View source for Help:DPL/Parameters: Controlling output format

{{DPL manual|section=Parameters|subsection=Controlling output format|sort=P3}}
<div id="dpl">
{{TOC right}}
You can select one of several default formats or define your own format ({{DPL|mode|=userformat}}); output can be grouped in columns or rows.

In the examples that follow, the DPL output has been kept small to reduce page load time and page size, most notably using {{DPL|titlematch}}, {{DPL|nottitlematch}}, {{DPL|count}}, and {{DPL|includesubpages|=false}}.

== General approach to output formatting ==

The general approach to output formatting is two-fold:

# There are a couple of simple predefined output formats which generate lists of articles.
#:You will understand their meaning directly from reading.
# There is a mode called {{DPL|userformat}} which puts complete control into your hands.
#:This is somewhat complicated.

While the standard output formats are meant to be used for fast generation of simple page lists, the {{DPL|userformat}} approach aims at transcluding contents from other pages and requires some effort to understand. There is a '''system of three tags''' which are used to enclose (a) the whole output, (b) each item, (c) each transcluded section of an item. A '''fourth tag''' is used to separate values between items of one section which occur more than once.

We assume that we have two documents which use templates {{tt|x}} and {{tt|y}} with varying arguments; while {{tt|x}} is being used once within each document, {{tt|y}} is used several times. In very short notation the structure might look as follows:
<pre style="padding-left:5px; width:30%">
 A: x(a) y(3) y(5)
 B: x(b) y(4) y(1) y(2)</pre>

The following DPL parameters are used to define a set of tags which are used to construct the output:
* {{DPL|listseparators}} = ''liststart'',''itemstart'',''itemend'',''listend''
* {{DPL|secseparators}} = ''sec-1-start'',''sec-1-end'',''sec-2-start'',''sec-2-end'', .. , ..
* {{DPL|multisecseparators}} = ''multi-sep''
The arguments of the above statements can contain '''references to {{DPL|VARIABLES|%VARIABLES%}}'''. So ''sec-1-start'' might contain a reference like {{tt|%PAGE%}} to output the page name. See {{DPL|format}} for more details on variable substitution.

Now think of the following page inclusion statement:
<pre style="padding-left:5px; width:30%">
  includepage={x}.dpl,{y}.dpl</pre>

The output will then look like this:
<pre style="padding-left:5px; width:30%">
  liststart
     itemstart
        sec-1-start
           x.dpl(a)
        sec-1-end
        sec-2-start
           y.dpl(3)
           multi-sep
           y.dpl(5)
        sec-2-end
     itemend
     itemstart
        sec-1-start
           x.dpl(b)
        sec-1-end
        sec-2-start
           y.dpl(4)
           multi-sep
           y.dpl(1)
           multi-sep
           y.dpl(2)
        sec-2-end
     itemend
  listend</pre>

Assuming that the tags ({{tt|liststart}}, {{tt|itemstart}}, etc.) contain wiki syntax for table definitions and {{tt|multi-sep}} defines a horizontal line, the output might look like this:
<pre style="padding-left:5px; width:30%">
  +------+---------------------+
  |      |          | y.dpl(3) |
  |  A   | x.dpl(a) |  ----    |
  |      |          | y.dpl(5) |
  +------+----------+----------+
  |      |          | y.dpl(4) |
  |      |          |  ----    |
  |  B   | x.dpl(b) | y.dpl(1) |
  |      |          |  ----    |
  |      |          | y.dpl(2) |
  +------+----------+----------+</pre>

In some situations, however, you may want to create an output table where each of the calls of template {{tt|y}} is used to create a separate output row. Using a sortable table you could then easily rearrange the output.
<pre style="padding-left:5px; width:700px">
  +------+---------------------+       +------+---------------------+
  |  A   | x.dpl(a) | y.dpl(1) |       |  B   | x.dpl(b) | y.dpl(1) |
  +------+---------------------+       +------+---------------------+
  |  A   | x.dpl(a) | y.dpl(2) |       |  B   | x.dpl(b) | y.dpl(2) |
  +------+---------------------+       +------+---------------------+
  |  B   | x.dpl(b) | y.dpl(3) |       |  A   | x.dpl(a) | y.dpl(3) |
  +------+---------------------+       +------+---------------------+
  |  B   | x.dpl(b) | y.dpl(4) |       |  A   | x.dpl(a) | y.dpl(4) |
  +------+---------------------+       +------+---------------------+
  |  B   | x.dpl(b) | y.dpl(5  |       |  B   | x.dpl(b) | y.dpl(5) |
  +------+---------------------+       +------+---------------------+</pre>

There is a special parameter called {{DPL|dominantsection}} which you can use to mark one section of your {{DPL|includepage}} statement as "dominant" (in our example: {{DPL|dominantsection|=2}} as {{tt|{y}.dpl}} is the second argument of our {{DPL|includepage}} statement). You can only have one dominant section in a DPL statement. Marking a section as "dominant" only makes sense if you have multiple calls of the same template (or multiple chapters with the same heading) in your documents. Each piece of content in the dominant section will generate an individual output row with the values of all other columns being repeated.

----
As all of the above is not very easy to understand there are additional DPL commands ({{DPL|table}}, {{DPL|tablerow}}) which make it fairly easy to create tabular output.

== Setting the basic output mode ==

===mode===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = mode
 |purpose= Provide basic control over the output of DPL.
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|mode=''modename''}}

<u>''modename'' can be one of:</u>

;''unordered'': outputs an unordered list &mdash; HTML tag {{tt|ul}} &mdash; '''(default)'''
;''ordered'': outputs an ordered list &mdash; HTML tag {{tt|ol}}
;''none'': outputs a list using newlines and HTML tags {{tt|br/}} to separate each item
;''inline'': outputs a list using symbols defined by the {{DPL|inlinetext}} parameter to separate items
;''category'': outputs resulting articles in a way category-pages are shown ('''you must use {{DPL|ordermethod| =&nbsp;title / titlewithoutnamespace / category,title / user,title}} with this option!''')

;''userformat'': will leave output control completely to the user; <br/> see parameters {{DPL|listseparators}} and {{DPL|secseparators}}; in this mode DPL offers built-in variables which must be referenced in the output format description provided by the user. '''{{DPL|mode|=userformat}}''' is quite important to have complete control over the output.

For advanced use of DPL it is important to understand {{DPL|mode|=userformat}}. Note that this mode is '''automatically implied''' when {{DPL|listseparators|=}} or {{DPL|format|=}} are used.

==== mode 'ordered', 'unordered', 'none' (Example1) ====
These create abbreviated lists of [[:Category:DPL]] pages:
<!-- originally, Example, category=Africa, and there was no titlematch  -->
{| style="border-spacing: 10px 0;"
| align=center| In an <code><nowiki><ol>...</ol></nowiki></code> list: || align=center| In a <code><nowiki><ul>...</ul></nowiki></code> list: || align=center| In a <code><nowiki><br></nowiki></code> list:
|- style="vertical-align:middle;"
|<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  category=DPL
  titlematch=%o%
  nottitlematch=%nt%|%ow%|%ec%
  mode=ordered
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
|<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  category=DPL
  titlematch=%o%
  nottitlematch=%nt%|%ow%|%ec%
  mode=unordered
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
|<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  category=DPL
  titlematch=%o%
  nottitlematch=%nt%|%ow%|%ec%
  mode=none
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
|-
|<dpl>
  category=DPL
  titlematch=%o%
  nottitlematch=%nt%|%ow%|%ec%
  mode=ordered
</dpl>
|<dpl>
  category=DPL
  titlematch=%o%
  nottitlematch=%nt%|%ow%|%ec%
  mode=unordered
</dpl>
|<dpl>
  category=DPL
  titlematch=%o%
  nottitlematch=%nt%|%ow%|%ec%
  mode=none
</dpl>
|}

==== mode 'category' (Example2) ====
<!-- originally, Example2, titlematch=%frica%  -->
<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  titlematch=%Help%
  includesubpages=false
  mode=category
  ordermethod=titlewithoutnamespace
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>

This list will output pages that have 'Help' in their name; pages will be ordered by their name regardless of category, the output will be shown in category style (i.e. with chapter capitals).
<dpl>
  titlematch=%Help%
  includesubpages=false
  mode=category
  ordermethod=titlewithoutnamespace
</dpl>


Related configuration option (see [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:DynamicPageList3 Extension:DynamicPageList3 on MediaWiki Wiki]: <code>$wgDPL2CategoryStyleListCutoff</code>.

