View source for Module:Char

-- This function can substitute some critical leading characters
-- by their decimal numeric character references
-- to avoid their interpretion as wiki syntax

local ncr = {}

-- function:  removes characters at the start of the string: '#', '*', ':', ';'
function ncr.subst      ( frame )
	local gpar = frame.args
	local char = ''
	if gpar then char = mw.text.trim ( gpar[1] )-- global
		else	 char = mw.text.trim ( frame )	-- local
	end
   if  mw.ustring.sub ( char, 1, 1 ) == '#' then 
         return '&#35;' .. mw.ustring.sub( char, 2, #char );
    elseif mw.ustring.sub ( char, 1, 1 ) == '*' then 
         return '&#42;' .. mw.ustring.sub( char, 2, #char );
    elseif mw.ustring.sub ( char, 1, 1 ) == ':' then 
         return '&#58;' .. mw.ustring.sub( char, 2, #char );
    elseif mw.ustring.sub ( char, 1, 1 ) == ';' then 
         return '&#59;' .. mw.ustring.sub( char, 2, #char );
    else
         return char;
    end
end -- end function subst

-- alias long function name for abbreviation 
function ncr.substitute ( frame )
	local gpar = frame.args
	return ncr.subst ( gpar[1] );
end -- end function substitute


-- function: removes characters: '"', '&', "'", '<', '=', '>', '[', ']', '{', '|', '}'
function ncr.nowiki ( frame )
	local gpar = frame.args
	return mw.text.nowiki( gpar[1] );
end -- end function nowiki

return ncr;
Description	What you type	What you get
Italic	''Italic text''	Italic text
Bold	'''Bold text'''	Bold text
Bold & italic	'''''Bold & italic text'''''	*Bold & italic text*