description: Page-level variables are defined in a content file's front matter, derived from the content's file location, or extracted from the content body itself.
date: 2017-02-01
publishdate: 2017-02-01
lastmod: 2017-02-01
categories: [variables and params]
keywords: [pages]
draft: false
menu:
docs:
title: "variables defined by a page"
parent: "variables"
weight: 20
weight: 20
sections_weight: 20
aliases: []
toc: true
---
The following is a list of page-level variables. Many of these will be defined in the front matter, derived from file location, or extracted from the content itself.
{{% note "`.Scratch`" %}}
See [`.Scratch`](/functions/scratch/) for page-scoped, writable variables.
{{% /note %}}
## Page Variables
.AlternativeOutputFormats
: contains all alternative formats for a given page; this variable is especially useful `link rel` list in your site's `<head>`. (See [Output Formats](/templates/output-formats/).)
: the content itself, defined below the front matter.
.Data
: the data specific to this type of page.
.Date
: the date associated with the page; `.Date` pulls from the `date` field in a content's front matter. See also `.ExpiryDate`, `.PublishDate`, and `.Lastmod`.
.Description
: the description for the page.
.Draft
: a boolean, `true` if the content is marked as a draft in the front matter.
.ExpiryDate
: the date on which the content is scheduled to expire; `.ExpiryDate` pulls from the `expirydate` field in a content's front matter. See also `.PublishDate`, `.Date`, and `.Lastmod`.
.File
: filesystem-related data for this content file. See also [File Variables][].
.FuzzyWordCount
: the approximate number of words in the content.
.IsHome
: `true` in the context of the [homepage](/templates/homepage/).
: the page's *kind*. Possible return values are `page`, `home`, `section`, `taxonomy`, or `term`. Note that there are also `RSS`, `sitemap`, `robotsTXT`, and `404` kinds, but these are only available during the rendering of each of these respective page's kind and therefore *not* available in any of the `Pages` collections.
: a language object that points to the language's definition in the site `config`. `.Language.Lang` gives you the language code.
.Lastmod
: the date the content was last modified. `.Lastmod` pulls from the `lastmod` field in a content's front matter.
- If `lastmod` is not set, and `.GitInfo` feature is disabled, the front matter `date` field will be used.
- If `lastmod` is not set, and `.GitInfo` feature is enabled, `.GitInfo.AuthorDate` will be used instead.
See also `.ExpiryDate`, `.Date`, `.PublishDate`, and [`.GitInfo`][gitinfo].
.LinkTitle
: access when creating links to the content. If set, Hugo will use the `linktitle` from the front matter before `title`.
.Next
: Points up to the next [regular page](/variables/site/#site-pages) (sorted by Hugo's [default sort](/templates/lists#default-weight-date-linktitle-filepath)). Example: `{{with .Next}}{{.Permalink}}{{end}}`. Calling `.Next` from the first page returns `nil`.
.NextInSection
: Points up to the next [regular page](/variables/site/#site-pages) below the same top level section (e.g. in `/blog`)). Pages are sorted by Hugo's [default sort](/templates/lists#default-weight-date-linktitle-filepath). Example: `{{with .NextInSection}}{{.Permalink}}{{end}}`. Calling `.NextInSection` from the first page returns `nil`.
.OutputFormats
: contains all formats, including the current format, for a given page. Can be combined the with [`.Get` function](/functions/get/) to grab a specific format. (See [Output Formats](/templates/output-formats/).)
.Pages
: a collection of associated pages. This value will be `nil` within
the context of regular content pages. See [`.Pages`](#pages).
.Permalink
: the Permanent link for this page; see [Permalinks](/content-management/urls/)
.Plain
: the Page content stripped of HTML tags and presented as a string.
: Points down to the previous [regular page](/variables/site/#site-pages) (sorted by Hugo's [default sort](/templates/lists#default-weight-date-linktitle-filepath)). Example: `{{if .Prev}}{{.Prev.Permalink}}{{end}}`. Calling `.Prev` from the last page returns `nil`.
: Points down to the previous [regular page](/variables/site/#site-pages) below the same top level section (e.g. `/blog`). Pages are sorted by Hugo's [default sort](/templates/lists#default-weight-date-linktitle-filepath). Example: `{{if .PrevInSection}}{{.PrevInSection.Permalink}}{{end}}`. Calling `.PrevInSection` from the last page returns `nil`.
.PublishDate
: the date on which the content was or will be published; `.Publishdate` pulls from the `publishdate` field in a content's front matter. See also `.ExpiryDate`, `.Date`, and `.Lastmod`.