==== mode 'inline' ====

=====inlinetext=====

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = inlinetext
 |purpose= To define the inline text used in {{DPL|mode|=inline}}.
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|inlinetext=''wikitext''}}, with ''wikitext'' as some wiki text;
'''default is <code>&amp;nbsp;-&amp;nbsp;</code>''' except for {{DPL|mode|=userformat}} where {{DPL|inlinetext}} is empty by default.

If you want normal "breaking spaces" (and not the NON-breaking spaces) you should use <code>&amp;#32-&amp;#32</code>.

Extra whitespaces are stripped by DPL from the beginning and end of ''wikitext''. If you want to show one or multiple spaces, use one or multiple <code>&amp;nbsp;</code>, or use 'nowiki' tags <code><nowiki>&nbsp;-&nbsp;</nowiki></code> which has the same effect as <code>&amp;nbsp;-&amp;nbsp;</code>.

Bullets can be displayed with either <code>&amp;bull;</code> or {{tl|*}}.

Example:
<!-- originally, category=Africa  -->
<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  category	= Help
  includesubpages= false
  count		= 10
  mode		= inline
  inlinetext	= &amp;nbsp; &amp;bull; &amp;nbsp;
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>

This list outputs pages that have [[:Category:Help]] shown like Item1 &bull; Item2 &bull; Item3 &bull; ...

<dpl>
  category		= Help
  includesubpages = false
  count			= 10
  mode			= inline
  inlinetext	= &nbsp; &bull; &nbsp;
</dpl>

==== <span id="{{anchorencode:userformat}}"></span>mode 'userformat' ====

=====listseparators=====
{{DPL parameter
 |name   = listseparators
 |purpose= (alias for format) see the {{DPL|format}} parameter. Implicitly sets {{DPL|mode|=userformat}}.
}}

=====format=====

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = format
 |purpose= customize the output format completely. Implicitly sets {{DPL|mode|=userformat}}. Uses variable references like {{tt|%PAGE%}} to describe the output format. See also the {{DPL|secseparators}} parameter.
}}

Note1: {{DPL|listseparators}} is an alias for {{DPL|format}}.

Note2: the {{DPL|format}} command is very flexible but somewhat complicated. If you want to create tabular output, you should have a look at the {{DPL|table}} command.

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|format=''Startall'',''Start'',''End'',''Endall''}}

''Startall'', ''Start'', ''End'' and ''Endall'' are wiki tags used to separate the list items.
* ''Startall'' and ''Endall'' define an outer frame for the whole list.
* ''Start'' and ''End'' build an inner frame for each article item.

Because wiki syntax depends on newline characters, {{code|\n}} or {{code|¶}} must be used to explicitly insert newline characters into the output.

As we want to be able to control output completely, we reference article names and other possible output by special {{DPL|VARIABLES|%VARIABLES%}}:
<span id="{{anchorencode:VARIABLES}}"></span>
* {{tt|%NR%}} = the current article sequence number (starting from 1)
* {{tt|%PAGE%}} = the name of the article (including namespace)
* {{tt|%PAGEID%}} = the internal unique numeric ID of the arFticle page
* {{tt|%IMAGE%}} = the physical path to an image (based on hash values, e.g. ''5/5d/myImage.jpg'')
* {{tt|%PAGESEL%}} = the name of a page which was used within the selection criteria (only applies to {{DPL|linksfrom}} and {{DPL|linksto}})
* {{tt|%IMAGESEL%}} = the name of an image which was used within the selection criteria (only applies to {{DPL|imageused}})
----
* {{tt|%TITLE%}} = the title of the page (without the namespace)
* {{tt|%NAMESPACE%}} = the namespace of the page
----
* {{tt|%SIZE%}} = the article size (requires {{DPL|addpagesize|=true}})
* {{tt|%SIZEFS%}} = a font size number which is based on the article size (logarithm of square root of counter)
* {{tt|%COUNT%}} = the usage counter (requires {{DPL|addpagecounter|=true}}) [[Help:DPL/Hit counters removed|<span style="color:#FF0000;">Removed in MediaWiki 1.25</span>]]
* {{tt|%COUNTFS%}} = a font size number which is based on the usage counter (currently this is the logarithm of the usage counter) [[Help:DPL/Hit counters removed|<span style="color:#FF0000;">Removed in MediaWiki 1.25</span>]]
* {{tt|%COUNTFS2%}} = similar to {{tt|%COUNTFS%}}, but based on the logarithm of the square root of the usage counter [[Help:DPL/Hit counters removed|<span style="color:#FF0000;">Removed in MediaWiki 1.25</span>]]
----
* {{tt|%DATE%}} = the date selected, eg. {{tt|lastedit}}; requires {{DPL|addeditdate|=true}} or similar; the formatting of the date can be influenced using {{DPL|userdateformat|=}}
* {{tt|%USER%}} = the user who changed the document last; requires {{DPL|adduser|=true}}
----
* {{tt|%CONTRIBUTOR%}} = the user who made a contribution; requires {{DPL|addcontribution|=true}}
* {{tt|%CONTRIBUTION%}} = the number of bytes changed; requires {{DPL|addcontribution|=true}}
* {{tt|%CONTRIB%}} = an asterisk bar to indicate the amount of change; requires {{DPL|addcontribution|=true}}
----
* {{tt|%CATLIST%}} = a pipe-separated list of links to all categories to which the article belongs (requires {{DPL|addcategories|=true}})
* {{tt|%CATBULLETS%}} = a bullet point list of links to all categories to which the article belongs (requires {{DPL|addcategories|=true}})
* {{tt|%CATNAMES%}} = a comma-separated list of all categories to which the article belongs (requires {{DPL|addcategories|=true}})
----
* {{tt|%REVISION%}} = the name of the revision of the article; only accessible if the DPL query is based on {{DPL|REVISION|revisions}}
* {{tt|%EDITSUMMARY%}} = the change log message of a revision; only accessible if the DPL query is based on {{DPL|REVISION|revisions}}
----
* {{tt|%EXTERNALLINK%}} = the external hyperlink found as a consequence of the {{DPL|linkstoexternal}} statement
----

These variables will be replaced by the corresponding values if they occur within ''Start'' or ''End'' or within the corresponding tags of the {{DPL|secseparators|=}} parameter.

----

In addition there are some symbolic variables which can ONLY be used in {{DPL|resultsheader}} and {{DPL|resultsfooter}}:
* {{tt|%PAGES%}} = number of articles in the result set
* {{tt|%TOTALPAGES%}} = total number of articles in the result set, regardless of count limits; will only be calculated if used
* {{tt|%VERSION%}} = the current DPL version
----
* {{tt|%DPLTIME%}} = contains the amount of time (in seconds + milliseconds) spent within DPL; this can be helpful if you observe slow response times for wiki pages that contain DPL statements.  Example: ''2 (2009/06/13 09:27:43)'' would mean that DPL spent two seconds of the whole response time, starting at the time given in brackets.
----
* {{tt|%FIRSTNAMESPACE%}}, {{tt|%FIRSTTITLE%}}, {{tt|%LASTNAMESPACE%}}, {{tt|%LASTTITLE%}} = namespace and title of the first / last article in the result set; the information is intended to be used for page scrolling
* {{tt|%SCROLLDIR%}} = set by the URL parameter {{tt|DPL_scrollDir}}; it is passed to the scroll helper template which uses it to produce its links for scrolling

----

For example, the classical default output of DPL can also be produced with the following statements:

<!-- originally, category=Africa, and there was no titlematch/nottitlematch-->
{| style="border-spacing: 10px 0;"
| align=center| default || align=center| formatted
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
|<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  titlematch	  = %Help%
  nottitlematch	  = %o%
  includesubpages = false
  count           = 10
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
|<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  titlematch	  = %Help%
  nottitlematch	  = %o%
  includesubpages = false
  format	  = ,\n* [[%PAGE%]],,
  count           = 10
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
|-
|<dpl>
  titlematch		= %Help%
  nottitlematch		= %o%
  includesubpages	= false
  count           = 10
</dpl>
|<dpl>
  titlematch		= %Help%
  nottitlematch		= %o%
  includesubpages	= false
  format			= ,\n* [[%PAGE%]],,
  count           = 10
</dpl>
|}
Note that a bullet point list in wiki syntax is defined by a {{code|*}} at the ''beginning of a line'' &mdash; therefore we have to use a special symbol {{code|\n}} or {{code|¶}} to refer to the beginning of a new line of wiki text. Replace the {{code|*}} with a {{code|#}} and you will get a numbered list. {{tt|Startall}} and {{tt|Endall}} are empty (note that we start with a comma, note the two commas at the end), the {{tt|Start}} tag is used to create a new line with an initial <code>* </code> followed by the page name, written as a link. That's all.

