnamed parameter scheme?  Also, we have another problem, with the named parameter scheme.  Take the table at [[1950 Texas A&M Aggies football team]] as an example.  If you clear out the two entries in the rank column, the poll info in the footer disappears.  But there are still opponent rankings in the opponent column to owhich the poll footer applies.  The poll footer needs to be present in any cases where there are either any rankings or any opponent rankings.  We can also remove the "#" from the heading of the rank column and the footer. [[User:Jweiss11|Jweiss11]] ([[User talk:Jweiss11|talk]]) 00:52, 13 September 2018 (UTC)
== Can Lua be used to parse a section of one page, change the contents and be transcluded on another page? ==

Hi there. I'm not familiar with Lua at all, so please forgive me if this sounds obvious. I recently noticed that {{tl|WPVG announcements}} is manually updated by a number of dedicated editors to reflect changes from [[WP:GAN#VG]], which basically means translating the values from the {{tlx|GANentry}} templates at WP:GAN#VG to the {{tlx|ganl}} templates used in {{tl|WPVG announcements}}. Would it be possible for a Lua script to parse the content of the former section, reassign the values to a different template and display those for inclusion in the announcements-template? That way, editors wouldn't have to manually update the template anymore and it'd be always up-to-date. Regards [[User:SoWhy|<span style="color:#7A2F2F;font-variant:small-caps">So</span>]][[User talk:SoWhy|<span style="color:#474F84;font-variant:small-caps">Why</span>]] 07:44, 10 September 2018 (UTC)
:
: Although Lua can read the content of a page using the getContent() method from the title library and can write text to a page, Lua scripts are run when a page is rendered, so somebody would have to trigger the script by previewing an edit or something similar to do the update. The kind of job you're envisaging is most commonly done by a bot, often running a Python script. I recommend putting in a request at [[Wikipedia:Bot requests]] where you can get feedback and suggestions on how best to get the results you want. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 18:21, 10 September 2018 (UTC)
::You could probably also do something like this by managing a JSON file or a Lua table, but that's not very wiki-textish. --[[User:Izno|Izno]] ([[User talk:Izno|talk]]) 19:04, 10 September 2018 (UTC)
:::wiki syntax now allows segment transclusing, (explained in [[Help:Labeled section transclusion]] and probably in other places also). you could use this to create labeled section in the "source" page, and pass the transclusions are parameters to a template that would then do the conversions. this would make the source page a bit more cumbersome to edit, introducing all the "section begin/section end" tags, but i think it can do what you want. the "conversion template" can use scribunto, or not - it may not be necessary if the conversion code is simple enough. i believe that doing so will solve the issue RexxS mentioned: changes to the "source" page should be reflected automagically in the target page. peace - [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש (aka kipod)]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|talk]]) 21:29, 10 September 2018 (UTC)
::::{{re|קיפודנחש}} Unfortunately, since [[WP:GAN]] is managed by a bot, making changes to it is not possible because it will likely break the bot. Since the bot already updates that page, I thought these updates could be translated to {{tl|WPVG announcements}} as described. The latter template is used on tens of thousands of talk pages (any talk that uses {{tl|WPVG}} in fact), so I assumed the template will be updated often anyway. I'll ask whether a bot could do it instead. Thanks for the replies! Regards [[User:SoWhy|<span style="color:#7A2F2F;font-variant:small-caps">So</span>]][[User talk:SoWhy|<span style="color:#474F84;font-variant:small-caps">Why</span>]] 09:00, 11 September 2018 (UTC)
{{od}}
{{ping|SoWhy}} Incorrect. What is requested here is possible, and in fact relatively easy to implement: I implemented it in [[Template:WPVG announcements/sandbox]]. In exactly the same way as pages update when the pages they transclude update, the list will automatically update whenever new good articles are nominated.  [[User:Pppery|&#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery]] ([[User talk:Pppery|talk]]) 23:02, 17 September 2018 (UTC)
:{{re|Pppery}} Wow, nice work. Thanks! I'll ask if someone has objections to implementing this at [[WT:VG]]. Regards [[User:SoWhy|<span style="color:#7A2F2F;font-variant:small-caps">So</span>]][[User talk:SoWhy|<span style="color:#474F84;font-variant:small-caps">Why</span>]] 06:58, 18 September 2018 (UTC)
== Lua error ==

Hello everyone, Who can tell me how can i fix [https://ckb.wikipedia.org/wiki/داڕێژە:Time_ago this error at ckbwiki]? Tap the red text, you will see something. Thank you.[[User:ئارام بکر|ئارام بکر]] ([[User talk:ئارام بکر|talk]]) 21:07, 19 September 2018 (UTC)
:One of <code>lang:formatDate( 'U', nil, true )</code> or <code>inputTime</code> in:
::<code>local timeDiff = lang:formatDate( 'U', nil, true ) - inputTime</code>
:is a string and needs to be a number.  You might try, as a first fix:
::<code>local timeDiff = tonumber(lang:formatDate( 'U', nil, true )) - tonumber(inputTime)</code>
:But, were I you, I would translate your local wiki language date/time inputs to their English equivalents before doing any operation on those date/time values and then at the end translate the English result back to your local language.  My experience is that Lua and <code>formatDate()</code> don't handle non-English language date names and non-western digits well.  Internationalization isn't as easy as one might wish it were.
:—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 21:49, 19 September 2018 (UTC)
== Help with calling String.replace ==

Hello, I'm new to Lua and trying to create a module ([[Module:Sandbox/Gonnym/Episode disambiguation description]]) that takes an article title and returns a formatted style depending on how the article title is written. However, I'm not able to get one String function to work - String.replace - it's not even getting colored green like the other functions I'm using. What I'm trying to do with it, is what [[:Template:PAGENAMEBASE]] does. I would really appreciate any help (and any other comments) on this. Thank you. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 13:18, 20 September 2018 (UTC)
:review the documentation on [[mw:Extension:Scribunto/Lua reference manual#string.match|string.match()]]
:—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 14:16, 20 September 2018 (UTC)
== Timeout on specific settings ==

I'm in the process of creating a module that can take either 3 or 4 params and produces a short description with those params. When I give it the first 3 params (episode, season and tv series) it works. I've checked it with around 20 calls running on the same page and they all worked fine. When I give it all 4 params (which includes the 4th "yes" param) it times out. I tried debugging it and sent the 3 params again, but made the system act as if the 4th one was sent (just set it manually to true) and it worked for the first 2 calls and timed-out for the others. So code-wise there isn't an error crashing it and the code isn't really long or complex, so I pretty much ran out of ideas what is causing this. Would appreciate if anyone could have a look at it - [[Module:Sandbox/Gonnym/Episode short discription]] (ignore the typo in title). --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 13:59, 22 September 2018 (UTC)
:[https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Module:Sandbox/Gonnym/Episode_short_discription&action=edit#mw-ce-l37 line 37]; function calls itself.
:—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 14:42, 22 September 2018 (UTC)
::Thanks Trappist! --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 16:50, 22 September 2018 (UTC)
:::Ok, I fixed it and it worked for a while but I'm getting this timeout again. If I enter the 3 value option of "23|1|somename" I it works, but if I add the 4th param it fails. So <nowiki>{{User:Gonnym/sandbox/Test|23|1|Lost}}</nowiki> works, while <nowiki>{{User:Gonnym/sandbox/Test|23|1|Lost|y}}</nowiki> doesn't. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 17:34, 22 September 2018 (UTC)
:::::the solution is at [https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Module:Sandbox/Gonnym/Episode_short_discription&action=edit#mw-ce-l33 lines 33 & 35].
:::::—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 18:01, 22 September 2018 (UTC)
::::::Thanks again! No idea why that would cause a timeout though. Redundant? probably, but it didn't seem breaking. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 18:12, 22 September 2018 (UTC)
:::::::when first episode is 23 and second episode is 24 the number of interest is 4.  you were testing <code>number < 4</code> and <code>number > 4</code> but not testing <code>number == 4</code>.  the <code>if-then-else</code> tests, not knowing what to do with 4, just kept the <code>while</code> looping round and round and round ...
:::::::—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 18:49, 22 September 2018 (UTC)
::::::::Totally missed that I forgot to do >=4, thanks again! --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 19:55, 22 September 2018 (UTC)
== Overhead from a generally unused code path ==

{{U|Wikisaurus}} has added a "subst only" code path for generating the list of parameters from a template to the Russian version of [[Module:Check for unknown parameters]] (see the generate function in [[:ru:Модуль:Check for unknown parameters]]).  I added this to [[Module:Check for unknown parameters/sandbox]], which seems fine since it's an entirely different code path.  but, then I started wondering if there is any significant overhead from having this rarely used code path in the module?  would it be better to put it in "Module:Check for unknown parameters/generate" or is there no substantial difference in terms of overhead?  thank you. [[User:Frietjes|Frietjes]] ([[User talk:Frietjes|talk]]) 12:47, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
:Beyond the amount of time and resources required to read the extra 844 bytes that you added to the module, I would be surprised if there were any noticeable execution time difference between a 1000 iterations of the live module vs the sandbox module.  That is an experiment that you can try; use the parser profiling data for comparison.
:—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 13:34, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
== Accessing a page's short description (inside infobox) from another page ==