.RawContent
: raw markdown content without the front matter. Useful with [remarkjs.com](
: the estimated time, in minutes, it takes to read the content.
.Resources
: resources such as images and CSS that are associated with this page
.Ref
: returns the permalink for a given reference (e.g., `.Ref "sample.md"`). `.Ref` does *not* handle in-page fragments correctly. See [Cross References](/content-management/cross-references/).
.RelPermalink
: the relative permanent link for this page.
.RelRef
: returns the relative permalink for a given reference (e.g., `RelRef
"sample.md"`). `.RelRef` does *not* handle in-page fragments correctly. See [Cross References](/content-management/cross-references/).
.Site
: see [Site Variables](/variables/site/).
.Sites
: returns all sites (languages). A typical use case would be to link back to the main language: `<a href="{{ .Sites.First.Home.RelPermalink }}">...</a>`.
.Sites.First
: returns the site for the first language. If this is not a multilingual setup, it will return itself.
.Summary
: a generated summary of the content for easily showing a snippet in a summary view. The breakpoint can be set manually by inserting <code><!--more--></code> at the appropriate place in the content page, or the summary can be written independent of the page text. See [Content Summaries](/content-management/summaries/) for more details.
.TableOfContents
: the rendered [table of contents](/content-management/toc/) for the page.
.Title
: the title for this page.
.Translations
: a list of translated versions of the current page. See [Multilingual Mode](/content-management/multilingual/) for more information.
.TranslationKey
: the key used to map language translations of the current page. See [Multilingual Mode](/content-management/multilingual/) for more information.
.Truncated
: a boolean, `true` if the `.Summary` is truncated. Useful for showing a "Read more..." link only when necessary. See [Summaries](/content-management/summaries/) for more information.
.Type
: the [content type](/content-management/types/) of the content (e.g., `posts`).
.Weight
: assigned weight (in the front matter) to this content, used in sorting.
.WordCount
: the number of words in the content.
## Section Variables and Methods
Also see [Sections](/content-management/sections/).
Any other value defined in the front matter in a content file, including taxonomies, will be made available as part of the `.Params` variable.
```
---
title: My First Post
date: 2017-02-20T15:26:23-06:00
categories: [one]
tags: [two,three,four]
```
With the above front matter, the `tags` and `categories` taxonomies are accessible via the following:
*`.Params.tags`
*`.Params.categories`
{{% note "Casing of Params" %}}
Page-level `.Params` are *only* accessible in lowercase.
{{% /note %}}
The `.Params` variable is particularly useful for the introduction of user-defined front matter fields in content files. For example, a Hugo website on book reviews could have the following front matter in `/content/review/book01.md`:
```
---
...
affiliatelink: "http://www.my-book-link.here"
recommendedby: "My Mother"
...
---
```
These fields would then be accessible to the `/themes/yourtheme/layouts/review/single.html` template through `.Params.affiliatelink` and `.Params.recommendedby`, respectively.
Two common situations where this type of front matter field could be introduced is as a value of a certain attribute like `href=""` or by itself to be displayed as text to the website's visitors.
<h3><ahref={{printf"%s"$.Params.affiliatelink}}>Buy this book</a></h3>
<p>It was recommended by {{ .Params.recommendedby }}.</p>
{{</code>}}
This template would render as follows, assuming you've set [`uglyURLs`](/content-management/urls/) to `false` in your [site `config`](/getting-started/configuration/):
<h3><ahref="http://www.my-book-link.here">Buy this book</a></h3>
<p>It was recommended by my Mother.</p>
{{</output>}}
{{% note %}}
See [Archetypes](/content-management/archetypes/) for consistency of `Params` across pieces of content.
{{% /note %}}
### The `.Param` Method
In Hugo, you can declare params in individual pages and globally for your entire website. A common use case is to have a general value for the site param and a more specific value for some of the pages (i.e., a header image):
```
{{ $.Param "header_image" }}
```
The `.Param` method provides a way to resolve a single value according to it's definition in a page parameter (i.e. in the content's front matter) or a site parameter (i.e., in your `config`).
### Access Nested Fields in Front Matter
When front matter contains nested fields like the following:
```
---
author:
given_name: John
family_name: Feminella
display_name: John Feminella
---
```
`.Param` can access these fields by concatenating the field names together with a dot:
```
{{ $.Param "author.display_name" }}
```
If your front matter contains a top-level key that is ambiguous with a nested key, as in the following case:
```
---
favorites.flavor: vanilla
favorites:
flavor: chocolate
---
```
The top-level key will be preferred. Therefore, the following method, when applied to the previous example, will print `vanilla` and not `chocolate`:
