Smarty Manual
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Chapter 18. Tips & Tricks

Table of Contents
Blank Variable Handling
Default Variable Handling
Passing variable title to header template
Dates
WAP/WML
Componentized Templates
Obfuscating E-mail Addresses

Blank Variable Handling

There may be times when you want to print a default value for an empty variable instead of printing nothing, such as printing   so that html table backgrounds work properly. Many would use an {if} statement to handle this, but there is a shorthand way with Smarty, using the default variable modifier.

Note: "Undefined variable" errors will show if PHP error_reporting() is E_ALL and a variable had not been assigned to Smarty.

Example 18-1. Printing   when a variable is empty

{* the long way *}
{if $title eq ''}
   &nbsp;
{else}
   {$title}
{/if}

{* the short way *}
{$title|default:'&nbsp;'}

See also default modifier and default variable handling.