Hello again.
I was trying to access the [[WP:short description|short description]] information from an article that uses an auto-generated short description created inside the infobox template used on that page, and use that on a different page. So, "Page A" uses "Template:Infobox x" that has code that generates a short description with [[Template:Short description]]. In "Page B", I want to access that data. I tried using [[Template:Extract short description]] to access that data, which does indeed work, however, that has a side-effect that since it transcludes the page, it also adds things that should not be there, such as FA/GA ratings and warnings such as {{tq|Warning: Display title &lt;article name> was ignored since it is not equivalent to the page's actual title}}. There might be other issues that also come from this. Since this method does not work, I was wondering if anyone can think of another way to access it. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 21:29, 26 September 2018 (UTC)
:If you know the name of the article you might use a variant of this:
::<code><nowiki>=string.match (mw.title.new ('Abraham Lincoln'):getContent(), '{{ *short +description *| *([^}]+) *}}')</nowiki></code>
:For the article [[Abraham Lincoln]], the above, executed from the debug console returns:
::16th President of the United States
:But, caveat here, too many uses of this kind of trick in a single article will cause Lua timeouts.
:—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 21:51, 26 September 2018 (UTC)
::That would still be regarded as a transclusion. Using getContent for a couple of small uses might be ok but it's not viable for routine use. Using it on [[Abraham Lincoln]] worked easily because that article has {{tl|short description}} in the wikitext. Using it at [[Athens]] which auto-generates the description would be a lot more challenging. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 01:34, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
:::I'm thinking maybe there is way to make it work with a workaround with [[Template:Template parameter value]], by adding a silent field to an infobox template and calling it, but so far I couldn't get it to work. Not sure how to pass the short description data to that field. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 06:42, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
{{od|3}}At [[Athens]] the infobox generates "City in Central Greece, Greece" as the short description. Previewing the following extract from the infobox is enough to reproduce that.
<pre>
{{Infobox settlement
| settlement_type      = [[Cities of Greece|City]]
| subdivision_type     = Country
| subdivision_name     = [[Greece]]
| subdivision_type1    = [[Geographic regions of Greece|Geographic region]]
| subdivision_name1    = [[Central Greece]]
| subdivision_type2    = [[Administrative regions of Greece|Administrative region]]
| subdivision_name2    = [[Attica (region)|Attica]]
| subdivision_type3    = [[Regional units of Greece|Regional unit]]
| subdivision_name3    = [[Central Athens (regional unit)|Central Athens]]
}}
</pre>
There is no parameter with the description so {{tl|Template parameter value}} cannot help. You would need to reproduce the calculations performed by {{tl|Infobox settlement}}—calculations that might be changed at any time and which would not apply for other infoboxes. Alternatively, you would need to expand the infobox then somehow extract the description from the resulting mess. In principle that would be easy because the wanted text appears in:
<pre>
<div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none">City in Central Greece, Greece</div>
</pre>
What is the purpose? There is no viable way to do the required complex operations in a manner that would be reasonable for generating text in another article. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 07:34, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
:I know that there ''currently'' is no parameter with the description. What I'm asking is if after the the description was generated on the first line at {{tl|Infobox settlement}}, can it then be added to a new <code>|description =</code> param (which won't visually show up in the infobox), and then be accessed with {{tl|Template parameter value}}? (currently testing this it seems it's not possible as I'm getting the error {{tq|Lua error in Module:Template_parameter_value at line 43: bad argument #1 to 'gsub' (string expected, got nil).}}) --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 10:02, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
::Clearly a bug exists in [[Module:Template parameter value]].  Pinging the module's [[User:AlexTheWhovian|author]].
:
::{{para|short_description|<nowiki>{{Short description/test}}</nowiki>}} is inside {{tlx|infobox}} which is inside {{tlx|Infobox television episode/sandbox}}.  Module:Template parameter value uses the same trick that I suggested with my Abraham Lincoln example: it read's the article's wiki source.  If you can't see {{para|short_description|<nowiki>{{Short description/test}}</nowiki>}} in the article wiki source, then Module:Template parameter value won't be able to see it either.
:
::So how about this.  Extract the infobox template from the article source (not necessarily an easy task because of nested templates – left as an exercise for the reader).  Then call the syntaxhighlight parser function with the infobox wikitext as the argument:
<pre style="margin-left:4.8em">{{#invoke:Sandbox/trappist the monk/tag|tag|{{Infobox television episode/sandbox
| title          = test
| series =
| season         = 5
| series_no      = 
| multi_episodes = y
| episode        = 
}}}}</pre>
::which returns:
:::{{#invoke:Sandbox/trappist the monk/tag|tag|{{Infobox television episode/sandbox
| title          = test
| series =
| season         = 5
| series_no      = 
| multi_episodes = y
| episode        = 
}}}}
::from which you can get your short description.
::—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 12:45, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
:::
::: To be honest, I'd suggest using JavaScript rather than Lua at present for this sort of job because it can access the API to read the generated descriptions directly. That avoids all of the messing about. 
::: Looking forward, I know there are obvious security concerns for Scribunto, but I think it might be worth making a case for asking for the API (or part of it, maybe 'read-only') to be exposed to Scribunto, so we could read something like https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/api.php?action=query&prop=description&titles=Alan_Turing as a Lua object. That would make a lot of jobs much more feasible if we could make a proper case for it. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 13:53, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
::::That does indeed make it much more easier. Is it possible for JavaScript and a Lua module to pass data to one another? Is there some sort of documentation I can read that someone can point me to? I don't know JS but maybe I'll be able to understand how to make it work. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 14:16, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
:::::Javascript runs on the reader's browser, does it not?  So whatever js script you might write has to somehow be made available to every reader who reads any page that would need that js script which means, I think, that the js script must be made part of whatever js MediaWiki includes with every page rendering.
::::
:::::I do not know of any connection between Lua and js – they operate at different times; Lua modules are processed (by the MediaWiki servers) when you save or refresh a page, js is processed (by your browser) when you view the rendered (cached) page.
:::::—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 14:54, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
::::::If a user needs to install something then that isn't a viable idea, so its back to try and find the pattern to find the infobox in the article text. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 15:29, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
::::::: I believe the idea is to put it in [[MediaWiki:Common.js]] which is loaded for all pages. [[User:Frietjes|Frietjes]] ([[User talk:Frietjes|talk]]) 16:01, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
:::If you know the name of the infobox (<code>ibox_name</code>) then once you have the Wikisource (<code>content</code>):
<pre style="margin-left:6.4em">local ibox_start = string.find (content, '{{%s*' .. ibox_name)</code>		-- find the start of {{Infobox ...; ibox_name is a pattern that accepts various legit spacing and capitalization ...
local ibox_text = string.match (content, '%b{}', ibox_start)				-- ibox_start points to first { of the infobox template</pre>
:::—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 16:37, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
::::Did we solve the transcluding issue with "mw.title.new ('Abraham Lincoln'):getContent()" or was there another way to get the wikisource that I missed? --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 17:12, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
:::::Perhaps.  You will notice that I added a <code><nowiki>{{DISPLAYTITLE}}</nowiki></code> directive to your [[User:Gonnym/sandbox/tests2]].  [[Module:Sandbox/trappist the monk/tag2|Here]], we fetch the {{tlx|Infobox television episode/sandbox}} template from your test page's wiki source, stir, and pour out this: 
::::::<code><nowiki>{{#invoke:Sandbox/trappist the monk/tag2|tag|User:Gonnym/sandbox/tests2}}</nowiki></code>
:::::::{{#invoke:Sandbox/trappist the monk/tag2|tag|User:Gonnym/sandbox/tests2}}
:::::From that you can get the short description.  I do not get any display title warning messages when I preview this page.
:::::—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 18:25, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
::::::I tried it with an article from my previous tests which I got an error with before and I still get it with this code - [[The End (Lost)]]. It currently does not have a short description (but not sure that has any impact on the error). Might have to do with articles that are disambiguated. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 08:16, 28 September 2018 (UTC)
:::::::What did you try?  What were the steps?  What error did you get?  Where can I see this error without my having to do the sleuthing work to noodle it out?
:::::::—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 08:45, 28 September 2018 (UTC)
::::::::<s>Sorry for being unclear. I just changed the article name to the title I mentioned <nowiki>{{#invoke:Sandbox/trappist the monk/tag2|tag|The End (Lost)}}</nowiki> and the error being the one previously stated {{tq|Warning: Display title "User:Gonnym/sandbox/<i>tests2</i>" was ignored since it is not equivalent to the page's actual title.}} --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 09:56, 28 September 2018 (UTC)</s> Seems I had unused code that caused that. Bug not part of your code. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 09:58, 28 September 2018 (UTC)
::::::::I've ran into an issue. The output from your code encloses the tag in <nowiki><pre></pre></nowiki> which causes the pattern to fail to match. If I remove the tag it works. I'm assuming this somehow causes the code to stop treating it as plain text. I tried using string.replace to replace the "pre" tag, but that didn't work. Any ideas? (pattern template can be found {[[User:Gonnym/sandbox/tests1]]) --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 11:31, 28 September 2018 (UTC)
:::::::::I've tweaked [[Module:Sandbox/trappist the monk/tag2|tag2]] so that it returns the shortdescription text:
::::::::::<code><nowiki>{{#invoke:Sandbox/trappist the monk/tag2|tag|User:Gonnym/sandbox/tests2}}</nowiki></code>
:::::::::::{{#invoke:Sandbox/trappist the monk/tag2|tag|User:Gonnym/sandbox/tests2}}
:::::::::—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 13:22, 28 September 2018 (UTC)
::::::::::As always, you are a star! Thank you very much! :) --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 15:53, 28 September 2018 (UTC)

