Help:Contributing/code

Code appears on this wikibase in two places: as content on wiki pages (this page) and as data (code-snippet items created via Special:AddCodeSnippet). This page covers the former.

Code blocks on wiki pages

Description	You type	You get
Plain preformatted block — text exactly as typed, no wiki markup interpreted, HTML escaped. Safe for pasting raw code.	<pre>print("hello")</pre>	print("hello")
Syntax-highlighted block — Pygments highlighting and a copy button (top right of the block).	<syntaxhighlight lang="sparql">SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 } LIMIT 5</syntaxhighlight>	SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 } LIMIT 5
Syntax-highlighted inline code — monospace within a sentence.	<syntaxhighlight lang="python" inline>print("hello")</syntaxhighlight>	print("hello")

Anything inside <syntaxhighlight> or <pre></pre> will not be interpreted. They are rendered literally.

You may see <code>…</code> used for inline code by others. It does not escape HTML: text such as < or & inside it is read as markup. For short plain tokens with none of those characters (#, quarto render) <code> is fine and lighter to render. Prefer <syntaxhighlight inline> whenever the snippet contains <, > or & (it escapes content) or you want syntax highlighting; never use <code> for blocks — use <pre> or <syntaxhighlight>.

Which languages can be highlighted

Any Pygments lexer alias works as the lang attribute — use the lowercase canonical name:

• sparql — SPARQL queries (this wiki's query service)
• python, javascript, bash, sql, json, wikitext — commonly used
• Full list: Pygments lexers (use the alias column)

Options for highlighted blocks

Option	You type	You get
line — show line numbers	<syntaxhighlight lang="sparql" line>SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 . }</syntaxhighlight>	SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 . }
start="{int}" — first line number (with line)	<syntaxhighlight lang="sparql" line start="5">SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 . }</syntaxhighlight>	SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 . }
highlight — highlight specific lines (comma-separated)	<syntaxhighlight lang="sparql" highlight="1,3">SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 . }</syntaxhighlight>	SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 . }
inline — render as inline code instead of a block	<syntaxhighlight lang="sparql" inline>LIMIT</syntaxhighlight>	LIMIT
copy — adds a button that copies the block	<syntaxhighlight lang="sparql" copy>SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 } LIMIT 5</syntaxhighlight>	SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 } LIMIT 5

inline and copy are mutually exclusive.

Full parameter reference: SyntaxHighlight extension parameters (official).

Differences from Markdown

Markdown habit	On this wiki
Fenced code blocks (```)	There are no fenced blocks — ``` does nothing. Use <pre> or <syntaxhighlight>.
Literal [[ and {{ inside a fenced block	In <pre> and <syntaxhighlight> wiki markup is not interpreted — {{, [[ and quotes appear literally, which is what you want for code.

Blocks larger than 100 kB lose highlighting automatically (a safety guard).

House rules for code content

• Prefer <syntaxhighlight lang="…"> for anything syntax-highlightable; use <pre> for config dumps and logs where colours add noise.

See also

• MediaWiki syntax 101 (official)
• SyntaxHighlight extension (official)
• Pygments lexers — full language list
• Help:Contributing — contributing to this wiki