Help:Category

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You can place an article in a category by adding the string [[Category:Example]] to the article's text (where Example is the name of the category). A list of categories may be found at Special: Categories.

The category feature has several functions:

Sort keysEdit

All articles in a given category are sorted alphabetically. If you want an article to be sorted by something other than its name, you should use the following link form in the article's text: [[Category:Example|Sort key]] (where Example is the category name, and Sort key is the value to sort the list by). If multiple categories need to use the same sort key, you can use the magic word "DEFAULTSORT" like so:

{{DEFAULTSORT|Picard, Jean-Luc}}
[[Category:Humans]]
[[Category:Picard family|Jean-Luc Picard]]
[[Category:Athletes]]
[[Category:Scientists]]

By default, the article Jean-Luc Picard will be listed under the character's first name, "J", because it is the first letter of the article's name. The "DEFAULTSORT" in the example above instead forces the article to be listed by the character's last name, "Picard, Jean-Luc", in all the categories except "Picard family", where the piped sort key "Jean-Luc Picard" will override it.

Remember that sort keys are case sensitive, with capital letters being sorted before lowercase letters. Therefore, Picard, Jean-Luc would appear in the list before phaser.

ConventionsEdit

• When adding names, except most Bajoran names and a few other species, to a category, always sort by last name: for Deanna Troi, use [[Category:Hybrids|Troi, Deanna]]
• When adding the name of planets, use a double-digit instead of the Roman numeral: for Rigel VII, use [[Category:Planets|Rigel 07]]
• On "list categories" such as Category:Planets, include additional "list articles" by prefixing the sort key with a single blank: for Unnamed planets, use [[Category:Planets| Unnamed planets]]. This way, these articles will appear at the beginning of the list.

Linking to a categoryEdit

In order to link to a category without the current article being added to that category, place a colon before the word "Category" inside the link, i.e.

[[:Category:Main Characters]]

Sub-categoriesEdit

Category pages may be added to other categories and are then recognized as sub-categories. For example, you could edit [[Category:Main Characters]] and add the link [[Category:Characters]]. The Main Characters category would then be a sub-category of the Characters category.