I've now noticed that the output of <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:Sandbox/trappist the monk/tag2|tag|User:Gonnym/sandbox/tests2}}</nowiki></code> is incorrect (it shows on that page "4th episode of the fifth season of lost", while the result from the invoke shows "A television episode"). It's showing the default description in case there is no data filled in the infobox. Maybe using <code>| short_description = <nowiki>{{Short description/test}}</nowiki></code> in the infobox didn't work? --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 23:00, 28 September 2018 (UTC)
:These parameters are getting to tag2:
::<code><nowiki>| title = test | series = lost | season = 5 | series_no = | multi_episodes = | episode = 4</nowiki></code>
:but aren't coming out of <code>frame:expandTemplate()</code>.  Probably just need to massage the parameters a bit before passing them to <code>frame:expandTemplate()</code>.  I'll do some experimenting tomorrow.
:—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 00:52, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
::<code><nowiki>{{#invoke:Sandbox/trappist the monk/tag2|extract_short_description|User:Gonnym/sandbox/tests2|infobox television episode/sandbox}}</nowiki></code> → {{#invoke:Sandbox/trappist the monk/tag2|extract_short_description|User:Gonnym/sandbox/tests2|infobox television episode/sandbox}}
::—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 11:28, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
:::Amazing! Thanks again! --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 11:31, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
::::On my sandbox page I have an {{tlx|infobox television episode/sandbox}} that has {{para|series|<nowiki>{{lang|de|lost}}</nowiki>}}.  I did that because editors will assign templated values to infobox parameters:
:::::<code><nowiki>{{#invoke:Sandbox/trappist the monk/tag2|extract_short_description|User:trappist the monk/sandbox|infobox television episode/sandbox}}</nowiki></code> → {{#invoke:Sandbox/trappist the monk/tag2|extract_short_description|User:trappist the monk/sandbox|infobox television episode/sandbox}}
::::Float your mouse-pointer over ''lost'' in the rendering above and you should get a 'German language text' tooltip.  Editors will also wikilink infobox parameters.  If I write {{para|episode|<nowiki>[[44]]</nowiki>}} in the infobox, I get 'An episode of the forty-fifth season of {{lang|de|lost}}'.  I don't know what the rules are (if there are any) for short description text, but if wiki markup and templated data are acceptable then perhaps your module should accept wikilinked values for {{para|episode}}, {{para|season}}, and {{para|series_no}}?  Or, perhaps, the infobox and its documentation should be modified to prohibit wikilinking of these parameters.
:::
::::{{para|short_description|<nowiki>{{Short description/test}}</nowiki>}} in {{tld|infobox television episode/sandbox}} is not required, right?
::::—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 12:15, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
:::::Per [[Wikipedia:Short description#Content]], nothing in the description should be linked. Per the specific MoS guidelines in my case, those entries should also not be wikilinked. I'm ok with them failing as that means someone will fix a much larger issue first, but good find. I want to see how exactly it fails so nothing breaks. And yes, that isn't needed if your code doesn't use it. That was me trying to find a way to access the data. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 12:25, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
::::::Well, doubled-checked and one param can actually be wikilinked and pipped, so thanks for raising that issue! --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 16:55, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
== Request Lua module for removing/striping leading zeros ==

Hello there! I am not familiar with Lua, but I would like to invoke a module for [[Template:SEHK]] to remove all leading zeros. This is needed as the template uses the numerical stock code inputted and replaces the value inside the stock exchange URL. The problem is that SEHK tickers are often reported in the English media with leading zeros (making it up to 4 digits, such as "0001" rather than just "1") The current stock website does not support leading zeros, hence redirecting to an error site. I was wondering if anyone here experienced with Lua can help with this issue? It has been affecting a wide range of Hong Kong stock exchange-listed articles. Cheers –[[User:Wefk423|Wefk423]] ([[User talk:Wefk423|talk]]) 18:49, 26 July 2018 (UTC)
:
: It's easy enough to write a module to use the Lua function <code>tonumber()</code>, but it's probably simpler to use the [[Help:Magic words|magic word]] <code><nowiki>{{#expr: }}</nowiki></code>. For example, <code><nowiki>{{#expr:0001}}</nowiki></code> gives {{#expr:0001}}. HTH --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 19:09, 26 July 2018 (UTC)
::Expr seems really reasonable considering the other alternative of [[Module:String#Replace]] (finding regex 00+ and replacing with nothing). [[Template:Trim]] exists. Expr emits an NAN if the input is bad, no? --[[User:Izno|Izno]] ([[User talk:Izno|talk]]) 19:26, 26 July 2018 (UTC)
:: Thanks for the suggestion. I have added the magic word <code><nowiki>{{#expr: }}</nowiki></code> to the template to resolve the error webpage issue for now. But I do think that such module (with usage tutorial) can be created as other templates might also need to strip leading zeros. It seems like a fast and easy way, especially for users who don't know how to use magic words. –[[User:Wefk423|Wefk423]] ([[User talk:Wefk423|talk]]) 19:35, 26 July 2018 (UTC)
:::
::: {{ec}} It throws an error for me: <code><nowiki>{{#expr:ABCD}}</nowiki></code> → {{#expr:ABCD}}
::: If you want to control the errors, then a Lua module starts to become attractive:
::: <syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
p = {}
p.stripzeros = function(frame)
	x = tonumber(frame.args[1])
	if x then
		return x
	else
		return "whatever you want to indicate NaN"
	end
end
return p
</syntaxhighlight>
::: Usage: <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:Modulename |stripzeros |number-goes-here}}</nowiki></code>HTH. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 19:40, 26 July 2018 (UTC)
::::Thank you so much for the great suggestion on customizing the error message by using this Lua module. It is currently live at [[Module:Leading zeros]] and has also been implemented in [[Template:SEHK]]. Way much better than the red bold message which will look terrible in a infobox. When inputting a non-numeric value, it will now appear as "[[SEHK]]: [https://www.hkex.com.hk/Market-Data/Securities-Prices/Equities/Equities-Quote?sym=Incorrect&sc_lang=en Incorrect]". How do you think? Cheers! –[[User:Wefk423|Wefk423]] ([[User talk:Wefk423|talk]]) 00:21, 27 July 2018 (UTC)
:::::
::::: {{re|Wefk423}} That seems to do the job for you. If you re-use the module in other applications, you can trap the error word "Incorrect" with an <nowiki>{{#ifeq: }}</nowiki> test in the template, which will allow you to take different actions when the input is not a number. 
::::: One other thing (in your documentation): I would encourage everyone not to use {{tag|br|o}} to separate items in a list (see [[MOS:NOBR]]. Using {{tl|ubl}}, especially in an infobox, is much better because it creates a real list that is much more useful for [[screen readers]]. Cheers --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 09:33, 27 July 2018 (UTC)
:::::: {{re|RexxS}} <s>I'm sorry I don't really catch that. Which documentation are you refering to? I don't seem to find any list.</s> Nevermind, I found it! I've edited the documentation of the template {{diff|Template:Hong Kong Stock Exchange/doc|852259558|852153400|here}}. Thanks and cheers –[[User:Wefk423|Wefk423]] ([[User talk:Wefk423|talk]]) 16:32, 27 July 2018 (UTC)
* Another way to strip leading 0's in a string: <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:String|match|000123450|^0+(.*)}}</nowiki></code> -- [[User:Matroc|Matroc]] ([[User talk:Matroc|talk]]) 08:31, 12 September 2018 (UTC)
:::and of course, the original suggestion by RexxS, using #expr is still valid, and prolly the simplest... handling errors is no biggy - just enclose in #iferror, like so (presuming the thing you want to strip is in param 1):<code><nowiki>{{#iferror:{{#expr:{{{1}}} }}| <your "non-numeric" error message here> | {{#expr:{{{1}}} }} }}</nowiki></code> - peace - [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש (aka kipod)]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|talk]]) 15:26, 12 September 2018 (UTC)
----
[[Module:Leading zeros]] has been nominated for deletion.  [[User:Pppery|&#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery]] ([[User talk:Pppery|talk]]) 14:09, 8 October 2018 (UTC)
== Overload Template:Bicolor (Commons) ==

