Text operators #

The template language has no string concatenation operator such as . or ~; concat does that job. It and indent are registered by eZTemplateTextOperator (lib/eztemplate/classes/eztemplatetextoperator.php) through lib/eztemplate/classes/eztemplateautoload.php.

Contents #

1. concat
2. indent
3. Related pages

concat #

concat #

Joins the piped input (when there is one) and every parameter into one string, in order. Numbers are converted to text.

Input: optional, it comes first. Returns a string. concat does not escape, so wash the result, or each untrusted part, before printing it in HTML. Generated reference: concat.

The example uses the Running topic on a development installation (node 163):

{def $node = fetch( 'content', 'node', hash( 'node_id', 163 ) )}
{concat( 'Topic: ', $node.name, ' (node ', $node.node_id, ')' )|wash}
{'/'|concat( $node.url_alias )}
{concat( 'class ', 'ng-', $node.class_identifier )}

Output:

Topic: Running (node 163)
/running
class ng-ng_topic

Objects. The interpreter (modify()) silently skips a parameter that is an object:

{def $node = fetch( 'content', 'node', hash( 'node_id', 163 ) )}
[{concat( 'object skipped: ', $node )}]

Output:

[object skipped: ]

The compiled form (concatTransformation()) joins the values with PHP's . operator, and PHP cannot turn a node into a string. On a development installation the same template, compiled, stopped with Error: Object of class eZContentObjectTreeNode could not be converted to string and produced no output at all, not even the text before it. Always pass the attribute you mean ($node.name), never the object.

indent #

indent #

Puts a filler in front of the first line and after every newline of the input.

Any other type gives spaces. A negative count writes the error "The value of the "count" argument is negative" to the debug log and leaves the text unchanged. Returns a string. Useful for plain-text output such as mail bodies; in HTML, whitespace collapses. Generated reference: indent.

{def $text = "line one
line two"}
[{$text|indent( 4 )}]
[{$text|indent( 2, 'custom', '> ' )}]
[{$text|indent( 1, 'tab' )|bin2hex|extract_left( 4 )}] (09 = a tab)

Output:

[    line one
    line two]
[> > line one
> > line two]
[096c] (09 = a tab)

Related pages #

• String operators: wash, shorten, trim
• PHP string functions: encode and format: sprintf for formatted text
• Array operators: append on strings and implode
• All template operators (generated)
• Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.