Creating a top-five hitlist with access rates and bold article names of varying size could be done like this:
<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  category	 = Help
  ordermethod	 = counter
  order		 = descending
  addpagecounter = true
  count		 = 5
  format	 = ,\n%COUNT%  --- <font size="%COUNTFS%">'''[[%PAGE%]]'''</font>,<br/>,
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
However, {{DPL|addpagecounter}}, {{DPL|ordermethod|=counter}}, {{tt|%COUNT%}}, and {{tt|%COUNTFS%}} were removed in MediaWiki 1.25.<br/>
Below is an example of how to use {{tt|%NR%}} to set the font size.
<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  category	 = Help
  order		 = descending
  addpagecounter = true
  count		 = 4
  format	 = ,\n<font size="%NR%">'''[[%PAGE%]]'''</font>,<br/>,
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
<dpl>
  category		 = Help
  order			 = descending
  addpagecounter = true
  count			 = 4
  format		 = ,\n<font size="%NR%">'''[[%PAGE%]]'''</font>,<br/>,
</dpl>

You can also use HTML syntax for the tags, although this is discouraged.
<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  linksto  = DPL
  format   = <ul type="disc">,<li>[[%PAGE%]],</li>,</ul>
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
<dpl>
  linksto	= DPL
  format	= <ul type="disc">,<li>[[%PAGE%]],</li>,</ul>
</dpl>

Now let us create a table using wiki syntax:
<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  linksto  = DPL
  format   = {| class="wikitable"¶!pages found,¶|-¶|[[%PAGE%]],,¶|}
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
We use {{tt|Startall}} to define the table header and {{tt|Endall}} for the footer.
Each article is presented in a table row using wiki syntax for table layout.
<dpl>
  linksto	= DPL
  format	= {| class="wikitable"¶!pages found,¶|-¶|[[%PAGE%]],,¶|}
</dpl>

We could also produce image galleries:
<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  namespace = File
  category  = Hydra images|Template images
  count	    = 6
  format    = <gallery widths=20px heights=20px>,%PAGE%\n,,</gallery>
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
<dpl>
  namespace	= File
  category	= Hydra images|Template images
  count		= 6
  format	= <gallery widths=20px heights=20px>,%PAGE%\n,,</gallery>
</dpl>

=====secseparators=====
{{DPL parameter
 |name   = secseparators
 |purpose= customize the output format of included sections. Can be used with standard output modes and with {{DPL|mode|=userformat}}.
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|secseparators=''Start1'',''End1'',''Start2'',''End2'',..,..}}

or

{{DPL syntax|secseparators=''Start''}}

''Please note that the semantics of this parameter '''have changed with version 0.9.6!'''. When upgrading to 0.9.6 it will probably be necessary to change the {{DPL|secseparators}} statements.

In the first syntax variant, specify ''pairs of tags'' which correspond to the {{DPL|includepage}} statement. {{tt|StartN}} and {{tt|EndN}} are HTML strings or wiki tags which will be put around each transcluded section (see {{DPL|includepage|=name1,name2,...}}).

In the second syntax variant, specify just one element which will then be used as {{tt|StartN}} for all sections; in this case the second tag ({{tt|EndN}}) will be empty for all transcluded sections.

Symbolic replacements of {{tt|%PAGE%}} etc. take place as described in {{DPL|listseparators}}. In addition, the variable {{tt|%SECTION%}} can be used to refer to the section found (works only for chapter headings).

If the same section occurs more than once in an article (or an article includes the same template more than once) all such occurrences will be transcluded as a block and the {{DPL|secseparators}} tags will only be put once around the whole block (but see {{DPL|dominantsection}}).

======Example======
<!-- originally, linksto=Africa, includepage=#fruit,#color, with "fruit" & "color" column headers  -->
<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  titlematch     = DPL3/d%
  ignorecase     = true
  linksto        = Extension:DPL3/Manual
  listseparators = {|class="dpl secsep"¶!Pages found¶!Syntax¶!Example,¶|-¶|[[%PAGE%|%TITLE%]],,¶|}
  includepage    = #Syntax,##Example.*
  secseparators  = ¶|,,¶|,,
  count          = 2
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
<dpl>
  titlematch     = DPL3/d%
  ignorecase     = true
  linksto        = Extension:DPL3/Manual
  listseparators = {|class="dpl secsep"¶!Pages found¶!Syntax¶!Example,¶|-¶|[[%PAGE%|%TITLE%]],,¶|}
  includepage    = #Syntax,##Example.*
  secseparators  = ¶|,,¶|,,
  count          = 2
</dpl>
Use {{DPL|listseparators}} to define a table with three columns and put a link to the article in the first column of each row. Use {{DPL|secseparators}} to add more columns for each section found. There are two pairs for each transcluded section; the first element of each pair is a linefeed and a pipe (which define a new column in the table) and the second element of each pair is empty. Have a careful look at the {{code|¶}} symbols ({{code|\n}} can be used as an alternative). They always appear before a wiki syntax element which must be placed at the beginning of a new line. Thus, make sure that the wiki parser will understand them. Note: if an article does not contain a section named "Example", it will result in an empty cell in the table.

As mentioned above, a single element can be used in the {{DPL|secseparators}} statement in order to apply this as a start tag to all transcluded sections; so it could have also been written:

======Example 2======
<!-- originally, linksto=Africa, includepage=#fruit[50],#color[100 more..], with matching column headers  -->
<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  titlematch     = DPL3/d%
  ignorecase     = true
  linksto        = Extension:DPL3/Manual
  listseparators = {|class="dpl secsep"\n!Pages found\n!Syntax\n!Example,\n|-\n|[[%PAGE%|%TITLE%]],,\n|}
  includepage    = #Syntax[84],##Example.*[180 more..]
  secseparators  = \n|
  count          = 3
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
Assuming that the chapters on ''Syntax'' and ''Example'' contain long texts, they can be truncated (eg. to 84 or 180 characters). A link which refers directly to those chapters will be generated automatically if needed. Be aware that truncating with {{code|[ ]}}can break text formatted with wikitext or tags such as <code><nowiki><nowiki></nowiki></code>.
<dpl>
  titlematch     = DPL3/d%
  ignorecase     = true
  linksto        = Extension:DPL3/Manual
  listseparators = {|class="dpl secsep"\n!Pages found\n!Syntax\n!Example,\n|-\n|[[%PAGE%|%TITLE%]],,\n|}
  includepage    = #Syntax[84],##Example.*[180 more..]
  secseparators  = \n|
  count          = 3
</dpl>

=====multisecseparators=====

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = multisecseparators
 |purpose= put a tag between multiple transcluded parts which refer to the same template or chapter.
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|multisecseparators=''sep1'',''sep2'',...}}

The tags correspond to the transcluded section (see {{DPL|includepage|=name1,name2,...}}).

Symbolic replacements of {{tt|%PAGE%}} etc. take place as described in {{DPL|listseparators}}. In addition, the variable {{tt|%SECTION%}} can be used to refer to the section found (works only for chapter headings). It will give you the precise name of each heading even if you used a regular expression (double ##) in the include statement.

If an article uses the same template more than once you will get all references with {{tt|sepN}} as a separator.

