ViewFish Templating

Default Values

You can provide a fallback value for any variable using the default pipe function. If the variable is missing or empty, the default value will be used instead.

Syntax

{{variable|default:"fallback value"}}

You can also use single quotes:

{{variable|default:'fallback value'}}

Example

Template:

<p>Hello, {{name|default:"Anonymous"}}!</p>
<p>Role: {{role|default:"Guest"}}</p>
<p>Location: {{city|default:"Unknown"|ucwords}}</p>

PHP:

// With data:
echo $t->render($template, ['name' => 'Alice', 'city' => 'portland']);
// Output: Hello, Alice! Role: Guest. Location: Portland

// Without data:
echo $t->render($template, []);
// Output: Hello, Anonymous! Role: Guest. Location: Unknown

Chaining with other functions

The default function can be chained with other pipe functions. When a value is present, default passes it through unchanged and subsequent functions apply normally:

{{name|default:"anonymous"|ucfirst}}

If name is "alice", output is Alice. If name is missing, output is Anonymous.

How it works

• If the variable exists in your data array and is non-empty, default is ignored and the real value is used.
• If the variable is missing entirely from the data array, the default value is substituted.
• This works with both {{var|default:"x"}} and {{$var|default:"x"}} syntax.

You can see this in action in Example 9.