The pipe trick uses the pipe character ("|") to save typing the label of a piped link for several kinds of wiki links. This can avoid potentially making an error while typing the label.
When the last character of a link is the pipe character, the pipe trick will automatically generate the text that displays for that link. Its processing removes the parenthesized part of the link title, handles commas in the title, and removes namespace prefixes. The described processing happens at the point of saving the page data, and the generated text is saved with the rest of the page's wiki markup – thus, it is merely an aid to editing.
An even better way to save keystrokes that doesn't need any additional characters is by simply attaching text to the link, as in "[[train]]s".
The pipe trick doesn't work in edit summaries, within <ref> tags, or links to sections. See § Where it doesn't work below.
[[Template:Welcome|]] results in Welcome. {{tl|Welcome}} to produce {{Welcome}} is preferred instead.
[[:Category:Wikipedia|]] results in Wikipedia. The colon avoids categorization of the page. [[Category:Wikipedia|]] should not be used. [[Category:Wikipedia| ]] with a space after the pipe is a category sortkey and not the pipe trick.
The next few examples demonstrate additional features and show the expanded wiki markup text that this pipe-trick process generates, which in turn generates the results in the page display.
Since Wikipedia is case-insensitive in regard to the first character of the target title, it is possible to use the pipe trick for upper- or lowercase words regardless of the target page's case.
[[pipe (computing)|]] generates the wiki markup [[pipe (computing)|pipe]] rendered as pipe
As with all links, it is possible to blend a suffix when using the pipe trick as well:
[[pipe (computing)|]]s generates the wiki markup [[pipe (computing)|pipe]]s rendered as pipes
[[pipe (computing)|]]mill generates the wiki markup [[pipe (computing)|pipe]]mill rendered as pipemill
Combinations
The basic rule when the pipe trick is used is that an (initial) namespace prefix, a final part beginning with a comma, or a final parenthesis (usually intended for disambiguation) is suppressed in the rendering of the link. The rendered text is case neutral and so should be entered precisely as the user wishes it to appear in the article. In case of combinations of suppressible parts, the following rules apply:
Commas beat parentheses
If the link name involves both one or more commas and a final parenthesis, only the parenthesis is suppressed:
Unlike the pipe trick, though, the slash trick is not expanded in the saved wiki markup.
This trick only works in namespaces where subpages are enabled.
Reverse pipe trick
If the title of the article you are editing includes a parenthesized term or a comma, placing a pipe at the start of a link will append that parenthesized text to the link target, but not display it.
