Help:Piped link
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This is a copy of the master help page at Meta. Do not edit this copy.
Edits will be lost in the next update from the master page. See below for more information.
A piped link is an internal link or interwiki link where the link target and link label are both specified. This is needed in the case that they are not equal, while also the link label is not equal to the link target with the last word extended. This allows linking a word or phrase within the text of a page rather than using "see also", even if the wording does not exactly correspond with the name of the target page. With a suitable browser and depending on the preferences set, one can still see the link target: when you point at the link, the name shows up in a hover box and is also shown in the status bar.
For instance:
[[coffeehouse setup|How to set up a coffee house]]
will show: How to set up a coffee house
Another example would be [[train station|station]] rendering as station. This is useful where the word "station" is used in an article on trains; from the context, it would be clear that a train station is meant. The piped link is more convenient to the user than a link to station which might be a disambiguation page.
The term piped refers to the use of the pipe character "|" used to separate the good description from the actual link. This character is named after an alternative use of it; see Pipe (computing).
Contents
Using a redirect as an alternative
An alternative is simply using redirect pages. To create How to set up a coffee house, use [[How to set up a coffee house]] and make this a redirect to coffeehouse setup (note that, unlike above, what pops up when you point at the link, if applicable for your browser, is simply the text already shown).
This is convenient if the redirect is already there or will also be of use elsewhere; however, there are a few drawbacks:
Combining a piped link and a redirect, one can provide some information that is not the name of the page one links to in the hover box, such as the value of a unit in terms of other units. In that case one can make a page whose pagename is the info one wants in the link title, and which redirects to a page with a more appropriate name. See e.g. w:Template:Ft, containing [[30.48 cm|ft]], with the page w:30.48 cm redirecting to w:Foot (unit of length).
Automatic conversion of the wikitext
Pipe trick
If in a piped link the part after the "|" is left empty, it is converted to an abbreviated form of the page name on the left, as follows:
Just like for the three or four tildes when signing on Talk pages and the use of subst, in a preview, the result already shows up in the preview itself, but the conversion in the edit box is not yet shown. Press "Show changes" to see the change in the wikitext.
Examples
*[[project:a (b)|]]
*[[w:project:a (b)|]]
*[[:de:project:a (b)|]]
*[[wiktionary:project:a (b)|]]
*[[wiktionary:de:project:a (b)|]]
*[[wikibooks:project:a (b)|]]
*[[wikiquote:project:a (b)|]]
*[[wikisource:project:a (b)|]]
*[[w:en:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|]] [[w:en:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|en:{{FULLPAGENAME}}]]
*[[m:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|]] [[m:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|{{FULLPAGENAME}}]]
produces
Category tag
The sortkey syntax of the category being like a piped link, the pipe trick also works for category tags, even though it is not useful there.
Limitation
Inverse pipe trick
On page "A (c)", [[|b]] is automatically converted to [[b (c)|b]].
Similarly, on page "A, c", [[|b]] is automatically converted to [[b, c|b]].
Syntax for external links
For external links a space is used instead of a pipe character; see Help:Editing.
See also
Wikipedia-specific help
None.
This page is a copy of the master help page at Meta (for general help information all Wikimedia projects can use), with two Wikipedia-specific templates inserted. To update the main text, edit the master help page for all projects at m:Help:Piped link. For Wikipedia-specific issues, use Template:Ph:Piped link (the extra text at the bottom of this page) or Template:Phh:Piped link for a Wikipedia-specific lead (text appears at the top of this page). You are welcome to replace the full wikitext of this page with that of the master page at Meta at any time. To view this page in other languages see the master page at Meta.