Can someone please convert [[c:Template:Bicolor]] into a module? PS: I mean this would be a perfect reason for conversion. The idea of optimizing is also to omit <code>ifexists</code> with an existing color table. <span style="white-space:nowrap;color:#456;"> → ''[[User: Perhelion]]'' <small>11:15, 5 October 2018 (UTC)</small></span>
:This is being discussed at [[c:Template talk:Bicolor]]. No good method. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 00:42, 6 October 2018 (UTC)
:: @[[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] what do you mean? The discussion comes from here...
:: {{done}} <span style="white-space:nowrap;color:#456;"> → ''[[User: Perhelion]]'' <small>18:05, 10 October 2018 (UTC)</small></span>
:::
::: I suspect that John meant that all of the solutions available suffer from some issue, such as expensive calls or size of rendered text, that makes them less than ideal in his (and in my) opinion. We have a solution of sorts, but I'm not 100% satisfied with it. Cheers --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 18:43, 10 October 2018 (UTC)
::::That's right although my "no good method" comment was before I had seen your clever solution. I think a bot would be needed to handle more combinations. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 02:55, 11 October 2018 (UTC)
== Pages where template include size is exceeded ==

to remove [[Émerson Leão]] from [[:Category:Pages where template include size is exceeded]] I created {{tl|navboxes top}} and {{tl|navboxes bottom}}.  the implementation is definitely a hack, but could be improved by adding new functionality to [[Module:navbox]].  I don't think the problem is being caused by the tracking because {{tl|navboxes/sandbox}} has no appended tracking and shows the same issue in preview. does anyone have any other ideas for addressing the problem, or is the top/bottom approach the only way? [[User:Frietjes|Frietjes]] ([[User talk:Frietjes|talk]]) 15:48, 11 October 2018 (UTC)
:Fix the root problem, which is Sports Navboxes in general? :) --[[User:Izno|Izno]] ([[User talk:Izno|talk]]) 16:50, 11 October 2018 (UTC)
:Frietjes may remember {{tl|Football manager history}} which I refactored to use [[Module:Football manager history]] two years ago. Some preliminary discussion was [[WT:WikiProject Football/Archive 101#Vanderlei Luxemburgo: template include size|here]]. I remember some other discussion was pretty indifferent about the module because quite a few participants felt that the enormous navboxes were way over the top and should be removed rather than fixed. The module drastically reduces the template expansion size because it processes everything once only. In the old system, nested template calls meant that each resulting line was counted three or four times because it was passed from template to template. Possibly the same approach would fix templates like {{tl|Brazil squad 1970 FIFA World Cup}} which uses {{tl|National squad}} which uses {{tl|navbox}}. It might be straight forward based on the existing module, or looking at the details might show a bunch of work would be needed. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 06:57, 12 October 2018 (UTC)
::[[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]], good suggestion.  that fixed the problem for [[United States men's national soccer team]], but did not fix [[Émerson Leão]] and [[Belgium national football team]]. unless there is another one that can be reduced in size, I am considering refactoring [[Template:Navboxes]] to use <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:navboxes|top}}</nowiki></code> and <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:navboxes|bottom}}</nowiki></code>.  the hack in [[Module:navboxes]] could be improved, but this would fix the problem for those two articles (and probably many others). [[User:Frietjes|Frietjes]] ([[User talk:Frietjes|talk]]) 15:06, 12 October 2018 (UTC)
== Module:Infobox ==

I'm trying to understand [[Module:Infobox]] and see if the code there allows another infobox module to send it values and for it to return the required sub-infobox, but since it lacks in documentation, I can't seem to figure this out (it seems me that it doesn't support what I want). What I'm looking for is something similar to what fr.wiki has with [[fr:Module: Infobox]]. If anyone can help me figure this out, would really appreciate this. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 13:04, 23 October 2018 (UTC)
:Are you talking about embedding one infobox inside another?
:—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 13:12, 23 October 2018 (UTC)
::No. What I'm trying to do (which is available in the french version) is to create a very small infobox module (in terms of code) which only lists the parameters it gets from a user ([[fr:Module:Infobox/Tapis persan]]), which then sends it to the main module (Module:Infobox), which it is responsible for actually building it. Basically eliminating all the code currently in the infobox templates. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 13:19, 23 October 2018 (UTC)
::: As we currently have far more active editors familiar with template syntax than with Lua code, is it a good idea at present to shift so much of the development and maintenance of infoboxes onto a much smaller group? --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 13:59, 23 October 2018 (UTC)
::::That is neither my call nor my intention, but I also don't believe that not testing better options just because not enough people can add to it, is correct either. Also, the french example I've linked to seems much easier to code than any infobox I've seen, including the need to keep that awful numbering system which forces you to change so many lines, if you need to add a new row somewhere at the top. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 14:13, 23 October 2018 (UTC)
::::: You may find [[User:Frietjes/infoboxgap.js]] useful in dealing with that awful numbering system. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 14:39, 23 October 2018 (UTC)
: {{re|Gonnym}} As far as I'm aware the module is currently inaccessible from other Lua modules (the p.infobox function only accepts values from a frame object), although {{u|Mr. Stradivarius}} might be able to say otherwise. You might want to fiddle a bit with the p.infobox function in a sandbox to see how it'll let you input data from another module.
: Parts of enwiki also have a weird thing for discouraging any more Lua modules than absolutely necessary because most editors can only read wikicode and therefore can't debug modules, although I do think the frwiki approach would have benefits for some templates like {{tl|Singles}} (which already uses its own Lua module). [[User:Jc86035|Jc86035]] ([[User talk:Jc86035|talk]]) 15:21, 24 October 2018 (UTC)
::{{ping|Jc86035}} I don't believe it will let me, but no harm in playing a bit with it. Also, I don't understand how anyone can read this code [[Template:Infobox album]] (the part before the actual start of the infobox code) and even more think that it's easier to read than Lua. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 18:10, 24 October 2018 (UTC)
:::{{re|Gonnym}} My fault, because I wrote that part of the template. Most of the reason it's so complicated is because I was trying to replace and format about seven different templates' parameters by allowing their replacement through template substitution ([[Special:Diff/853220028|example]]) and for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to do the formatting with parser functions and [[Module:String]]. If you take out the part between <code>{{!}}prev_title=</code> and <code>{{!}}$flags=override</code> (the part that formats the parameters) then it starts to look a little more like it was written by a normal sensible person. [[User:Jc86035|Jc86035]] ([[User talk:Jc86035|talk]]) 18:18, 24 October 2018 (UTC)
{{od}}
It's generally not too difficult to make Scribunto functions available to other modules. If you want to make <code>p.somefunc(frame)</code> available in a simple form, you can check what is used from the frame object, say <code>frame.args.param1</code> and <code>frame.args.param2</code>, then amend the function definition be to something like <code>function p._somefunc(param1, param2)</code>, and use <code>param1</code> and <code>param2</code> in place of <code>frame.args.param1</code> and <code>frame.args.param2</code> within the function. Finally write
<syntaxhighlight lang=Lua>
function p.somefunct(frame)
    return p._somefunc(frame.args.param1, frame.args.param2)
end
</syntaxhighlight>
to recreate the function that uses the frame object for use with #invoke. The <code>_somefunc(param1, param2)</code> will be available from <code>require("Modulename")</code>

There are alternative ways, for example passing a single table of parameters instead of each one individually (useful when there are lots of parameters), but the general principle is the same. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 22:05, 24 October 2018 (UTC)
:Yes, that will work with a bit of moving around the meat of that function into the _function, but from what I can tell from the code, the infobox is eventually still waiting for values in the form of how an infobox template keeps them, and not in an easy to code FR style. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 22:19, 24 October 2018 (UTC)
== teach [[Module:Graph]] some new tricks ==

background (long story - safe to skip): back in 2013, i created [[Module:Chart]], to display bar and pie charts. 

my motivation was mainly to make adding charts easier: the various charting templates that existed were limited (e.g., pie chart had max of 6 slices), none support "stacked" bar charts, and more importantly, they all used cumbersome (IMO) and inconvenient way of passing parameters: instead of, e.g., delimited list of numbers for each series, you had to pass a separate parameter for each data point, with different convention for each template. (there's a whole slew of other charts, using the "timeline" extension - those are even more difficult to use, and produce ugly charts, IMO).

(irrelevant, but interesting tidbit): this module uses an arcane and esoteric feature of html to display pie charts (which i copied from the brilliant template that already existed), exploiting the "border" element, giving it width and colors, and using the fact that 2 sides of html "border" are connected with a "bevel": by separately controlling the width of each side, you control the angle of the bevel, then you color one of the sides with he desired color, leave the other transparent, repeat for each segment of the pie, stacked on top of each other, do it separately for each of the 4 quarters of the axis system, and finish it all by covering the whole jumble with a circle, having transparent interior and white exterior. bizarre to the point perversion, and at the same time brilliant. the most amazing thing about it is the fact that it actually works...

