Template:Flatlist/doc

This is a documentation subpage for

Template documentation

This box: view • talk • edit

Template:Terminate sentence ensures a sentence ends with a specified terminator (default: a period). It avoids adding duplicate terminators and can optionally trim trailing spaces. It attempts to ignore trailing closing quotes or brackets when deciding whether a terminator is already present.

Usage

Basic:

{{Terminate sentence|This is a sentence}}
→ This is a sentence.

Named parameters:

{{Terminate sentence
 |text=He said "Hello"
 |term=.
}}
→ He said "Hello".

Custom terminator:

{{Terminate sentence|text=Warning|term=!}}
→ Warning!

Avoid duplicate terminator:

{{Terminate sentence|text=Already done.|term=.}}
→ Already done.

Trim trailing spaces:

{{Terminate sentence|text=Ends with space   |trim=yes}}
→ Ends with space.

Skip processing:

{{Terminate sentence|text=No changes here|skip=yes}}
→ No changes here

Append a note:

{{Terminate sentence|text=Complete|note=(source: 2025)}}
→ Complete. (source: 2025)

Parameters

1 / text: The input text to terminate.
term: The terminator to enforce at the end. Default is .. Common choices: !, ?.
trim: If yes/true/1, strips trailing spaces before checking.
skip: If yes/true/1, returns text unchanged (still appends note if provided).
allowdup: If yes/true/1, allows duplicate terminators (e.g., ellipses). Default disallows duplicates.
note: Optional text appended after a space, unaffected by termination logic.

Behavior details

Terminator detection attempts to ignore trailing closing quotes/brackets (", ', ”, ), ], }).
If the last visible character equals term, no extra terminator is added unless allowdup=yes.
If trim=yes, trailing spaces are removed before detection.
If note is present, it is added with a leading space after the final text.

Examples

Quotes:

{{Terminate sentence|text=He whispered "hush"|term=.}}

 → He whispered "hush".

Parentheses:

{{Terminate sentence|text=Complete (verified)|term=.}}

 → Complete (verified).

Exclamation:

{{Terminate sentence|text=Alert|term=!}}

 → Alert!

Ellipsis (allow duplicates):

{{Terminate sentence|text=Wait...|term=.|allowdup=yes}}

 → Wait....

Best practices

Prefer using term that matches the sentence intent (., !, ?).
For complex punctuation, consider the Lua-powered variant below.
Document usage in your template’s /doc page where you incorporate this helper.

Lua-powered variant (optional)

For more robust detection (including multilingual quotes and punctuation), create Module:TerminateUtil with:

-- Module:TerminateUtil
local M = {}

local closing = {
  [")"] = true, ["]"] = true, ["}"] = true,
  ['"'] = true, ["'"] = true, ["”"] = true, ["’"] = true, ["»"] = true, ["›"] = true
}

local function trimRight(s)
  return (s:gsub("%s+$",""))
end

function M.lastVisibleChar(args)
  local s = args.s or ""
  s = trimRight(s)
  local i = #s
  while i > 0 do
    local c = s:sub(i,i)
    if closing[c] then
      i = i - 1
    else
      return c
    end
  end
  return ""
end

return M

Then update the template to call:

{{#invoke:TerminateUtil|lastVisibleChar|s=text}}

This improves detection for closing quotes and brackets.

Usage

{{flatlist}} starts a horizontal list, such as:

Template:Endflatlist

The bottom margin is inherited from the current container. Normally this will be 0.5em. This template can be used with or without {{endflatlist}}.

For navigation boxes using {{navbox}}, one can set |listclass=hlist, and achieve the same styling without using this template.

For image captions, * (i.e. asterisk) markup does not work, so consider using {{hlist}} instead.

Examples

{{flatlist|
* [[cat]]
* [[dog]]
* [[horse]]
* [[cow]]
* [[sheep]]
* [[pig]]
}}

produces:

Alternative syntax

{{flatlist}}  or  {{startflatlist}}
* [[cat]]
* [[dog]]
* [[horse]]
* [[cow]]
* [[sheep]]
* [[pig]]
{{endflatlist}}

produces:

Template:Endflatlist

Syntax for ordered lists

{{startflatlist}}
# [[first]]
# [[second]]
# [[third]]
# [[fourth]]
# [[fifth]]
# [[sixth]]
{{endflatlist}}

produces:

Template:Startflatlist

Template:Endflatlist

Parameters

class adds a CSS class to the containing div. Use nowraplinks to prevent links from wrapping.
style adds CSS styling. Complex styles should not be used in articles (per WP:Deviations) but may be acceptable on user, project and talk pages.

Example: |style=border:solid 1px silver; background:lightyellow

indent indents the list by a number of standard indents, one indent being 1.6em. (Useful in an indented discussion thread.)

Example: |indent=2

Technical details

This template uses the .hlist CSS class defined in Common.css to generate horizontal lists. It causes ordinary html list items to be displayed inline (horizontally), where they would normally display as block elements (vertically). The class also generates the interpuncts between list items and parentheses around nested lists. Some of the CSS used is not compatible with all browsers, notably Internet Explorer 6 and 7. In these cases, JavaScript in Common.js generates the interpuncts and parentheses.

Template:Flatlist/doc

Page version status

Template documentation

Usage

Parameters

Behavior details

Examples

Best practices

Lua-powered variant (optional)

See also

Usage

Examples

Alternative syntax

Syntax for ordered lists

Parameters

Technical details

See also