Template:ConvertAbbrev/doc

This template is used to convert commonly abbreviated things such as countries, states, provinces, and even language codes to and from their abbreviations. A hierarchical tree of subtemplates allows this template to convert virtually anything, which is really good for use in a backdoor template. If you have the word "California", but the template you're trying to use will only recognize "CA", use this to convert it!

How to use the template
Syntax:

This template consists of a "tree" of subtemplates containing databases of abbreviations. Each successive parameter in the code input tells the template which database to query. The datatype parameter is the most broad and tells the template what type of information you are looking for (i.e. Countries, states, or languages). The specification parameter refines the search. For example, if the datatype parameter is "ISO 3166-1", that tells the template to look for a subtype (alpha2, alpha3, or numeric). If the datatype parameter is "ISO 3166-2", the template will look for a specific country (Canada, Mexico, United States, etc.). If the datatype parameter is "ISO 639-1", the template looks for the name of a language (English, Spanish, Zulu, etc.). The value parameter is the actual name or abbreviation the user wishes to convert.

The force parameter overrides the normal nature of the conversion and forces an abbreviation or a long word to be returned. This is useful when a user may input either an abbreviation or a full name, but the template in question can only accept one of them.

If the ISO codes are a little hard to remember, there are also shortcuts: Note: The default for country abbreviations is alpha-2. For alpha-3 and numeric abbreviations, the user must specify the type in the specification parameter. Note: The default for language abbreviations is ISO 639-1. For ISO 639-2 abbreviations, the user must specify the type in the specification parameter.
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Supported datasets
Note: All ISO 3166-2 codes should not include the 3166-1 country code in the value parameter. (e.g. If you're looking for Paris ["FR-75" in ISO 3166-2:FR], you should only type "75" and not "FR-75".)
 * ISO 3166-1 – Country abbreviations
 * alpha-2 – Two-letter abbreviations
 * alpha-3 – Three-letter abbreviations
 * numeric – Numeric equations
 * ISO 3166-2 – State/provincial abbreviations
 * ISO 3166-2:BR – States of Brazil
 * ISO 3166-2:CA – Canadian subnational postal abbreviations
 * ISO 3166-2:CN – Administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China
 * ISO 3166-2:EG – Governorates of Egypt
 * ISO 3166-2:FR – Departments of France
 * ISO 3166-2:GB – Administrative geography of the United Kingdom
 * ISO 3166-2:IN – States and territories of India
 * ISO 3166-2:JP – Prefectures of Japan
 * ISO 3166-2:MX – Political divisions of Mexico
 * ISO 3166-2:RU – Federal subjects of Russia
 * ISO 3166-2:US – United States postal abbreviations
 * ISO 639 – Language codes
 * ISO 639-1 – Two letter codes
 * ISO 639-2 – Three letter codes

Sub-pages
For a list of all the sub-pages of this template, see: Special:PrefixIndex/Template:ConvertAbbrev