Example:<!--
<pre><nowiki><- ---original dpl example, changed below to present a working example--- ->
<dpl>
  category=TestSSt
  includepage={interfaces_overview} dpl
  mode=userformat
  listseparators=¶{|class=sortable ¶!Interface ¶!Source system ¶!Target system ¶!Technology,¶|-¶|[[%PAGE%]] ¶,¶,¶|}
  secseparators  = \n|
  multisecseparators=¶|-¶|&amp;nbsp;|
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>-->
{| class="dpl multisec"
|- class="dpl pre"
|colspan=2|<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  titlematch	    = DPL%
  nottitlematch	    = %volume%|%page selection%
  uses		    = Template:DPL Parameter
  include	    = {dpl manual}:[[%PAGE%|%TITLE%]],{dpl parameter}:name:purpose[50]
  mode		    = userformat
  listseparators    = ¶{|class="wikitable sortable" ¶!colspan=3|Fields cannot be formatted within the include¶|-¶!Page ¶!Name ¶!Purpose,¶|-,¶|-¶|class="dpl blue-background" colspan=3|¶|-,¶|}
  secseparators	    = ¶|,,¶|class="dpl dark-background"|,
  multisecseparators= ,\n|-¶|¶|class="dpl light-background"|
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
|-
|colspan=2|
{|
|<dpl>
  titlematch		= DPL%
  nottitlematch		= %volume%|%page selection%
  uses				= Template:DPL Parameter
  include			= {dpl manual}:[[%PAGE%|%TITLE%]],{dpl parameter}:name:purpose[50]
  mode				= userformat
  listseparators	= ¶{|class="wikitable sortable" ¶!colspan=3|Fields cannot be formatted within the include¶|-¶!Page ¶!Name ¶!Purpose,¶|-,¶|-¶|class="dpl blue-background" colspan=3|¶|-,¶|}
  secseparators		= ¶|,,¶|class="dpl dark-background"|,
  multisecseparators= ,\n|-¶|¶|class="dpl light-background"|
</dpl>
|}
|-
|colspan=2|Values cannot be formatted within {{DPL|include}}, as formatting can only occur in formatting statements (in these examples {{DPL|listseparators}}, {{DPL|secseparators}}, and {{DPL|multisecseparators}}). {{tt|%VARIABLES%}} can be omitted from the {{DPL|include}}, and instead be placed in these formatting statements, for further formatting.<br/>
We can achieve some field formatting by changing some of the above dpl statements: 
|- class="dpl cols2 pre"
|
  include	= {dpl manual}:{{code|%TITLE%|class="dpl light-background"}},{dpl parameter}:name:purpose[50]
  listseparators = ¶{|class="wikitable sortable" ¶!colspan=3|Fields... secseparators¶|-¶!Page ¶!Name ¶!Purpose,¶|-,¶|-¶|class="dpl blue-background" colspan=3|¶|-,¶|}
  secseparators  = ¶|{{code|<nowiki>[[%PAGE%|{{#explode:,|:|1}}]]</nowiki>|class="dpl light-background"}},¶|class="dpl dark-background"|,
|
  include	= {dpl manual}:{{code||class="dpl light-background"}},{dpl parameter}:name:purpose[50]
  listseparators = ¶{|class="wikitable sortable" ¶!colspan=3|%VARIABLES%... listseparators¶|-¶!Page ¶!Name ¶!Purpose,¶|-{{code|<nowiki>¶|[[%PAGE%|{{#explode:%TITLE%|:|1}}]]</nowiki>|class="dpl light-background"}},¶|-¶|class="dpl blue-background" colspan=3|¶|-,¶|}
  secseparators  = {{code||class="dpl light-background"}},,¶|class="dpl dark-background"|,{{code|<nowiki>,¶|,</nowiki>|class="dpl light-background"}}
|- class="dpl cols2"
|<dpl>
  titlematch		= DPL%
  nottitlematch		= %volume%|%page selection%
  uses				= Template:DPL Parameter
  include			= {dpl manual}:%TITLE%,{dpl parameter}:name:purpose[50]
  mode				= userformat
  listseparators	= ¶{|class="wikitable sortable" ¶!colspan=3|These fields are formatted within secseparators¶|-¶!Page ¶!Name ¶!Purpose,¶|-,¶|-¶|class="dpl blue-background" colspan=3|¶|-,¶|}
  secseparators		= ¶|[[%PAGE%|{{#explode:,|:|1}}]],¶|class="dpl dark-background"|,
  multisecseparators= ,\n|-¶|¶|class="dpl light-background"|
</dpl>
|<dpl>
  titlematch		= DPL%
  nottitlematch		= %volume%|%page selection%
  uses				= Template:DPL Parameter
  include			= {dpl manual}:,{dpl parameter}:name:purpose[50]
  mode				= userformat
  listseparators	= ¶{|class="wikitable sortable" ¶!colspan=3|%TITLE% is added and formatted within listseparators¶|-¶!Page ¶!Name ¶!Purpose,¶|-¶|[[%PAGE%|{{#explode:%TITLE%|:|1}}]],¶|-¶|class="dpl blue-background" colspan=3|¶|-,¶|}
  secseparators		= ,,¶|class="dpl dark-background"|,,¶|,
  multisecseparators= ,\n|-¶|¶|class="dpl light-background"|
</dpl>
|-
|colspan=2|Formatting handled by a phantom template (eg. [[Template:DPL_parameter/dpl]]) will apply to both {{DPL|secseparators}} and {{DPL|multisecseparators}}.<br/>If separate formatting is required, it needs to be assigned to their respective parameters (as shown below).
|-
|colspan=2|To prevent truncated words, see [[Template:DPL_parameter_dpl.nowordbreak]] (which uses [[Template:nowordbreak]]).
|-
|colspan=2|<pre><nowiki>
  titlematch	    = DPL%
  nottitlematch	    = %volume%|%page selection%
  uses		    = Template:DPL Parameter
  include	    = {dpl manual}:,{DPL parameter} dpl
  mode		    = userformat
  listseparators    = ¶{|class="wikitable sortable" ¶!colspan=3|Includes a phantom template¶|-¶!Page ¶!Name ¶!Purpose,¶|-¶|[[%PAGE%|{{#explode:%TITLE%|:|1}}]],¶|-¶|class="dpl blue-background" colspan=3|¶|-,¶|}
  secseparators	    = ,,¶|class="dpl dark-background"|,,¶|,
  multisecseparators= ,\n|-¶|¶|class="dpl light-background"|
</nowiki></pre>
|- class="dpl cols2"
|<dpl>
  titlematch		= DPL%
  nottitlematch		= %volume%|%page selection%
  uses				= Template:DPL Parameter
  include			= {dpl manual}:,{DPL parameter} dpl
  mode				= userformat
  listseparators	= ¶{|class="wikitable sortable" ¶!colspan=3|Includes a phantom template¶|-¶!Page ¶!Name ¶!Purpose,¶|-¶|[[%PAGE%|{{#explode:%TITLE%|:|1}}]],¶|-¶|class="dpl blue-background" colspan=3|¶|-,¶|}
  secseparators		= ,,¶|class="dpl dark-background"|,,¶|,
  multisecseparators= ,\n|-¶|¶|class="dpl light-background"|
</dpl>
|<dpl>
  titlematch		= DPL%
  nottitlematch		= %volume%|%page selection%
  uses				= Template:DPL Parameter
  include={dpl manual}:,{DPL parameter} dpl.nowordbreak
  mode				= userformat
  listseparators	= ¶{|class="wikitable sortable" ¶!colspan=3|Includes a phantom template with Template:nowordbreak¶|-¶!Page ¶!Name ¶!Purpose,¶|-¶|[[%PAGE%|{{#explode:%TITLE%|:|1}}]],¶|-¶|class="dpl blue-background" colspan=3|¶|-,¶|}
  secseparators		= ,,¶|class="dpl dark-background"|,,¶|,
  multisecseparators= ,\n|-¶|¶|class="dpl light-background"|
</dpl>
|}

As you can see, the results resemble the list generated on the [[Help:DPL|title page]] of this manual, whose dpl is as follows:
<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  nottitlematch=%volume%|%page selection%
  namespace = Help
  uses = Template:DPL parameter
  mode = userformat
  replaceintitle = @DPL Manual/@,
  include = {DPL Manual}:[[%PAGE%|%TITLE%]],{DPL parameter}/dpl
  listseparators={|class=wikitable,\n|-\n|,,\n|}
  secseparators=,,\n|\n{|class="wikitable sortable" width=100%\n!width=140px|name\n!purpose\n|-\n|,\n|}
  multisecseparators=,\n|-\n|
  allowcachedresults = true
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
<dpl>
  nottitlematch=%volume%|%page selection%
  namespace = Help
  uses = Template:DPL parameter
  mode = userformat
  replaceintitle = @DPL Manual/@,
  include = {DPL Manual}:[[%PAGE%|%TITLE%]],{DPL parameter}/dpl
  listseparators={|class=wikitable,\n|-\n|,,\n|}
  secseparators=,,\n|\n{|class="wikitable sortable" width=100%\n!width=140px|name\n!purpose\n|-\n|,\n|}
  multisecseparators=,\n|-\n|
  allowcachedresults = true
</dpl>

See also {{DPL|Test article structure}}.