;relevant part:
anywhoo, several years later, the "graph" extension was introduced ([[mw:Extension:Graph]]), and some time later, [[User:Mps]] created [[Module:Graph]] (maybe elsewhere (dewiki?), and imported to enwiki - not sure). some time after that, [[Template:Graph:Chart]] was created. at this point, my 2013 "chart" module became obsolete, but people are still using it.

so here is (finally) my actual request: there are some legit requests on [[Module talk:Chart]], to which i usually respond "you should use the new stuff". the latest such request, asked for horizontal bar chart, which neither module supports. i have no doubt the "graph" extension can easily do it, but unfortunately, [[Module:Graph]] does not provide horizontal bar charts. can someone pick the challenge, and teach this module to draw horizontal bar charts? and, maybe, while you are at it, also teach it to do scatter chart?

peace - [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש (aka kipod)]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|talk]]) 16:55, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
== Navbox with collapsible groups ==

can someone help me debug [[Module:Navbox with collapsible groups]] which is being called through [[Template:Navbox with collapsible groups/sandbox]]?  in particular, see [[Template:Navbox with collapsible groups/testcases]].  for debugging, I have appended the values of the 'sargs' which are used to build the subgroups, and I appended the values of 'targs' which is passed through Navbox._navbox to build the final result. the values for the sargs and the targs look great, but the actual navbox output has the academics group repeated 4 times :(  I have never seen this pathology before.  thank you! [[User:Frietjes|Frietjes]] ([[User talk:Frietjes|talk]]) 16:27, 24 October 2018 (UTC)
: update, [//en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Module:Navbox_with_collapsible_groups&diff=prev&oldid=865586524 this edit] appears to fix the problem.  so, going through the template interface for the child boxes, instead of going through the module interface.  I think it would be better to go through the module interface, and I have no idea why that doesn't work. [[User:Frietjes|Frietjes]] ([[User talk:Frietjes|talk]]) 21:05, 24 October 2018 (UTC)
::I started looking at this but then I saw you were still working on it. Please post again if there is something specific I could look at. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 04:15, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
::: [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]], I found the problem in [[Module:Navbox]], <code>listnums</code> was being initialized globally, but not emptied at the top of <code>_navbox()</code>, so each time you call the <code>_navbox()</code> it just appends more lists to <code>listnums</code>.  it looks like [//en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Module:Navbox/sandbox&diff=prev&oldid=865674706 this fixes the problem].  I don't see any other entry points into the module, other than <code>p.navbox(frame)</code> and <code>p._navbox(navboxArgs)</code> so it looks like it is safe to initialize listnums at the top of <code>p._navbox(navboxArgs)</code> instead.  [[User:Frietjes|Frietjes]] ([[User talk:Frietjes|talk]]) 13:20, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
::::That looks good. I vaguely remember some oddities about the module from the time I jumped into it. I would prefer to get rid of those effectively global variables at the top of the module but the refactoring effort might not be worth it. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 09:33, 26 October 2018 (UTC)
== Module error on Syrian Civil War map ==

I've noted what seems to be a strange bug on the module maps at [[Talk:Cities and towns during the Syrian Civil War#Some sort of module error causing extra marks]]. If someone who has more experience with module programming and such could take a look, that'd be great. (This was originally posted on VPT, but someone pointed out in an unrelated section that this is usually where Module questions are asked.) Thanks, [[User:Ansh666|ansh]][[User talk:Ansh666|<span style="font-size:80%">''666''</span>]] 21:22, 4 November 2018 (UTC)
:The above was posted at 00:45, 6 November 2018 and it looks as if the issue has been resolved according to the latest at the above talk link. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 02:43, 6 November 2018 (UTC)
== Improving [[Template:Code]] ==

I'm wondering if it's feasible to re-do {{tlx|code}}, a wrapper for {{xtag|syntaxhighlight}}, in such a way that some parameter, perhaps {{para|filter|y}}, could pre-filter and convert some of the input before it reaches the underlying {{tag|syntaxhighlight|o}} process. <small>[Inserting a code snippet for example purposes below: {{code|lang=html|1=<span>}}.]</small>
* The issue: Sometimes it is not desirable to feed this template something literal. E.g., if you do {{tlx|code|lang{{=}}html|1{{=}}<nowiki><span style="color: purple;"></nowiki>}} (without the closing tag for the span), then anyone using the edit-mode wikimarkup syntax highlighter by Remember_the_dot, available at [[Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets]] and thus our most frequently used highlighter, will have their syntax highlighting in the editing window boogered by what Remember_the_dot's syntax highlighter sees as a real open and not-yet-closed {{tag|span|o}} rather than as template content. <small>[If you use that highlighter, and are reading this in edit mode, you should see this effect now, caused by the snippet I inserted before this bullet list. Most of my entire post should have a pink background as unclosed code content when it really is not.]</small>
** And one cannot escape this with <code>&amp;lt;</code> to encode the exmaple span's leading &lt; symbol; all input received by {{tag|syntaxhighlight|o}} is treated as a literal.
** This also makes it impossible to do something like {{tlx|code|lang{{=}}html|1{{=}}<nowiki><span '''style'''="color: purple;"></nowiki>}} to emphasize something in the markup.
* The idea: Use Lua and a table of entities and of select wikimarkup to pre-filter (and possibly post-filter) the content before (and maybe after) it hits {{tag|syntaxhighlight|o}}:
** Pre-filter so that things like &lt; can be escaped in the visible wikitext with <code>&amp;lt;</code>, converted to &lt;, then passed to the parser function.
** Possibly also tokenize a few things like {{code|''...''}} and {{code|'''...'''}} markup so they can be operated on after the fact:
** Post-filter to de-tokenize those bits and actually perform their intent.  Ideally this would also include {{tag|var}} so that variables within code can be marked up as such (lack of ability to do that is a serious flaw in {{tag|syntaxhighlight|o}}).
<span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family:'Trebuchet MS'"> — [[User:SMcCandlish|'''SMcCandlish''']] [[User talk:SMcCandlish|☏]] [[Special:Contributions/SMcCandlish|¢]] 😼 </span> 22:12, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
:{{ping|SMcCandlish}} Unfortunately, post-filtering is impossible as the output from {{tag|syntaxhighlight|o}} is not exposed to lua other than as an opaque strip marker. Pre-filtering could be done trivially using [[Module:String]] and/or [[Module:MultiReplace]] without creating a new lua module.  [[User:Pppery|&#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery]] ([[User talk:Pppery|talk]]) 11:31, 18 September 2018 (UTC)
:: Correction: Post-filtering is not technically impossible, only impossible to do without relying heavily on undocumented implementation details of the SyntaxHighlight extension, which seems like it's not a good idea to do for such a heavily used template.  [[User:Pppery|&#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery]] ([[User talk:Pppery|talk]]) 22:22, 18 September 2018 (UTC)
:: I should have known better than to call something impossible.  [[User:Pppery|&#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery]] ([[User talk:Pppery|talk]]) 22:25, 18 September 2018 (UTC)
:::{{ping|Pppery}} Well, what I suggested was that "some parameter, perhaps {{para|filter|y}}, could pre-filter", so it sounds like you're telling me that the problem I'm reporting is in fact easily fixable. <span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family:'Trebuchet MS'"> — [[User:SMcCandlish|'''SMcCandlish''']] [[User talk:SMcCandlish|☏]] [[Special:Contributions/SMcCandlish|¢]] 😼 </span> 11:10, 8 November 2018 (UTC)

