r:set_var

<r:set_var />

This tag is used to set a variable.

Attribute Options

name="something" - The name of the variable.

value="something" - The value of the variable you’re setting.

default="something" - Crate a default value for the value attribute.

Example

<r:set_var name="archive_month" value="Dec2015" />

Set a default value:

<r:set_var name="event_date" value="{$event_date}" default="September 6th, 2031" />

You can also set the value by not self-closing the tag:

<r:set_var name="salary_range">
  I'm the value
</r:set_var>

To expand on the example above, you can also set variables via Custom Data:

<r:set_var name="archive_month">
  <r:page:content name="archive_month" />
</r:set_var>

Note: Do not to use dashes (-) in variable names. Dashes are considered “minus” logic and will have unintended consequences.

This tag is closely related to r:var.

{% assign %} & {% capture %}

This tag is used to set a variable.

The official Liquid documentation has a page dedicated to variables.

Filter options

pluralize - Takes a string and makes it singular or plural tense. Eg: test/tests, rule/rules, regular/irregular.

css_background_image - A filter to output a string as a background image, eg: background-image: url(https://example.wvu.edu/files/24271fb1-0561-4e5d-a750-0c0fdb44985d/1780x1780?cb=1614116587).

to_boolean - Converts a string to a boolean value (true or false).

to_time - Converts a string to a valid time using the Chronic library. See the docs for date_format for more information.

date_iso8601 - Outputs a date in ISO 8601 format, eg: 2018-05-09T18:02:37-04:00.

date_rfc2822 - Outputs a date in Internet Message Format, eg: Wed, 09 May 2018 18:02:37 -0400.

parse_json - Parses JSON from an API. Pass the value the URL of your JSON endpoint.

escape_xml - Converts XML/HTML to HTML entities by removing traces of offending characters that could be wrongfully interpreted as markup.

cdata_wrap - Wraps the variable in <![CDATA[ content goes here ]] tags.

web_request - Accepts a URL to scrape HTML from. Returns the entirety of the HTML document.

select_html - See docs for select_html.

select_html_attr - See docs for select_html.

Liquid has a number of filters available to variables. To see a complete list, view the official Liquid documentation.

Examples

How to create a variable called my_special_page_name:

{% assign my_special_page_name = page.name %}

Create a variable with a filter:

{% assign showPartial = "Yes" | to_boolean %}

Create a variable from custom page data:

{% assign showPartial = page.data.show_hero | to_boolean %}

You can also set variables using the capture tag:

{% capture gallerylabel %}{{ page.slug }}-gallery{% endcapture %}

capture works best when you have complex or multiline strings that need to be assigned to a variable.

Here's a multiline example using capture:

{% capture link_text %}
  <span class="sr-only">: {{ page.name }}</span>
{% endcapture %}

<!-- Then, use it: -->

{{ link_text }}

Here's how to get two different background images using css_background_image:

{% liquid
  assign background_image_small = site | first_random_image_tagged_with: tag: "backpage-1-thumbnail" | image_url: size: "1780x580" | css_background_image
  assign background_image_large = site | first_random_image_tagged_with: tag: "backpage-1-thumbnail" | image_url: size: "1780x1780" | css_background_image
%}
<!-- Then, use it: -->
<div style="{{ background_image_small }}"></div>
<div style="{{ background_image_large }}"></div>

<!-- Outputs: -->
<div style="background-image: url(https://example.wvu.edu/files/24271fb1-0561-4e5d-a750-0c0fdb44985d/1780x580?cb=1614116587)"></div>
<div style="background-image: url(https://example.wvu.edu/files/24271fb1-0561-4e5d-a750-0c0fdb44985d/1780x1780?cb=1614116587)"></div>

Please note: capture will not only capture the characters inside it, but also the spaces. This means these spaces will be part of your variable. You may consider using a filter like strip to remove spaces depending on your use case. Another way to handle this would be to use whitespace control.

More Resources

This tag is closely related to {{ var }}

The official Liquid documentation has a whole section dedicated to the capture tag.