=====dominantsection=====

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = dominantsection
 |purpose= define a section with multiple occurrences as dominant, i.e. each piece of contents of this section (which is associated with a template call or a chapter within the original document) will create a separate output line.
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|dominantsection=''number''}} between 1 and the number of arguments in your {{DPL|includepage|=}} statement

If there is only 0 or 1 piece of contents for the dominant section you will see no difference from normal DPL behaviour.

Example:

See the explanations at the [[#General approach to output formatting|top of this document]] to understand the meaning of dominantsection.

Note:
Using {{DPL|dominantsection}} together with {{DPL|table}} may lead to strange result formatting.

== Generating tabular output ==

===table===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = table
 |purpose= a simple syntax to create standard tabular output; see also {{DPL|tablerow}}
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|table=''tableatr'', ''linkheader'', (column headlines) ..}}

The {{DPL|table}} statement is a shortcut which implicitly sets certain values for other DPL parameters, namely {{DPL|mode}}, {{DPL|listseparators}} / {{DPL|format}}, {{DPL|secseparators}}, and {{DPL|multisecseparators}}.

The layout is less flexible than the individual use of all of the above parameters but will probably be sufficient in many cases, especially when used together with {{DPL|tablerow}}.

If you use {{DPL|table}} in a DPL statement, it does not make sense to use one of the other options mentioned because their values will be overwritten without notice. There is one exception of this rule: It can make sense to specify the THIRD argument for {{DPL|format}} in combination with {{DPL|table}}. Therefore this parameter is NOT overwritten by the {{DPL|table}} command. The third argument can be used to output meta data like {{tt|%COUNT%}}, {{tt|%USER%}} etc. as columns in an output table. If you want to do so, the third parameter must contain wiki syntax for output columns like this:
 include = {some template}:parm1,#some heading
 table   =,,tplparm,chapter,#hits
 format  =,,\n%COUNT%
Do not forget to escape the '|' symbol if your DPL statement uses parser function syntax. You will get a table which contains template parameters, chapter contents and the usage counter as a third column. Meta data can only be placed AFTER normal contents as we use the THIRD parameter of the {{DPL|format}} statement.

The use of {{DPL|table}} requires an {{DPL|include}} statement which should, for reasons of readability, directly precede the {{DPL|table}} statement). Each argument of the {{DPL|include}} statement will produce one or more columns in the output table described in the {{DPL|table}} statement.

'''{{DPL|table}} expects a comma-separated list of parameters''':

* The first parameter will be used to describe general parameters for the table
** it is recommended to make a CSS reference here, using something like {{tt|<nowiki>class=wikitable</nowiki>}} or {{tt|<nowiki>class=mytable</nowiki>}} if ''mytable'' is defined in the [[Mediawiki:Common.css]] document.
** {{tt|<nowiki>class=wikitable</nowiki>}} is the '''default value'''.  Use double-quotes to specify multiple classes, e.g., {{tt|<nowiki>class="wikitable sortable"</nowiki>}}.

* The '''second parameter''' is the headline for the first column.
** The first column will automatically contain a reference to the article, so something like ''Article'' should be o.k.
** {{tt|Article}} is the '''default value'''.
** if you use a single {{tt|-}} (dash), the column with the hyperlink to the article will be ''suppressed''. You can supply a hyperlink to the article in any other column if you use {{tt|<nowiki>[[{{{%PAGE%}}}|{{{%TITLE%}}}]]</nowiki>}} within a phantom template.

* All subsequent parameters are column headings which correspond to the arguments of the {{DPL|include}} parameter. Note that if you call a ''phantom template'' (like {{tt|{Some Template}.dpl}}) in the include statement, you will have to provide as many headlines as the ''phantom template'' produces columns. 

* {{DPL|mode}} will be set to ''userformat''

* {{DPL|listseparators}} will be configured to produce wiki syntax which defines a table

* {{DPL|secseparators}} will be configured to produce wiki syntax which creates a table row. The first column will always contain a hyperlink to the article of the query result (except you set the link header to '-' as described above.

* {{DPL|multisecseparators}} will be configured to produce wiki syntax which creates another table row for multiple occurences of the ''first'' {{DPL|include}} argument. For all other arguments a linebreak will be used if we are dealing with template parameters and a horizontal separation line will be used when dealing with chapter contents. The background for this is the following: If you have an article which calls the same template several times, you may want to have a table where each template invocation becomes a row in your table.

When using ''phantom templates'' (i.e. templates which are called during DPL execution instead of the original template) they must be written to produce output according to wiki table syntax. When entering such a template we are already at the beginning of a column (i.e. a preceding line with a {{tt|{{!}}}} has already been put into the output stream). So start directly with the contents of the first column. To add more columns use a {{tt|{{!}}}} in a separate line. Example:

<pre><nowiki>
   some output for the first column: {{{1|}}}
   |
   some output for the next column: {{{2|}}}
   |
   some output for the next column: {{{3|}}}
</nowiki></pre>

It may sound complicated, but is a ''huge'' improvement compared to the native use of {{DPL|mode}}, {{DPL|listseparators}}, {{DPL|secseparators}} and {{DPL|multisecseparators}}.

A typical DPL statement using the {{DPL|table}} parameter would contain:
 include =                          #Chapter X,{T1}:parm1,#Chapter Y,{T2}.dpl
 table   = class=sortable, Article,      X    ,     t-p  ,     Y    , T2-a, T2-b
  
Note that we have written the above statement in a way to show the correspondence between {{DPL|include}} and {{DPL|table}}. You can see the first two parameters which define the table characteristics and a headline for the hyperlink to the article. Then follow headlines for each argument of {{DPL|include}}. Note that there are TWO headlines which correspond to the last argument of the {{DPL|include}} statement (assuming that Template:T2.dpl outputs TWO columns). ''Template:T2'' itself might have more or less than 2 arguments -- it only matters how many columns are output by ''Template:T2.dpl'').

Now look at the {{DPL|Test table|examples}}

===tablerow===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = tablerow
 |purpose= a simple syntax to create customized tabular output; see also {{DPL|table}}
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|tablerow=''coldef'', ..}}

Where ''coldef'' contains wiki code which uses the symbol '%%' to refer to the corresponding element of an {{DPL|include}} statement.

The {{DPL|table}} statement (which '''must''' be used as a prerequisite for {{DPL|tablerow}}) cares for the basics of table generation. So, when you define a column definition, you only need to specify the code for the field contents itself. You can start with field attributes like "bgcolor" or skip them. You can add a leading {{code|\n}} or {{code|¶}} to make sure that the field contents are displayed correctly if it contains wiki syntax that depends on linebreaks (e.g. enumeration list).
You must specify all columns. i.e. you must have as many entries in the {{DPL|tablerow}} statement as there are columns in your table. Skipping a column would suppress output for that column completely.

