Utility Helpers

General utility functions for common operations including value selection, numeric manipulation, date formatting, and content processing.

isUndefined

Checks if a value is undefined in the current template context.

This is useful do distinguish between a variable that has not been set and one that set to null or false.

Syntax:

{{#isUndefined value}}

Parameters:

• value (any) - The value to check

Returns: true if the value is undefined, false otherwise.

Examples:

{{#if (isUndefined model.declaredMembers)}}
  The model is not capable of declaring members.
{{/if}}

isNull

Checks if a value is explicitly set to null.

Syntax:

{{#isNull value}}

Parameters:

• value (any) - The value to check

Returns: true if the value is null, false otherwise.

Examples:

{{#if (isNull model.doc.threadSafety.isStaticSafe)}}
  No thread safety information for static members
{{/if}}

isOdd

Checks if an integer number is odd.

Syntax:

{{#isOdd value}}

Parameters:

• value (number) - The value to check

Returns: true if the value is odd, false otherwise.

Examples:

{{#isOdd 5}}                      {{!-- true --}}
{{#isOdd 10}}                     {{!-- false --}}
{{#if (isOdd @index)}}Odd{{/if}}  {{!-- Displays "Odd" if current index is odd --}}

select

Selects a value from a list of choices based on a selector value. The selection behavior depends on the number of choices provided:

• One choice: Returns the single choice regardless of the selector
• Two choices: Returns the first choice if the selector is truthy, otherwise the second choice
• More than two choices: Converts the selector to an integer and uses it as a zero-based index into the choices. Returns null if conversion fails or index is out of range.

Syntax:

{{#select selector choices}}
{{#select selector choice1 choice2 ...}}

Parameters:

• selector (any) - The value used to determine which choice to select
• choices (array) - collection of choice values
• choice1, choice2, ... (any) - Individual choice values

Returns: The selected value based on the selector and number of choices, or null if no valid selection can be made.

Examples:

{{#select model.metadata.isStatic "Static" "Instance"}}
{{!-- Returns "Static" if model is static, otherwise "Instance" --}}

{{#select @index "first" "second" "third"}}
{{!-- Returns "first" if @index is 0, "second" if 1, "third" if 2, null otherwise --}}

{{#select item.status ["pending", "approved", "rejected"]}}
{{!-- If item.status is 0, returns "pending"; if 1, "approved"; if 2, "rejected" --}}

{{#select 1 "A" "B" "C" "D"}}
{{!-- Returns "B" (index 1) --}}

len

Returns the length of a string or array.

Syntax:

{{#len value}}

Parameters:

• value (string or array) - The string or array to measure

Returns: The length of the string or array as a number.

Examples:

{{#len "Hello World"}}           {{!-- 11 --}}
{{#len [2, 3, 5]}}               {{!-- 3 --}}
{{#len model.name}}              {{!-- Length of model name string --}}
{{#len model.directInterfaces}}  {{!-- Length of properties collection --}}

now

Returns the string representation of the current date and time.

The optional format parameter allows specifying a .NET DateTime format string to control the output format.

The culture used for formatting is the invariant culture.

Syntax:

{{#now}}
{{#now format}}

Parameters:

• format (string, optional) - .NET DateTime format string

Returns: Current date/time as string

Examples:

{{#now}}                       {{!-- "1/15/2024 2:30:45 PM" --}}
{{#now "yyyy-MM-dd"}}          {{!-- "2024-01-15" --}}
{{#now "HH:mm:ss"}}            {{!-- "14:30:45" --}}
{{#now "MMM dd, yyyy"}}        {{!-- "Jan 15, 2024" --}}

json

Converts an object to JSON string representation.

Circular references in the object graph are automatically handled by replacing cyclic references with null in the JSON output. This means a property may appear as null in the JSON string even though the actual object is not null—it's simply part of a cycle that cannot be fully serialized.

Syntax:

{{#json value}}

Parameters:

• value (any) - The value to convert to JSON

Returns: A JSON string representation of the value or null if the value is undefined.

Examples:

<body data-model="{{#json model}}">

literal

Renders a value as a formatted literal constant in the target programming language specified by the current documentation context.

Syntax:

{{#literal value}}

Parameters:

• value (any) - The value to format as a literal

Returns: No return value; renders the resulting content directly.

Examples:

{{#literal null}}           {{!-- null --}}
{{#literal true}}           {{!-- true --}}
{{#literal false}}          {{!-- false --}}
{{#literal 42}}             {{!-- 42 --}}
{{#literal -123.45}}        {{!-- -123.45 --}}
{{#literal '\n'}}           {{!-- '\\n' --}}
{{#literal "Hello World"}}  {{!-- ""Hello World"" (HTML escaped) --}}

cref

Renders a link to the documentation of a code reference.

Syntax:

{{#cref cref}}

Parameters:

• cref (string) - The code reference identifier

Returns: No return value; renders the resulting link directly.

Examples:

See also {{#cref "M:System.DateTime.ToString(System.String)"}} for more details.
{{!-- For HTML output, renders: See also DateTime.ToString(string) for more details. --}}
{{!-- For Markdown output, renders: See also [DateTime.ToString(string)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.datetime.tostring#system-datetime-tostring(system-string)) for more details. --}}

markdown

Renders block content written in Markdown and converts it to the current documentation layout's output.

Syntax:

{{#markdown}}...markdown-content...{{/markdown}}

Parameters: No parameters.

Returns: No return value; renders the resulting content directly.

Examples:

{{#markdown}}
This is a paragraph with **bold** text.
{{/markdown}}
{{!-- For HTML output, renders: "
This is a paragraph with bold text.
 --}}
{{!-- For Markdown output, renders: "This is a paragraph with **bold** text. --}}

{{#if assembly.metadata.attributes.releaseNotes}}
<div class="release-notes">
    {{#markdown}}{{{assembly.metadata.attributes.releaseNotes}}}{{/markdown}}
</div>
{{/if}}
{{!-- Renders release notes, converting it to HTML if needed. --}}
{{!-- To avoid double escaping of Markdown content, use triple braces. --}}

stripTags

Removes HTML tags from block content and renders the cleaned text.

Syntax:

{{#stripTags}}...html-content...{{/stripTags}}

Parameters: No parameters.

Returns: No return value; renders the resulting content directly.

Examples:

{{#stripTags}}<p>Hello <strong>World</strong></p>{{/stripTags}}
{{!-- Renders: "Hello World" --}}

<meta name="description" content="{{#stripTags}}{{model.doc.summary}}{{/stripTags}}" />
{{!-- Renders plain text of model's summary line into meta tag --}}