Partial templates---like [single page templates][singletemps] and [list page templates][listtemps]---have a specific [lookup order][]. However, partials are simpler in that Hugo will only check in two places:
This allows a theme's end user to copy a partial's contents into a file of the same name for [further customization][customize].
## Use Partials in your Templates
All partials for your Hugo project are located in a single `layouts/partials` directory. For better organization, you can create multiple subdirectories within `partials` as well:
```
.
└── layouts
└── partials
├── footer
│ ├── scripts.html
│ └── site-footer.html
├── head
│ ├── favicons.html
│ ├── metadata.html
│ ├── prerender.html
│ └── twitter.html
└── header
├── site-header.html
└── site-nav.html
```
All partials are called within your templates using the following pattern:
```
{{ partial "<PATH>/<PARTIAL>.html" . }}
```
{{% note %}}
One of the most common mistakes with new Hugo users is failing to pass a context to the partial call. In the pattern above, note how "the dot" (`.`) is required as the second argument to give the partial context. You can read more about "the dot" in the [Hugo templating introduction](/templates/introduction/).
As shown in the above example directory structure, you can nest your directories within `partials` for better source organization. You only need to call the nested partial's path relative to the `partials` directory:
```
{{ partial "header/site-header.html" . }}
{{ partial "footer/scripts.html" . }}
```
### Variable Scoping
The second argument in a partial call is the variable being passed down. The above examples are passing the `.`, which tells the template receiving the partial to apply the current [context][context].
This means the partial will *only* be able to access those variables. The partial is isolated and *has no access to the outer scope*. From within the partial, `$.Var` is equivalent to `.Var`.
In addition to outputting markup, partials can be used to return a value of any type. In order to return a value, a partial must include a lone `return` statement.
### Example GetFeatured
```go-html-template
{{/* layouts/partials/GetFeatured.html */}}
{{ return first . (where site.RegularPages ".Params.featured" true) }}
```
```go-html-template
{{/* layouts/index.html */}}
{{ range partial "GetFeatured.html" 5 }}
[...]
{{ end }}
```
### Example GetImage
```go-html-template
{{/* layouts/partials/GetImage.html */}}
{{ $image := false }}
{{ with .Params.gallery }}
{{ $image = index . 0 }}
{{ end }}
{{ with .Params.image }}
{{ $image = . }}
{{ end }}
{{ return $image }}
```
```go-html-template
{{/* layouts/_default/single.html */}}
{{ with partial "GetImage.html" . }}
[...]
{{ end }}
```
{{% note %}}
Only one `return` statement is allowed per partial file.
The [`partialCached` template function][partialcached] can offer significant performance gains for complex templates that don't need to be re-rendered on every invocation. The simplest usage is as follows:
```
{{ partialCached "footer.html" . }}
```
You can also pass additional parameters to `partialCached` to create *variants* of the cached partial.
For example, you can tell Hugo to only render the partial `footer.html` once per section:
```
{{ partialCached "footer.html" . .Section }}
```
If you need to pass additional parameters to create unique variants, you can pass as many variant parameters as you need:
{{ if .RSSLink }}<linkhref="{{ .RSSLink }}"rel="alternate"type="application/rss+xml"title="{{ .Title }}"/>{{ end }}
{{ partial "head_includes.html" . }}
</head>
<bodylang="en">
{{</code>}}
{{% note %}}
The `header.html` example partial was built before the introduction of block templates to Hugo. Read more on [base templates and blocks](/templates/base/) for defining the outer chrome or shell of your master templates (i.e., your site's head, header, and footer). You can even combine blocks and partials for added flexibility.
{{% /note %}}
### Example `footer.html`
The following `footer.html` partial template is used for [spf13.com](http://spf13.com/):
[context]: /templates/introduction/ "The most easily overlooked concept to understand about Go templating is how the dot always refers to the current context."
[customize]: /themes/customizing/ "Hugo provides easy means to customize themes as long as users are familiar with Hugo's template lookup order."
[listtemps]: /templates/lists/ "To effectively leverage Hugo's system, see how Hugo handles list pages, where content for sections, taxonomies, and the homepage are listed and ordered."
[lookup order]: /templates/lookup-order/ "To keep your templating dry, read the documentation on Hugo's lookup order."
[partialcached]: /functions/partialcached/ "Use the partial cached function to improve build times in cases where Hugo can cache partials that don't need to be rendered with every page."
[singletemps]: /templates/single-page-templates/ "The most common form of template in Hugo is the single content template. Read the docs on how to create templates for individual pages."