The {{DPL|tablerow}} command is best explained by an example:
<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  category=Help
  titlematch=DPL%
  count=4
  includepage ={DPL Manual}:section,%-1[25]
  table       =,Title,Sub Title,Last Section (25 chars)
  tablerow    =style="text-align:center;background-color:lightyellow;"|%%,|%%,
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
<dpl>
  category=Help
  titlematch=DPL%
  count=4
  includepage ={DPL Manual}:section,%-1[25]
  table       =,Title,Sub Title,Last Section (25 chars)
  tablerow    =style="text-align:center;background-color:lightyellow;"|%%,|%%,
</dpl>
The following example includes the use of {{DPL|addpagecounter}} and {{tt|%COUNT%}}, both of which were removed in MediaWiki 1.25.
<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  category=African Union member states
  nottitlematch=Sudan
  addpagecounter=true
  includepage ={Infobox Country or territory}:area:population_estimate,%0[100]
  format      =,,\n|style="text-align:right;"|²{#ifexpr:%COUNT%>300¦<big>'''%COUNT%'''</big>¦%COUNT%}²,
  table       =,Country,Area,Population,Text,#hits
  tablerow    =style="text-align:right;"|%%,style="text-align:right;"|%%,style="background-color:lightyellow;"|<small>%%</small>,\n|style="text-align:right;"|%%
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
* We select some African countries, we exclude Sudan
* We acquire a piece of meta data about the articles we will find (in our case the usage counter)
* We include two named parameters from a template call, <nowiki>{{Infobox Country or territory}}</nowiki>
* We include a short text passage from the text before the first chapter
* We use the third parameter of {{DPL|format}} to output the usage counter (we could even highlight values above 100 here, for example)
* We highlight usage values above 300
* We define a standard wiki table with the article name in the first column (named "Country")
* We define column headers for transcluded contents and for the usage counter
* We care for right alignment of the numerical values and define a bgcolor for the text

===tablesortcol===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = tablesortcol
 |purpose= define a column to be used as sort key (see also {{DPL|table}} )
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|tablesortcol=''number''}}

''number'' is the position of the column that shall be used as sortkey when the result is initially displayed.
* column numbering starts with ''1'';
* ''tablesortcol = 0'' means ''do not sort''; this is the default.
* Negative numbers are used to sort in descending order; e.g. ''-3'' would sort according to the third column in descending order.
* Note that the rest of the row after the selected column will also be part of the sortkey; so the contents of successive columns may serve as a secondary sort criterion if there are identical values in the selected column.
* Also note that the whole column contents is taken; this may include hidden contents or markup sequences if you used column formatting commands. For the same reason you cannot expect numeric contents to be sorted 'numerically' - sorting will always be alphabetical.
* you can of course use something like 'class=sortable' together with {{DPL|tablesortcol}}. The difference is that ..
** interactive sorting only works after the article has been initially displayed
** interactive sorting tries to guess the content type of a column and sorts according to that (date, number, string)
* If you do not use {{DPL|tablesortcol}} the output order of your table rows will depend on the sort order by which the articles were analysed. That order depends on other DPL commands like {{DPL|ordermethod}}. The default is "alphabetically by title". So, without {{DPL|tablesortcol}} you get the tablerows in alphabetical sequence of the article names where they come from. With {{DPL|tablesortcol}} you can order them by the column contents itself.

== Heading mode ==

===headingmode===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = headingmode
 |purpose= To control the output of the headings in a DPL with complex/multi-parameter {{DPL|ordermethod}}. (No effect with single-param ordermethods.) For {{DPL|ordermethod|=''method1,method2,...''}}, ''method1'' is used for headings. E.g. {{DPL|headingmode}} affects category headings in {{DPL|ordermethod|=category,title}} (2-param ordermethod). See also {{DPL|headingcount}}
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|headingmode=''modename''}}

''modename'' can be one of:
* ''none'' &mdash; headings are not displayed, no heading &mdash; '''(default)'''
* ''unordered'' &mdash; outputs an unordered list &mdash; HTML tag {{tt|ul}}
* ''ordered'' &mdash; outputs an ordered list &mdash; HTML tag {{tt|ol}}
* ''definition'' &mdash; outputs a definition list &mdash; HTML tag {{tt|dl}}
* ''H2'' &mdash; outputs sections &mdash; HTML tags {{tt|H2}} <span style="color:#FF0000;">Currently broken</span>
* ''H3'' &mdash; outputs sections &mdash; HTML tags {{tt|H3}} <span style="color:#FF0000;">Currently broken</span>
* ''H4'' &mdash; outputs sections &mdash; HTML tags {{tt|H4}} <span style="color:#FF0000;">Currently broken</span>

Example:
<!-- originally, category=Africa|Europe  -->
<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  category=Terraria Wiki|Community
  notcategory=Games
  nottitlematch=%d%|Disambiguations
  count=7
  ordermethod=category,title
  headingmode=definition
  mode=ordered
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
This list will output pages that belong to one of the categories Terraria Wiki, Community in a list similar to this (HTML source). The categories are listed in sorted order, and the titles are replaced with the appropriate links ({{DPL|nottitlematch}} and {{DPL|count}} are simply used to reduce the output size):
{|
! '''(HTML) Output''' !! '''Actual Output'''
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
|<pre><nowiki>
<dl>
  <dt>Category</dt>
  <dd>
    <ol>
      <li>Page1</li>
      <li>Page2</li>
    </ol>
  </dd>
</dl>
</nowiki></pre>
|
<dpl>
  category=Terraria Wiki|Community
  notcategory=Games
  nottitlematch=%d%|Disambiguations
  count=7
  ordermethod=category,title
  headingmode=definition
  mode=ordered
</dpl>
|}

Headingmode can be used with multi-column output but the length of the columns may in this case vary more than you would expect.

===headingcount===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = headingcount
 |purpose= In combination with {{DPL|headingmode}} this parameter decides whether we show a text line with the number of articles per group or not.
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|headingcount=''true''}}

default is <code>headingcount=false</code>


=== listattr ===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = listattr
 |purpose= Adds attributes to HTML list elements, depending on {{DPL|mode}} (HTML element is {{tt|ol}} for ordered, {{tt|ul}} for unordered, {{tt|div}} for others). Can be used with '''pseudo''' {{DPL|mode|=inline}} where inline text contains one or more {{tt|<nowiki><br/></nowiki>}}.
Only applicable to {{DPL|mode|=ordered}} or {{DPL|mode|=unordered}}.

Not applicable to {{DPL|mode|=category}} or {{DPL|mode|=inline}} (with no {{tt|<nowiki><br/></nowiki>}} in inline text).
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|listattr= attribute1="val1" attribute2="val2" ...}}

Examples:
{|
! '''Input''' !! '''(HTML) Output''' !! '''Actual Output'''
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
|width=30%|<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
category=Community
nottitlematch=%Forums%|Admin%
ordermethod=category,title
headingmode=definition
mode=none
listattr= class="submenul" class="dpl light-background"
itemattr= class="submenuli" style= "font-style: italic;"
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
|<pre><nowiki>
<ol>
  <li class="submenul" class="dpl light-background"> Cat1 (link)
    <div class="submenul">
      <span class="submenuli" style="font-style: italic;"> Page1_1 </span> <br/>
      <span class="submenuli" style="font-style: italic;"> Page1_2 </span>
    </div>
  </li>
  <li class="submenul" class="dpl light-background"> Cat2 (link)
    <div class="submenul">
      <span class="submenuli" style="font-style: italic;"> Page2_1 </span> <br/> 
      <span class="submenuli" style="font-style: italic;"> Page2_2 </span>
    </div>
  </li>
</ol>
</nowiki></pre>
|
<dpl>
category=Community
nottitlematch=%Forums%|Admin%
ordermethod=category,title
headingmode=definition
mode=none
listattr= class="submenul" class="dpl light-background"
itemattr= class="submenuli" style="font-style: italic;"
</dpl>
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
|<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
category=Community
nottitlematch=%Forums%|Admin%
ordermethod=category,title
headingmode=definition
mode=unordered
listattr= class="submenul" class="dpl light-background"
itemattr= class="submenuli" style= "font-style: italic;"
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
|<pre><nowiki>
<ol>
  <li> Cat1 (link)
    <ul class="submenul" class="dpl light-background">
      <li class="submenuli" style="font-style: italic;"> Page1_1 </li> 
      <li class="submenuli" style="font-style: italic;"> Page1_2 </li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li> Cat2 (link)
    <ul class="submenul" class="dpl light-background">
      <li class="submenuli" style="font-style: italic;"> Page2_1 </li> 
      <li class="submenuli" style="font-style: italic;"> Page2_2 </li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ol>
</nowiki></pre>
|
<dpl>
category=Community
nottitlematch=%Forums%|Admin%
ordermethod=category,title
headingmode=definition
mode=unordered
listattr= class="submenul" class="dpl light-background"
itemattr= class="submenuli" style="font-style: italic;"
</dpl>
|}

=== itemattr ===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = itemattr
 |purpose= Adds attributes to HTML list items, depending on {{DPL|mode}} (element is {{tt|li}} for ordered/unordered, {{tt|span}} for others).

