StringTemplate cheat sheet

<attribute>

Evaluates to the string value of attribute (toString(), ToString(), _str_()) if it exists else empty string.

<i>, <i0>

The iteration number indexed from one and from zero, respectively, when referenced within a template being applied to an attribute or attributes. Is only visible to the template being applied to the iterator values.

<attribute.property>

Looks for property of attribute as a property (C#), then accessor methods like getProperty() or isProperty() or hasProperty(). If that fails, StringTemplate looks for a raw field of the attribute called property. Evaluates to the empty string if no such property is found.

<attribute.(expr)>

Indirect property lookup. Same as attribute.property except use the value of expr as the property_ name. Evaluates to the empty string if no such property is found.

<multi-valued-attribute>

Concatenation of string values of the elements. If multi-valued-attribute is missing, it evaluates to the empty string.

<multi-valued-attribute; separator=expr>

Concatenation element string values separated by expr.

<[mine, yours]>

Creates a new multi-valued attribute (a list) with elements of mine first then all of yours.

<template(argument-list)>

Include template. The argument-list is a list of attribute expressions or attribute assignments where each assignment is of the form arg-of-template=expr. expr is evaluated in the context of the surrounding template not of the invoked template. Example, bold(name) or bold(item=name) of item is an argument of template bold. The sole argument or the final argument, if argument assignments syntax is used, can be the "pass through" argument "..."

<(expr)(argument-list)>

Include template whose name is computed via expr. The argument-list is a list of attribute expressions or attribute assignments where each assignment is of the form attribute=expr. Example <(whichFormat)()> looks up whichFormat's value and uses that as template name. Can also apply an indirect template to an attribute.

<attribute:template(argument-list)>

Apply template to attribute with optional argument-list.  Example: <name:bold()> applies bold() to name's value. The first argument of the template gets the iterated value. The template is not applied to null values.

<attribute:(expr)(argument-list)>

Apply a template, whose name is computed from expr, to each value of attribute. Example <data:(name)()> looks up name's value and uses that as template name to apply to data.

<attribute:t1(argument-list): ... :tN(argument-list)>

Apply multiple templates in order from left to right. The result of a template application upon a multi-valued attribute is another multi-valued attribute. The overall expression evaluates to the concatenation of all elements of the final multi-valued attribute resulting from templateN's application.

<attribute:{x | anonymous-template}>

Apply an anonymous template to each element of attribute.  The iterated value is set to argument x. The anonymous template references <x> to access the iterator value.

<a1,a2,...,aN:{argument-list | anonymous-template}>

Parallel list iteration. March through the values of the attributes a1..aN, setting the values to the arguments in argument-list in the same order. Apply the anonymous template.

<attribute:t1(),t2(),...,tN()>

Apply an alternating list of templates to the elements of attribute. The template names may include argument lists.

\< or \>

escaped delimiter prevents < or > from starting an attribute expression and results in that single character.

<\ >, <\n>, <\t>, <\r>

special character(s): space, newline, tab, carriage return. Can have multiple in single <...> expression.

<\uXXXX>

Unicode character(s). Can have multiple in single <...> expression.

<\\>

Ignore the immediately following newline char. Allows you to put a newline in the template to better format it without actually inserting a newline into the output

<! comment !>

Comments, ignored by StringTemplate.

<first(attr)>

The first or only element of attr. You can combine operations to say things like first(rest(names)) to get second element.

<length(attr)>

Return the length of a mult-valued attribute or 1 if it is single attribute. If attribute is null return 0. Strings are not special; i.e., length("foo") is 1 meaning "1 attribute". Nulls are counted in lists so a list of 300 nulls is length 300. If you don't want to count nulls, use length(strip(list)).

<strlen(attr)>

Return the length of a string attribute; runtime error if not string.

<last(attr)>

The last or only element of attr.

<rest(attr)>

All but the first element of attr. Returns nothing if <attr> is single valued.

<reverse(attr)>

Return a list with the same elements as v but in reverse order. null values are NOT stripped out. use reverse(strip(v)) to do that.

<trunc(attr)>

returns all elements but last element

<strip(attr)>

Return a new list w/o null values.

<trim(attr)>

Trim whitespace from back/front of a string; runtime error if not string.

<if(attribute)>subtemplate
<else>subtemplate2
<endif>

If attribute has a value or is a boolean object that evaluates to true, include subtemplate •else include subtemplate2. These conditionals may be nested.

<if(x)>subtemplate
<elseif(y)>subtemplate2
<elseif(z)>subtemplate3
<else>subtemplate4
<endif>

First attribute that has a value or is a boolean object that evaluates to true, include that subtemplate. These conditionals may be nested.

<if(!attribute)>subtemplate<endif>

If attribute has no value or is a bool object that evaluates to false, include subtemplate. These conditionals may be nested.