== How do you look up which pages are '''directly''' calling given module? ==

I am looking for ways of tracking which pages directly call some module, in case I am altering the module interface. For example I have some Module:X intended to be accessed through Template:X and I would like to check if any other templates, modules or other pages call it. [[Special:WhatLinksHere]] with namespace filter is great but it is swamped by '''indirect'' calls through template. One can compare [[Special:WhatLinksHere]] for  Module:X and Template:X and look for the differences, but that also mostly has pages which are there for unexplained reason. I only want to find pages with "<code><nowiki>{{#invoke:X|Y</nowiki></code>" so maybe I should write SQL query to look for that in page text? Or is there an easier way? --[[User:Jarekt|Jarekt]] ([[User talk:Jarekt|talk]]) 17:39, 7 November 2018 (UTC)
:Enter <code>insource:"invoke:X"</code> in the search box. Click "Everything" to find results in all namespaces. [[User:PrimeHunter|PrimeHunter]] ([[User talk:PrimeHunter|talk]]) 17:52, 7 November 2018 (UTC)
: {{ec}} {{re|Jarekt}} If I go to [[Special:Search]], then pick the namespaces and search for something like <code>insource:/invoke:\s*WikidataIB/</code>, I can find the pages that invoke WikidataIB. You'll probably be able to adapt that for what you need. Cheers --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 18:04, 7 November 2018 (UTC)
::<code>insource:/.../</code> is an expensive regex search which shouldn't be used alone per [[:mw:Help:CirrusSearch#Insource]]. A normal <code>insource:</code> search works fine here unless the module name often occurs after the word "invoke" in normal English text. [[User:PrimeHunter|PrimeHunter]] ([[User talk:PrimeHunter|talk]]) 18:16, 7 November 2018 (UTC)
::: As you don't know whether there are space characters between "invoke:" and the module name, your search will miss those. You need a regex to find all of them in one search. As usual, the documentation on mediawiki is a long way from realistic, and these sort of simple searches execute rapidly without problems.
::: If you feel you ''have'' to use a search domain to use the regex on, then something like <code><nowiki>insource:"WikidataIB" insource:/invoke:\s*WikidataIB/</nowiki></code> will do the job almost instantly. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 19:11, 7 November 2018 (UTC)
::::I prefer to limit it to "hastemplate:"Module:X" insource:/invoke:\s*X/". --[[User:Izno|Izno]] ([[User talk:Izno|talk]]) 19:13, 7 November 2018 (UTC)
::::<code>insource:"invoke:X"</code> also finds cases with spaces and it's simple. [[User:PrimeHunter|PrimeHunter]] ([[User talk:PrimeHunter|talk]]) 00:21, 8 November 2018 (UTC)
::::: You're absolutely right and I was wrong: your search works. The colon character is treated as greyspace, so of course it will also match <code>invoke X</code>, etc. But as you say, that's almost certainly not going to be a common expression in prose (unless you write a module called "BRD"). Cheers --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 01:40, 8 November 2018 (UTC)
Thanks all for your help! --[[User:Jarekt|Jarekt]] ([[User talk:Jarekt|talk]]) 19:27, 7 November 2018 (UTC)
== Knowing if being called from a disambiguation page ==
{{tracked|T71441}}
If a template/module needs to know if it is being invoked from a disambiguation page (without user input), is searching the page for the {{tl|Disambiguation}} template (and redirects) the way to go, or is there another way? --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 23:54, 7 November 2018 (UTC)
:It's pretty ugly, but searching the page content is all that's possible, I think. That's what I did at [[c:Module:Countries]] in function <code>getRedirectTarget</code>. It seems to be pretty fast. It was pointed out to me that I missed a few infrequently used redirects/templates but I thought targeting the main ones was good enough. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 00:09, 8 November 2018 (UTC)
::Thanks for the answer and for the code reference! --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 12:12, 8 November 2018 (UTC)
:
::Doesn't <code>mw.title.getCurrentTitle().isRedirect</code> give you that answer?
::—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 13:05, 8 November 2018 (UTC)
:::Tested it out and no. It makes sense as redirect is not the same as disambiguation I guess. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 13:33, 8 November 2018 (UTC)
::::Doh! brain fart.  nevermind.
::::—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 14:06, 8 November 2018 (UTC)
:::::Wikipedia does know which pages are disambiguation pages though. It doesn't look like there is a method exposed in the Lua api but that would be a pretty reasonable request for Phabricator. --[[User:Izno|Izno]] ([[User talk:Izno|talk]]) 17:38, 8 November 2018 (UTC)
== Lua "Beta" template ==

What is the template to say in Lua documentation: "This module is beta status/quality"? (alpha, etc). -[[User:DePiep|DePiep]] ([[User talk:DePiep|talk]]) 12:35, 17 November 2018 (UTC)
:Found: {{tl|Module rating}} - [[User:DePiep|DePiep]] ([[User talk:DePiep|talk]]) 12:41, 17 November 2018 (UTC)
== How can one track module dependencies ==

I am wandering is there some way of tracking module dependencies. Let me give an example, on commons we have [[c:Module:Fallback]] which according to [[Special:MostTranscludedPages]] is used on 44M pages, including [https://commons.wikimedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Special%3AWhatLinksHere&target=Module%3AFallback&namespace=828 many other modules] like my [[c:Module:Artwork]] or RexxS' [[c:Module:WikidataIB]]. [[c:Module:Fallback]] implements mostly retired language fallback mechanism and should not be part of many of other Modules, so I am curious how those dependencies sneak in. Is there some tool or approach to track it down? --[[User:Jarekt|Jarekt]] ([[User talk:Jarekt|talk]]) 21:40, 8 November 2018 (UTC)
:You might try this kind of search in the module namespace:
::<code>insource:/require *\( *["']module:fallback["']/i</code> → [https://commons.wikimedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?search=insource%3A%2Frequire+*%5C%28+*%5B%22%27%5Dmodule%3Afallback%5B%22%27%5D%2Fi&ns828=1]
:—[[User:Trappist the monk|Trappist the monk]] ([[User talk:Trappist the monk|talk]]) 12:32, 9 November 2018 (UTC)
::
:: {{re|Jarekt}} Following up from {{u|PrimeHunter}}'s tip above, searching for <code>insource:"require module fallback"</code> finds them plus a couple of extras like <code>module:fallback/sandbox</code>. There are few enough of those to manually pick the ones that interest you. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 13:37, 9 November 2018 (UTC)
:::[[c:Module:Fallback]] is used by couple abandon and unused modules and by subtemplates of [[c:Module:Wikidata]] (used on 2M pages), so 44M uses is a mistery as I can not find templates that use it either. --[[User:Jarekt|Jarekt]] ([[User talk:Jarekt|talk]]) 03:58, 18 November 2018 (UTC)

== Validating date parameter is in a Template:Start date ==

I have a template which the documentation asks for the date parameter to be in a {{tl|Start date}} template. The template code is in the template namespace and is not a module. I'm trying to add a tracking cat to it in the situations where the date is not in that format. I've tried using {{tl|Str sub find}} and also invoking String.find directly, but can't get this to work. This fails either because of the "|" character, which I can escape in the static target value with <nowiki>{{!}}</nowiki>, but I'm not sure how to handle the user-entered value; or it fails because of the template itself. Alternatively, if there is a better option, I'm open to that as well.

Example code:
* <code><nowiki>{{#if: {{str sub find|1={{start date|1993|02|24}}|2={{start date|}} }} | Substring is found | Substring is not found }}</nowiki></code> -> <nowiki>{{#if: {{str sub find|1={{start date|1993|02|24}}|2={{start date|}} }} | Substring is found | Substring is not found }}</nowiki> --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 10:34, 12 November 2018 (UTC)
:I don't know if this would help (I have not investigated your issue), but {{tl|extract}} can parse dates. Problem: It checks the date for validity and people often make mistakes such as 31 April so the result might cause clutter.
:*<code><nowiki>{{extract|show=format}}</nowiki></code> → {{extract|show=format}}
:*<code><nowiki>{{extract|2001|2|28|show=format}}</nowiki></code> → {{extract|2001|2|28|show=format}}
:*<code><nowiki>{{extract|Feb 28, 2001|show=format}}</nowiki></code> → {{extract|Feb 28, 2001|show=format}}
:*<code><nowiki>{{extract|2001|2|29|show=format}}</nowiki></code> → {{extract|2001|2|29|show=format}}
:[[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 22:10, 12 November 2018 (UTC)
::This might work, but I'm running into issues with it:

::* <nowiki>{{start date|1993|02|24}}</nowiki> → {{start date|1993|02|24}}
::* <nowiki>{{extract|1993|02|24|show=mdy}}</nowiki> → {{extract|1993|02|24|show=mdy}}
::* <nowiki>{{extract|{{start date|1993|02|24}}|show=mdy}}</nowiki> → {{extract|{{start date|1993|02|24}}|show=mdy}}
::<s>Any idea?</s> This might be because {{tl|Start date}} "also includes duplicate, machine-readable date (or date-time) in the ISO date format (which is hidden by CSS), for use inside other templates (or table rows) which emit microformats". --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 12:18, 13 November 2018 (UTC)
::Also, I'm not sure this would really solve my issue, as it will accept correctly formatted dates, but not those using the template, which is a requirement. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 12:22, 13 November 2018 (UTC)
:::
::: Your problem rests on the fact that the parser will expand the template {{tl|Start date}} ''before'' passing its value to your template. Perhaps something like this will be usable:
:::* <code><nowiki>{{Posnq | {{start date|2018|November|30}} | bday dtstart published updated }}</nowiki></code> → <nowiki>{{Posnq | {{start date|2018|November|30}} | bday dtstart published updated }}</nowiki>
:::* <code><nowiki>{{Posnq | 30 November 2018 | bday dtstart published updated }}</nowiki></code> → <nowiki>{{Posnq | 30 November 2018 | bday dtstart published updated }}</nowiki>
:::* <code><nowiki>{{Posnq | {{start date|2018|November|31}} | bday dtstart published updated }}</nowiki></code> → <nowiki>{{Posnq | {{start date|2018|November|31}} | bday dtstart published updated }}</nowiki>
:::* <code><nowiki>{{Posnq | 31 November 2018 | bday dtstart published updated }}</nowiki></code> → <nowiki>{{Posnq | 31 November 2018 | bday dtstart published updated }}</nowiki>
::: That accepts invalid dates as well, but still discriminates between having a template that has those microformats and one that doesn't. Obviously, you pass <nowiki>{{{date|}}}</nowiki> as the first parameter. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 14:24, 13 November 2018 (UTC)
::: Just to help check: Let's say you were looking for the parameter {{para|airdate}} in [[Template:Infobox television episode]]. You could search all articles on:
:::* <code>insource:"Infobox television episode" insource:"airdate"</code> to find 9,240 occurrences; then on:
:::* <code>insource:"Infobox television episode" insource:"airdate" insource:/| *airdate *= *\{\{[Ss]tart date/</code> to find 3,775 that have the {{tl|start date}} template; and on:
:::* <code>insource:"Infobox television episode" insource:"airdate" insource:/| *airdate *= *[^{ ]/</code> to find 5,674 that don't have a template.
:::* <code><nowiki>insource:"Infobox television episode" insource:"airdate" insource:/| *airdate *= *[1-9A-Za-z]/</nowiki></code> shows 5,648 articles. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 16:14, 13 November 2018 (UTC)
::::I always like to point out that insource:"name of template" is more fragile compared to hastemplate:"Infobox television episode", which catches all transclusions (some 120 through pass-through templates in this case). (I think I did that recently with you--just a friendly reminder.) It's also less expensive for the search in the event you have multiple templates with a single core template (as with the citation module for example). (I think it's marginally less expensive than an insource search even without regex but I could be wrong about that.) --[[User:Izno|Izno]] ([[User talk:Izno|talk]]) 17:18, 13 November 2018 (UTC)
::::: Thanks for the reminder, {{u|Izno}}. I never spend enough time optimising searches and suchlike, and I'd be astonished if hastemplate: wasn't more efficient and less expensive than insource: when looking for templates. Cheers, --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 23:07, 13 November 2018 (UTC)