Not applicable to {{DPL|mode|=category}}.
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|itemattr= attribute1="val1" attribute2="val2" ...}}

=== hlistattr ===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = hlistattr
 |purpose= Adds attributes to the HTML list element at the heading/top level, depending on {{DPL|headingmode}} (HTML element would be {{tt|ol}} for ordered, {{tt|ul}} for unordered, {{tt|dl}} for definition, {{tt|div}} for others)

Not yet applicable to {{DPL|headingmode|=none}}.
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|hlistattr= attribute1="val1" attribute2="val2" ...}}

Example:
{|
! '''Input''' !! '''(HTML) Output''' !! '''Actual Output'''
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
|<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
category=Community
nottitlematch=%Forums%|Admin%
ordermethod=category,pagetouched
headingmode=definition
mode=ordered
hlistattr= class="topmenul" id="dmenu" style= "font-size:17px;"
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
|<pre><nowiki>
<div class="topmenul" id="dmenu" style="font-size:17px;">
  <li> Category 2 (link) </li>
  <ol>
      <li>Page1_1</li>
      <li>Page1_2</li>
  </ol>
  <li> Category 2 (link) </li>
  <ol>
      <li>Page2_1</li>
  </ol>
</div>
</nowiki></pre>
|
<dpl>
category=Community
nottitlematch=%Forums%|Admin%
ordermethod=category,pagetouched
headingmode=definition
mode=ordered
hlistattr= class="topmenul" id="dmenu" style="font-size:17px;"
</dpl>
|}
These examples compare {{DPL|listattr}}, {{DPL|itemattr}}, and {{DPL|hlistattr}}
{|
! '''Input''' !! '''Actual Output'''
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
|<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
category=Community
nottitlematch=%Forums%|Admin%
ordermethod=category,title
headingmode=definition
mode=unordered
listattr= class="submenul" class="dpl light-background"
itemattr= class="submenuli" style= "font-style: italic;"
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
|
<dpl>
category=Community
nottitlematch=%Forums%|Admin%
ordermethod=category,title
headingmode=definition
mode=unordered
listattr= class="submenul" class="dpl light-background"
itemattr= class="submenuli" style="font-style: italic;"
</dpl>
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
|<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
category=Community
nottitlematch=%Forums%|Admin%
ordermethod=category,title
headingmode=definition
mode=unordered
listattr= class="submenul"
itemattr= class="submenuli" class="dpl light-background" style= "font-style: italic;"
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
|
<dpl>
category=Community
nottitlematch=%Forums%|Admin%
ordermethod=category,title
headingmode=definition
mode=unordered
listattr= class="submenul"
itemattr= class="submenuli" class="dpl light-background" style="font-style: italic;"
</dpl>
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
|<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
category=Community
nottitlematch=%Forums%|Admin%
ordermethod=category,title
headingmode=definition
mode=unordered
hlistattr= class="topmenul" id="dmenu" class="dpl light-background"
listattr= class="submenul"
itemattr= class="submenuli" style="font-style: italic;"
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
|
<dpl>
category=Community
nottitlematch=%Forums%|Admin%
ordermethod=category,title
headingmode=definition
mode=unordered
hlistattr= class="topmenul" id="dmenu" class="dpl light-background"
listattr= class="submenul"
itemattr= class="submenuli" style="font-style: italic;"
</dpl>
|}

See also {{DPL|hitemattr}}.

=== hitemattr ===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = hitemattr
 |purpose= Adds attributes to HTML list items (headings) at the heading level, depending on {{DPL|headingmode}} (HTML element would be {{tt|li}} for ordered/unordered, {{tt|div}} for others).

To be used with {{DPL|headingmode|=}}'unordered' or 'ordered'. (Not yet applicable for others.) 
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|hitemattr= attribute1="val1" attribute2="val2" ...}}

Example:
{|
! '''Input''' !! '''(HTML) Output''' !! '''Intended Output''' !! '''Actual Output'''
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
|<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
category=Community
nottitlematch=%Forums%|Admin%
ordermethod=category,title
headingmode=unordered
mode=ordered
hlistattr= class="topmenul" id="dmenu"
hitemattr= class="topmenuli" class="dpl light-background"
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>
|<pre><nowiki>
<ul class="topmenul" id="dmenu">
  <li class="topmenuli" class="dpl light-background"> Category 1 (link)
    <ol>
      <li>Page1_1</li>
      <li>Page1_2</li>
    </ol>
  </li>
  <li class="topmenuli" class="dpl light-background"> Category 2 (link)
    <ol>
      <li>Page2_1</li>
    </ol>
  </li>
</ul>
</nowiki></pre>
|
<ul class="topmenul" id="dmenu">
  <li class="topmenuli" class="dpl light-background"> Category 1 (link)
    <ol>
      <li>Page1_1</li>
      <li>Page1_2</li>
    </ol>
  </li>
  <li class="topmenuli" class="dpl light-background"> Category 2 (link)
    <ol>
      <li>Page2_1</li>
    </ol>
  </li>
</ul>
|
<dpl>
category=Community
nottitlematch=%Forums%|Admin%
ordermethod=category,title
headingmode=unordered
mode=ordered
hlistattr= class="topmenul" id="dmenu"
hitemattr= class="topmenuli" class="dpl light-background"
</dpl>
|}

===userdateformat===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = userdateformat
 |purpose= Define a special layout for date formatting.
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|userdateformat=''formatstring''}}

The ''formatstring'' may contain letters like "y,Y,m,M,d,D,h,H,i,I,s" for year, month day. Other characters are printed as they are. See the documentation for php function date() for more details [http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php]. The ''userdateformat'' applies to all date/time fields, see the parameters: {{DPL|addeditdate}},{{DPL|addpagetoucheddate}},{{DPL|addfirstcategorydate}}.

Example:

userdateformat=Y-m-d (D)

Default:

By default DPL uses "Y-m-d H:i:s" to display date and time. Note that MediaWiki stores all dates/times in UTC format. When displaying a time stamp DPL will translate it according to 
# the timezone preference (difference to UTC/GMT) given by the user in his user settings.
# if no preference is given and for all anonymous users the local time on the server will be used.

So you will either see a time based on your local time (browser based) or based on the timezone in which the wiki server is running.

The same kind of translation applies to dates you specify when selecting articles by revsion date/time.

== Control the way article names are displayed ==


===shownamespace===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = shownamespace
 |purpose= To restrict the appearance of the namespace name of a page before the page. As the switch is ''true'' by default it should be set to ''false'' if you want to avoid namespaces to be shown in the output.
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|shownamespace=false}}

Example:
<!-- originally, category=Africa, namespace=Talk  -->
<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  category      = Help
  namespace     = Help_talk
  shownamespace = false
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre> 

This list will output all Talk pages in [[:Category:Help]], listed without the 'Help talk:' prepended to page names.<br/>
The namespace 'Talk' refers to talk pages within the main namespace; all other talk namespaces, such as 'Help' or 'Guide' talk pages, would need the format '''namespace''_talk'.<br/>
Only talk pages that have been added to the category (by placing <nowiki>[[Category:Help]]</nowiki> on the talk page) will be listed.

<dpl>
  category      = Help
  namespace     = Help_talk
  shownamespace = false
</dpl>


Note that in {{DPL|mode|=userformat}} there is a different way to decide whether you want to output the title with or without namespace. In {{DPL|mode|=userformat}} two built-in variables are provided which contain the page name including the namespace ({{tt|%PAGE%}}) and the base title name ({{tt|%TITLE%}}).


===escapelinks===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = escapelinks
 |purpose= Regarding ''images'' and ''categories'' this parameter allows you to decide whether
* you want to see a link to the image or to the category page ({{DPL|escapelinks|=true}}, this is the default)
* you want to see the image or make the page which contains the DPL statement part of the categories which are returned by DPL ({{DPL|escapelinks|=false}})
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|escapelinks=false}}

Note: You can use this parameter to show images; another way to do this is to use the gallery extension in combination with DPL; there is an {{DPL|Test escapelinks|example}} for this on the dpldemo website.


