Tɛmplet:Order of magnitude/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Tɛmplet:Order of magnitude.
It contains usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original tɛmplet page.

This template is used on 160,000+ pages.
To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

Usage[mali mi di yibu sheena n-niŋ]

This template calculates the (decimal) order of magnitude of numbers within the ranges 10³⁰⁰ to 10⁻³⁰⁰ and −10⁻³⁰⁰ to −10³⁰⁰.

The acceptable input and the output produced are optimised for use in other templates.

The hyphen (not a true minus sign) is used for negative numbers.
No separator is used for thousands.
The template gives 0 for 0. Although, strictly speaking, this is mathematically incorrect it has been designed this way so as to be more useful in other templates. An important example of this is that when used by {{convert}} 0 °C or 0 °F is considered to be on the same order of magnitude as ±1 °C or ±1 °F respectively.

Examples[mali mi di yibu sheena n-niŋ]

{{Order of magnitude|123400}}
{{Order of magnitude|12340}}
{{Order of magnitude|1234}}
{{Order of magnitude|123.4}}
{{Order of magnitude|12.34}}
{{Order of magnitude|1.234}}
{{Order of magnitude|.1234}}
{{Order of magnitude|.01234}}
{{Order of magnitude|0}}
{{Order of magnitude}}

Incorrect usage[mali mi di yibu sheena n-niŋ]

The input must be an unformatted number, or the template will emit errors:

{{Order of magnitude|}} → Expression error: Unexpected = operator
{{Order of magnitude|123,400}} → Expression error: Unrecognised punctuation character ","
{{Order of magnitude|foo}} → Expression error: Unrecognised word "foo"

Technical points[mali mi di yibu sheena n-niŋ]

This template calculates the order of magnitude of a number, using the natural logarithm of the absolute value of the number, divided by the log of 10. The amount is adjusted for truncation error in the digital format, and the floor number of the results is used. The magnitude of fractions, such as 0+1/1000 (-3), will also be calculated. The code uses four expansion-depth levels.

Template data[mali mi di yibu sheena n-niŋ]

About

Why are the developers building this?
- User Test Data
Documentation:
Development:

Help out

Research

Main research page

Other

Customization
Known problems
Requests for Comments (RfCs): Jul 2013 a, Jul 2013 b, Jul 2015, Sep 2015

Shortcuts

What is template data?[mali mi di yibu sheena n-niŋ]

Template data is the standardized description of a template, used by the default VisualEditor, the optional 2017 wikitext editor and other tools to improve the template-editing experience for the user. Both VisualEditor and the 2017 wikitext editor include a wizard to edit templates, but for the wizard to be most useful, it needs to present specific information to the user about each template, such as a short description of the template's purpose and its parameters. This information is codified formally (by any wiki editor) using template data.

Editing without template data[mali mi di yibu sheena n-niŋ]

Without template data, each parameter needs to be added manually when inserting a new template.

No information is provided about what the value of the parameter should be.

Editing with template data[mali mi di yibu sheena n-niŋ]

With template data, a list of supported parameters (and their description) is provided for the template.

Template data provides context for each parameter, and makes it much easier for users to modify templates.

Adding template data[mali mi di yibu sheena n-niŋ]

Anyone can help by adding template data to templates (particularly high-profile ones, such as infoboxes) so that they are easier to edit in VisualEditor. The following is a minimal example, placed on a template's documentation page:

<templatedata>{
  "description": "insert description here",
  "params": {
    "first parameter": {
      "label": "x",
      "description": "x",
      "type": "string",
      "suggested": true,
      "autovalue": "derived automatic value",
      "default": "default value",
      "required": false
    }
  }
}</templatedata>

You can also add or edit template data using a GUI, by pressing the following button which appears at the top of the edit page: Edit template data

The template data tutorial explains in detail how to add template data information to a template.

Adding suggested values for parameters[mali mi di yibu sheena n-niŋ]

The parameter property suggestedvalues lets you define a list of parameter values to be shown to VisualEditor users in a dropdown for easy selection. This can be done either directly in JSON or using the TemplateData editor with no coding required. Both methods are explained in detail below.

Once the values have been added to template data, the VisualEditor will display them in a combo box (a dropdown into which users can also enter a custom value). The user selects the desired value by clicking on it. If the list of values is long - for example, a list of a country’s states - the user can begin typing in the field, whereupon the list will be filtered to show only values containing the typed text. To change an entered value, the user must simply clear the field, and the full dropdown list will appear again. If the user needs a value not included in the list (for example, "message in a bottle") they can type it in manually.

For suggested values to be displayed in the VisualEditor, the parameter’s type must be set to one of the following options:

content
line
string
number
unknown
unbalanced wikitext.

Other types (file, page, template, user, date, boolean, URL) are not currently supported because they have special functionalities in the VisualEditor already (such as autocomplete) which would interfere with the dropdown menu for suggested values in the VisualEditor.

Adding suggested values for parameters in wikitext[mali mi di yibu sheena n-niŋ]

To add suggested values to any parameter type, add the new property “suggestedvalues” to the parameter in JSON. The “suggestedvalues” attribute must be a list of strings.

An example might look like this:

"media_type": {
	"label": "Type of media",
	"example": "Newspaper",
	"type": "string",
	"description": "In what medium was the article published?",
	"suggestedvalues": [
    	"Journal",
    	"Book",
    	"Newspaper",
    	"Magazine"
	]
}

Adding suggested values for parameters with the template data editor[mali mi di yibu sheena n-niŋ]

For the parameter types listed above, you can add suggested values using the template data editor.

Step 1. Click on "Manage TemplateData".
Step 2. Click on the name of the parameter you want to add suggested values to.
Step 3. If it’s not already, set the type of the parameter to one of the following: content, line, string, number, unknown or unbalanced wikitext. A new input field "Suggested values" will appear. If the parameter is already set to one of these types, the input field should already be visible.
Step 4. Type in the suggested value(s), including any spaces and special characters, and press enter to add it to the list.

Here you can see an example of how to add suggested values in the TemplateData editor.