{{ping|RexxS}} - I've used your code and it works and I've also found another template that does it. However, {{tl|posnq}} will fail if any text is placed before {{tl|Start date}} (which technically is good, but not the way I'd like to catch "abnormal" additions, as that will include other cases) so hard-codding the result to "75" is a bit fragile here.
* {{tl|str find0}}: <code><nowiki>{{#ifexpr: {{str find0| {{start date|1993|02|24}} | dtstart }} != -1  | Substring is found | Substring is not found }}</nowiki></code> → {{#ifexpr: {{#invoke:string|find| {{start date|1993|02|24}} |dtstart}} | Substring is found | Substring is not found }}
* {{tl|str find0}}: <code><nowiki>{{#ifexpr: {{str find0| First released: {{start date|1993|02|24}} | dtstart }} != -1  | Substring is found | Substring is not found }}</nowiki></code> → {{#ifexpr: {{#invoke:string|find| First released: {{start date|1993|02|24}} |dtstart}}| Substring is found | Substring is not found }} 
* {{tl|posnq}} ok: <code><nowiki>{{#ifexpr: {{Posnq| {{start date|1993|02|24}} | bday dtstart published updated }} = 75 | Substring is found | Substring is not found }}</nowiki></code> → <nowiki>{{#ifexpr: {{Posnq| {{start date|1993|02|24}} | bday dtstart published updated }} = 75 | Substring is found | Substring is not found }}</nowiki>
* {{tl|posnq}} fail: <code><nowiki>{{#ifexpr: {{Posnq| First released: {{start date|1993|02|24}} | bday dtstart published updated }} = 75 | Substring is found | Substring is not found }}</nowiki></code> → <nowiki>{{#ifexpr: {{Posnq| First released: {{start date|1993|02|24}} | bday dtstart published updated }} = 75 | Substring is found | Substring is not found }} </nowiki>
I'm pretty sure if the template was in lua, this whole process would have been easier and cleaner. --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 10:29, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
::
:: {{re|Gonnym}} [[Template:Posnq]] is designed to return nothing if no match is found, so you only need to use an #if to test (since #if treats nothing as false and anything else as true):
::* <code><nowiki>{{#if: {{Posnq | {{start date|1993|02|24}} | bday dtstart published updated }}  |  | [[:Category:Parameter not using Start date template]] }}</nowiki></code> → <nowiki>{{#if: {{Posnq | {{start date|1993|02|24}} | bday dtstart published updated }}  |  | [[:Category:Parameter not using Start date template]] }}</nowiki>
::* <code><nowiki>{{#if: {{Posnq | 24 February 1993 | bday dtstart published updated }}  |  | [[:Category:Parameter not using Start date template]] }}</nowiki></code> → <nowiki>{{#if: {{Posnq | 24 February 1993 | bday dtstart published updated }}  |  | [[:Category:Parameter not using Start date template]] }}</nowiki>
:: All you need to do is add:
::* <code><nowiki>{{#if: {{Posnq | {{{airdate|}}} | bday dtstart published updated }}  |  | [[Category:Parameter not using Start date template]] }}</nowiki></code>
:: to the template in its tracking category section. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 14:40, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
:::Thanks [[User:RexxS|RexxS]], works great! --[[User:Gonnym|Gonnym]] ([[User talk:Gonnym|talk]]) 10:48, 18 November 2018 (UTC)

== Mystery script errors on Wikidata ==

Wikidata has 4K pages with [[d:Category:Pages_with_script_errors]]. Pages like [[d:Talk:Q100]] where I can see the error details in html ( in <nowiki><script></nowiki> but not on the page itself. How do we debug such cases? --[[User:Jarekt|Jarekt]] ([[User talk:Jarekt|talk]]) 04:09, 18 November 2018 (UTC)
:That is a really weird one. The error (translated from the HTML source) is:
<pre>
Lua error: bad argument #1 to 'getAllStatements' (string expected, got nil).
in function "error"
libraryUtil.lua:11: in function "checkType"
mw.wikibase.lua:151: ?
(tail call): ?
Module:Wikidata:581: in function "getClaims"
Module:Wikidata/utils:44: ?
(tail call): ?
mw.lua:511: ?
</pre>
:Something is going wrong during the expansion of <nowiki>{{Item documentation}}</nowiki>. Interestingly, editing [[:d:Talk:Q100]] shows its contents is <nowiki>{{Item documentation}}</nowiki> and previewing the edit (without changing anything) shows [[:d:Category:Pages with script errors]] at the bottom. However, replacing the contents with <nowiki>{{Item documentation|Q100}}</nowiki> and previewing shows there is no error category. Near the bottom of the preview page is "Lua logs" with some mumbo jumbo that I suspect is internal to mw.wikibase although I can't find it. Previewing <nowiki>{{Item documentation|Q5}}</nowiki> shows a much longer log corresponding to the longer tree of "parent classes". The "1>=10" stuff might be a log of a binary search? Or a sort? I don't have time to look more at the moment. If someone doesn't crack it soon, a developer might be needed. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 06:44, 18 November 2018 (UTC)
:Hmm. I put a temporary test in [[:d:Module:Wikidata]] (preview only) and confirmed that everything works at line 581 which is the fail point in the error above. That is, <code>entity</code> and <code>property</code> are always strings. That makes me think that a developer is needed. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 06:55, 18 November 2018 (UTC)
:@[[User:Jarekt|Jarekt]]: I think I fixed the problem with an edit at [[:d:Template:Item documentation]]. Try refreshing or purging affected pages and the errors might go away. [[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] ([[User talk:Johnuniq|talk]]) 10:10, 18 November 2018 (UTC)
::[[User:Johnuniq|Johnuniq]] Thanks a lot for looking into it. I spent a while scrathing my head trying to figure it out. The number of pages in [[d:Category:Pages with script errors]] is now 448, down from 4k. So your elagant fix of the template worked. --[[User:Jarekt|Jarekt]] ([[User talk:Jarekt|talk]]) 02:54, 19 November 2018 (UTC)
== New parameter for [[Module:Article history]] ==

I [[Template talk:Article history#DYK subpage parameter|proposed adding a parameter]] to [[Template:Article history]] (which merely invokes [[Module:Article history]]). There was no support or opposition to it after the requisite amount of time, and it was a relatively minor edit, so I would have gone ahead and implemented it myself. However, I do not know Lua. Could someone who does assist with this task (described at the template's talk page), which involves: (1) creating a new parameter and (2) tweaking the target of one of the wikilinks displayed by the template? Thanks in advance. [[User:Ergo Sum|'''<span style="color:#0645AD">Ergo Sum</span>''']]  02:53, 14 December 2018 (UTC)
== Ordinal numbers ==

Hi. I want to add a function to the [[az:Module:Dates|Dates module]] on Azerbaijani Wikipedia to create categories automatically. They are mandatory because of the Azerbaijani grammar. Formula will be year+ordinal number suffix, the word "ildə" which means "in year" and the rest will be dependents.

The ordinal suffixes are, 0-cı (not mandatory), 1-ci, 2-ci, 3-cü, 4-cü, 5-ci, 6-cı, 7-ci, 8-ci, 9-cu, 10-cu (the last digits are repeated), 20-ci, 30-cu, 40-cı, 50-ci, 60-cı, 70-ci, 80-ci, 90-cı, 100-cü... (hundreds are -cü), 1000-ci (thousands are -ci). 

For the catogories they would be like Category:2018-ci ildə vəfat edənlər, Category:1976-cı ildə vəfat edənlər, Category:1900-cü ildə yarananlar.

Please help if interested. Thank you!--[[User:Toghrul Rahimli|Toghrul Rahimli]] ([[User talk:Toghrul Rahimli|talk]]) 11:21, 5 December 2018 (UTC)

: {{re|Toghrul Rahimli}} If I've understood properly, here are some tests using [[Module:Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal]]:
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1000}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1900}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1910}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1920}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1930}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1940}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1950}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1960}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1970}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1980}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1990}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1991}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1992}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1993}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1994}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1995}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1996}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1997}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1998}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |1999}}
:* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |2000}}
: Are those correct? You can use the local function in your own module. Obviously you can add on "Category:", " ildə", and the rest of the wording as needed. --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 15:26, 5 December 2018 (UTC)
{{re|RexxS}} this was the exact function i tried to create, but failed obviously. I tested a lot of different numbers, it works how it should. Thank you for sparing your time and helping!--[[User:Toghrul Rahimli|Toghrul Rahimli]] ([[User talk:Toghrul Rahimli|talk]]) 17:05, 5 December 2018 (UTC)

{{re|RexxS}} excuse me, i faced a little bit of a trouble. Could you help me? I want to integrate inYear parameter to the ordinal one.