===titlemaxlength===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = titlemaxlength
 |purpose= To limit the number of characters of the title to display. If the page title (this does not include  the namespace or any other prefix before the title) is bigger than the {{DPL|titlemaxlength}} value, the title is truncated and ended by '...'.
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|titlemaxlength=''number of characters''}}

===replaceintitle===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = replaceintitle
 |purpose= execute a string replacement operation on the {{tt|%TITLE%}} var
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|replaceintitle=''search for,replacement''}}

The ''search for'' argument must be an expression which can be used in a php preg_replace() function call.

Example:

to remove the string "demo" in article names, you must write
: <code>replaceintitle=/demo/,</code>

Note that standard regexp rules apply. The regexp must start with a non-alphanumeric character -- but not with a backslash!
It is good habit to use a '/' if this character is not needed within the regexp itself. Read the php manual to understand the details of regular expressions.


== Arranging article lists in columns and rows ==

===columns===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = columns
 |purpose= Define a column layout for the output.
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|columns=''ncols''}}

'''Example:'''

<pre><nowiki>
<dpl></nowiki>
  category	  = Help
  nottitlematch	  = %DPL%
  includesubpages = false
  columns	  = 3
  rowcolformat	  = width=100%
  count		  = 6
</dpl>
</pre>

Simply displays non-DPL articles and subcategories in [[:Category:Help]] in 3 columns ({{DPL|rowcolformat}} is used to make the table width 100%).
<dpl>
  category		  = Help
  nottitlematch	  = %DPL%
  includesubpages = false
  columns		  = 3
  rowcolformat	  = width=100%
  count			  = 6
</dpl>
Note: {{DPL|columns}} is currently bugged (possible combatibility issue between [[mw:MediaWiki 1.31|Mediawiki 1.31.2]] and DPL3 v3.3.3) ([https://gitlab.com/hydrawiki/extensions/DynamicPageList/issues/81 see here]).<br/>
For a 3-column dpl, css can be used to achieve the desired results:
<pre><nowiki>
<div style="-webkit-column-count:3;column-count:3;">
<dpl>
  category	  = Help
  nottitlematch	  = %DPL%
  includesubpages = false
  columns	  = 3
  rowcolformat	  = width=100%
  count		  = 6
</dpl></div></nowiki></pre>
<div style="-webkit-column-count:3;column-count:3;">
<dpl>
  category		  = Help
  nottitlematch	  = %DPL%
  includesubpages = false
  columns		  = 3
  rowcolformat	  = width=100%
  count			  = 6
</dpl></div>

'''More complex example:'''

In {{DPL|mode|=userformat}} the outer tags from {{DPL|listseparators}} will be repeated for each column.

<pre><nowiki>
<div style="-webkit-column-count:3;column-count:3;">
<dpl></nowiki>
  category	  = Help
  nottitlematch	  = %DPL%
  includesubpages = false
  addpagesize	  = true
  ordermethod	  = size
  listseparators  = {|class=sortablewikitable id=2\n!Rank\n!Article\n!Bytes\n|-,\n|%NR%.\n|[[%PAGE%]]\n|style="text-align:right;"|%SIZE%,\n|-,\n|}
  columns	  = 2
  count		  = 6
</dpl></div>
</pre>

This output contains a list of the largest non-DPL articles in [[:Category:Help]]. Each column consists of a table which has itself three columns: rank, article name and size.

<div style="-webkit-column-count:3;column-count:3;">
<dpl>
  category		  = Help
  nottitlematch	  = %DPL%
  includesubpages = false
  addpagesize	  = true
  ordermethod	  = size
  listseparators  = {|class=sortablewikitable id=2\n!Rank\n!Article\n!Bytes\n|-,\n|%NR%.\n|[[%PAGE%]]\n|style="text-align:right;"|%SIZE%,\n|-,\n|}
  columns		  = 2
  count			  = 6
</dpl></div>

===rows===
{{DPL parameter
 |name   = rows
 |purpose= Define a row layout for the output. A "row" is a group of output lines for which the heading is repeated. If you do not know how big your result will be, it may be better to use the {{DPL|rowsize}} parameter.
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|rows=''nrows''}}

In {{DPL|mode|=userformat}}, the outer tags from {{DPL|listseparators}} will be repeated for each column. Thus you can create long lists where the table heading is repeated from time to time.

Example:

<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  category	  = Help
  nottitlematch	  = %DPL%
  includesubpages = false
  addpagesize	  = true
  ordermethod	  = size
  listseparators  = {|class=sortablewikitable id=2\n!Rank\n!Article\n!Bytes\n|-,\n|%NR%.\n|[[%PAGE%]]\n|style="text-align:right;"|%SIZE%,\n|-,\n|}
  rows		  = 2
  count		  = 6
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>

The output will contain a list of the largest non-DPL articles in [[:Category:Help]], arranged in two rows (dividing the list of lines equally into 2). Each row consists of a table which has itself three columns: rank, article name, and size.

<dpl>
  category		  = Help
  nottitlematch	  = %DPL%
  includesubpages = false
  addpagesize	  = true
  ordermethod	  = size
  listseparators  = {|class=sortablewikitable id=2\n!Rank\n!Article\n!Bytes\n|-,\n|%NR%.\n|[[%PAGE%]]\n|style="text-align:right;"|%SIZE%,\n|-,\n|}
  rows			  = 2
  count			  = 6
</dpl>

===rowsize===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = rowsize
 |purpose= Define a row layout for the output. A "row" is a group of n output lines for which the heading will be repeated.
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|rowsize=''nrowsize''}}

In {{DPL|mode|=userformat}} the outer tags from {{DPL|listseparators}} will be repeated after each group of {{DPL|rowsize}} output lines.
Thus you can create long lists where the table heading is repeated in regular intervals.

Example:

<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  category	  = Help
  nottitlematch	  = %DPL%
  includesubpages = false
  addpagesize	  = true
  ordermethod	  = size
  listseparators  = {|class=sortablewikitable id=2\n!Rank\n!width=200px|Article\n!Bytes\n|-,\n|%NR%.\n|[[%PAGE%]]\n|style="text-align:right;"|%SIZE%,\n|-,\n|}
  rowsize	  = 3
  count		  = 6
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>

The output will contain a list of all non-DPL articles in [[:Category:Help]]. After each group of 3 entries (article names) the table heading will be repeated. It may be useful to set the width of the column with the article names explicitly, so that the tables in each row have equal width.
<dpl>
  category		  = Help
  nottitlematch	  = %DPL%
  includesubpages = false
  addpagesize	  = true
  ordermethod	  = size
  listseparators  = {|class=sortablewikitable id=2\n!Rank\n!width=200px|Article\n!Bytes\n|-,\n|%NR%.\n|[[%PAGE%]]\n|style="text-align:right;"|%SIZE%,\n|-,\n|}
  rowsize		  = 3
  count			  = 6
</dpl>

===rowcolformat===

{{DPL parameter
 |name   = rowcolformat
 |purpose= Defines layout properties (using [[w:wikibooks:HTML_Programming/Tables|HTML table tag parameters]]) for the row/column grid.
}}

Syntax:

{{DPL syntax|rowcolformat=''html tags''}}

Example:

<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  category	  = Help
  nottitlematch	  = %DPL%
  includesubpages = false
  columns	  = 3
  rowcolformat	  = cellspacing=20
  count		  = 6
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>

There will be more space around the columns than normal. See {{DPL|columns}} above for another example.
<dpl>
  category		  = Help
  nottitlematch	  = %DPL%
  includesubpages = false
  columns		  = 3
  rowcolformat	  = cellspacing=20
  count			  = 6
</dpl>

The ideal way to use {{DPL|rowcolformat}} is to assign a CSS class to your DPL table which has been defined in your ''mediawiki:Common.css'' article.

Example:

<pre><nowiki>
<dpl>
  category	  = Help
  nottitlematch	  = %DPL%
  includesubpages = false
  columns	  = 3
  rowcolformat	  = class=dpl3columns
  count		  = 6
</dpl>
</nowiki></pre>

In your ''Common.css'' article you might have written something like

 table.dpl3columns td {
   background: #f2f2f2;
   padding: 0.5em;
   border: 3px;
   width: 33%;
 }