Wraps a short span of text in <syntaxhighlight> tags (see mw:Extension:SyntaxHighlight). This template should be used for short samples; longer content should use <pre>...</pre> or <syntaxhighlight>...</syntaxhighlight>. See Help:Wiki markup for an explanation of what the various tags do.
If the content includes an equals sign (=), you must specify the parameter explicitly: {{code|1=int i = 0;}}.
The template uses the <syntaxhighlight> tag with the attribute inline=1. This works like the combination of the <code> and <nowiki> tags, applied to the expanded wikitext. For example, {{code|some '''wiki''' text}} will not render the word "wiki" in bold, and will render the tripled-single-quotes:
some '''wiki''' text
If the above example is declared as wikitext (via {{code|some '''wiki''' text|lang=wikitext}}, the output is rendered as follows:
some '''wiki''' text
However, {{code|a {{template}} call|lang=wikitext}} will still invoke the template:
a <spanclass="nowrap">{{</span>[[Template:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]]<spanclass="nowrap">}}</span> call
Use <nowiki>...</nowiki> around the template name to avoid this problem:
a {{template}} call
When used inline with regular text, {{code}} generally looks best and is easiest to read when it is explicitly spaced apart from the regular text:
foo {{code|bar baz}} quux.
is well spaced:
foo bar baz quux.
versus:
foo {{code|bar baz}} quux.
which is less visually clear:
foo bar baz quux.
because "foo" and "bar" will seem more closely associated than "bar" and "baz"; the width of the space character in a monospaced font is almost always larger than in a proportional font.
Use parameter {{{2}}} (unnamed, as |2=, or more explicitly as |lang=) to specify a language for mw:Extension:SyntaxHighlight. This option defaults to |lang=text, i.e. no highlighting. Valid values include |lang=wikitext for wikitext, |lang=html for HTML, along with many other languages including php, perl, css, javascript, mysql. Attempting to use an invalid value for lang will cause the page to be added to Category:Pages with syntax highlighting errors, and no syntax highlighting will be present in the output. html4strict and html5 used to be valid values - however, |lang=html should be used instead.
Lorem {{code|ipsum '''dolor'''|wikitext}} sit amet
Lorem ipsum '''dolor''' sit amet
The declaration {{code|lang=cpp |int foo(const std::string& bar, const std::vector<long double*>& baz);}} is the prototype for a function defined later.
The declaration intfoo(conststd::string&bar,conststd::vector<longdouble*>&baz); is the prototype for a function defined later.
If the code contains an [[equals sign]], such as {{code |lang=javascript |code=var img = document.getElementsByTagName("img");}}, you must identify the first parameter explicitly as {{{1}}} or {{{code}}}; see also [[:bugzilla:5138]].
If the code contains an equals sign, such as varimg=document.getElementsByTagName("img");, you must identify the first parameter explicitly as {{{1}}} or {{{code}}}; see also bugzilla:5138.
Included templates
Embedded templates do not function as expected inside {{code}}; for longer, free-form blocks of code, which can contain templates such as {{var}} and {{samp}}, use <code>...</code> as a wrapper instead of this template.
Templates used inside {{code}} expose the rendered HTML— this can be useful. For example:
Markup
Renders as
{{code|
{{cite web |title=Title |url=http://example.org}}
|lang=html
}}
'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000033-QINU`"'<citeclass="citation web cs1">[http://example.org "Title"].</cite><spantitle="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Title&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fexample.org&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ATemplate%3ACode"class="Z3988"></span>
The above example shows the HTML rendered by the citation template, including the hidden metadata.
Expensive Parser Function warning
This template internally uses mw:Extension:SyntaxHighlight, which is considered an 'expensive parser function' (see WP:EXPENSIVE). If used on a page which uses more than 500 expensive parser functions, the output of subsequent uses of this template will be presented using <code>...</code> formatting (without any syntax highlighting) instead.
To indicate text is a variable name. Use for any variable names except those including "I" (uppercase i) and/or "l" (lowercase L); for these, {{var serif}} should be used to ensure a noticeable distinction
To display parameters as used in code (i.e. with triple braces), especially to indicate relationships between them. May be combined with {{para}} above
To display parameter values lightly bordered; replaces <code>...</code>, especially when value contains embedded or leading/trailing blanks; visualized here with middot (·) but can use ␠, ▯, or any character.
To showcase with colors in horizontal format the syntax of any template, while providing an easy way to display placeholder texts using colons as separators
To indicate text is source code. To nest other templates within {{code}}, use <code>...</code>. {{codett}} differs only in styling: someMethod becomes someMethod
( or {{dc}}) To indicate deprecated source code in template documentation, articles on HTML specs, etc. The {{dc2}} variant uses strike-through (<blink>) while {{dcr}} uses red (<blink>).
To showcase with colors and multiple lines (vertical format) the syntax of any template, while providing an easy way to display placeholder texts using colons as separators