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
function inYear( year )
    if ( year >= 0 ) then
        return '' .. year .. ''
    else
        return '' .. ( 0 - year) .. 'e.ə.'
    end
end
</syntaxhighlight>

Categories part:

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
    if categoryNamePrefix then
        if ( nd ~= nil and nm ~= nil) then
            datePart = datePart .. '[[Kateqoriya:' .. nd .. ' ' .. genitivusMonthes2[nm] .. ' ' .. categoryNamePrefix .. ']]'
        end
        if ( ny ~= nil) then
            datePart = datePart .. '[[Kateqoriya:' .. inYear( ny ) .. ' ildə ' .. categoryNamePrefix .. ']]'
        end
    end
</syntaxhighlight>

The result is obvious, ''2018 ildə vəfat edənlər''. Or i would be happy if you took a look at the module, and an example of an article is [[az:Corc Herbert Uoker Buş|Corc Herbert Uoker Buş]] and the module is [[az:Module:Dates|Dates]].
:
: {{re|Toghrul Rahimli}} I'm sorry, but I don't understand enough about how the Azerbaijani language works to see what is wrong with [[az:Corc Herbert Uoker Buş|Corc Herbert Uoker Buş]]. Can you explain in simple terms what output you need and what output you are getting? --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 01:04, 7 December 2018 (UTC)
:{{re|RexxS}} The problem is the category. I implemented wikidata on the templates, and trying to adapt modules to our language. On the article you will see the red categories, they are not how they should be. For example, it shouldn't be ''1924 ildə doğulanlar'', it should be ''1924-cü ildə doğulanlar'' which means ''people born in 1924''. You created the algorithm for the suffixes. The main purpose of that was to implement them into categories, but i failed. This is the string in which the ordinal system will be implemented:
<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
            datePart = datePart .. '[[Kateqoriya:' .. inYear( ny ) .. ' ildə ' .. categoryNamePrefix .. ']]'
</syntaxhighlight>
By the way, b.e.ə means means BC, which is shown in the module. Cheers!--[[User:Toghrul Rahimli|Toghrul Rahimli]] ([[User talk:Toghrul Rahimli|talk]]) 05:39, 7 December 2018 (UTC)
:
: {{re|Toghrul Rahimli}} I've amended [[az:Module:Dates]] so that it returns the ordinal instead of the cardinal for the year in the InYear function, but I don't see any change on [[az:Corc Herbert Uoker Buş]]. That might be a caching issue, so I looked at some others: [[az:Mustafa Kamal Atatürk]] and [[az:Əli Xamenei]] both seem to have correct categories, but my translation skills are not sufficient to get much further. Could you look at some articles that you know use the Dates module and see if they are right now, please? P.S. I'm not sure I have put the "b.e.ə" in the right place, could you check that as well, please? Cheers --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 16:43, 7 December 2018 (UTC)
:
: {{re|RexxS}} thank you for your edit on the module. The categories in some other articles are correct, because they are not added by the module, but a template. For example, if you remove <pre>{{doğum tarixi və yaşı|1939|7|17}}</pre> (which means date of birth and age), you will see the data will be filled by wikidata, and its category will be shown incorrectly (the year one). It means, the problem directly comes from the last string which is highlighted in my previous reply. if ''Kateqoriya: .. '''inYear( ny )''' ..  ildə  .. categoryNamePrefix .. '' would be changed into a correct one, they will work perfectly. Cheers!--[[User:Toghrul Rahimli|Toghrul Rahimli]] ([[User talk:Toghrul Rahimli|talk]]) 06:32, 8 December 2018 (UTC)
::
:: {{re|Toghrul Rahimli}} The problem was that the function inYear() needed to be ''local'' to the Module:Dates, otherwise somewhere else another version of the function was being used which only returned the year. I've fixed that and now it's correctly using the ordinal function and the categories on [[az:Corc Herbert Uoker Buş]] are blue-linked. Would you check some other articles to make sure it's working properly, please? It especially needs to check someone with a date "b.e.ə" so that we know it's in the right place. Cheers --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 12:29, 8 December 2018 (UTC)
:
:{{re|RexxS}} I checked it, it's working how it should be now. Made a minor edit for e.ə so this is correct now. Thank you for your help, it contributed to Azwiki a lot. Cheers!--[[User:Toghrul Rahimli|Toghrul Rahimli]] ([[User talk:Toghrul Rahimli|talk]]) 13:03, 8 December 2018 (UTC)
::nitpick: in the code <syntaxhighlight lang=lua>
local function ordinal(number)
	local suffix
	if number % 1000 == 0 then
		suffix = "ci"
	elseif number %100 == 0 then
		suffix = "cü"
	elseif number %10 == 0 then
		local rem = number % 100
		suffix = suffixes[rem]
	end
	if not suffix then
		rem = number %10
		suffix = suffixes[rem]
	end
	return number .. "-" .. suffix
end
</syntaxhighlight>note that the scope of "local rem" does not span all the way to its 2nd appearance (so it becomes global at this point). personally, i prefer the and/or logic when writing lua, like so - i find it more readable. not everyone agrees...<syntaxhighlight lang=lua>
local function ordinal(number)
	local suffix =
	    number % 1000 == 0 and "ci"
	    or number %100 == 0 and "cü"
	    or number %10 == 0  and suffixes[number % 100] -- the condition number %10 == 0 is not really needed, but is left for clarity
	    or suffixes[number % 10]
	    or '' -- safety. should never happen
	return number .. "-" .. suffix
end
</syntaxhighlight>peace - [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש (aka kipod)]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|talk]]) 21:50, 11 December 2018 (UTC)
:::
::: Thanks for spotting the scope problem with the second {{var|rem}}. Had I taken the time, I would have simplified to: <syntaxhighlight lang=lua>
local function ordinal(number)
	local suffix
	if number % 1000 == 0 then
		suffix = "ci"
	elseif number %100 == 0 then
		suffix = "cü"
	elseif number %10 == 0 then
		suffix = suffixes[number % 100]
	else
		suffix = suffixes[number %10] or ""
	end
	return number .. "-" .. suffix
end
</syntaxhighlight>
::: While we're nit-picking, I think you'll find that the condition <code>number %10 == 0</code> actually ''is'' necessary, otherwise 1910, 1920, 1930, etc. would all have the same suffix, which is incorrect. Cheers --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 01:44, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
::::i don't see it. for 1910, mod 100 will return 10, and for 1930 it will be 30, which are different entries in the table. for 1934, mod 100 returns 34, which is nil, equivalent to false, in the table, so the boolean shortcut falls through to the mod 10 line, even without the "<code>%10==0</code>" condition. peace - [[User:קיפודנחש|קיפודנחש (aka kipod)]] ([[User talk:קיפודנחש|talk]]) 06:57, 13 December 2018 (UTC)
::::: Yes, you're right! I misinterpreted what you meant, assuming you were implying that the whole line <code>or number %10 == 0  and suffixes[number % 100]</code> was redundant. I can see you were saying one could replace that line with just <code>or suffixes[number % 100]</code>. Cheers --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 00:31, 14 December 2018 (UTC)
:{{re|RexxS}} i simplified the code base on your last syntaxhighlight. The only thing left is the 0. It has to take -cı suffix, but the code returns -ci. For example, i applied the code to a year navigation template on AzWiki. See [[az:1]] to see what i mean. Cheers!--[[User:Toghrul Rahimli|Toghrul Rahimli]] ([[User talk:Toghrul Rahimli|talk]]) 10:36, 17 December 2018 (UTC)
:: {{re|Toghrul Rahimli}} I'm not sure what the case is, because there was no year 0, but if you have a need for it, here is the revised code to take care of the year 0: <syntaxhighlight lang=lua>
local function ordinal(number)
	local suffix
	if number == 0 then
		suffix = "cı"
	elseif number % 1000 == 0 then
		suffix = "ci"
	elseif number %100 == 0 then
		suffix = "cü"
	elseif number %10 == 0 then
		suffix = suffixes[number % 100]
	else
		suffix = suffixes[number %10] or ""
	end
	return number .. "-" .. suffix
end
</syntaxhighlight>
:: So we get:
::* {{#invoke: Sandbox/RexxS/Ordinal |Ordinal |0}}
:: Will that fix it for you? --[[User:RexxS|RexxS]] ([[User talk:RexxS|talk]]) 16:33, 17 December 2018 (UTC)
:{{re|RexxS}} i actually use the module seperately. The 0 works fine now. Thanks once again!--[[User:Toghrul Rahimli|Toghrul Rahimli]] ([[User talk:Toghrul Rahimli|talk]]) 17:48, 17 December 2018 (UTC)