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Text Formatting Filters ​

Nimbu provides powerful text manipulation filters for formatting strings, rendering markup, and transforming content.

Case Conversion ​

capitalize ​

Capitalizes the first word in a string:

liquid
{{ "hello world" | capitalize }}
<!-- Output: Hello world -->

{{ product.name | capitalize }}
<!-- "mountain bike" → "Mountain bike" -->

upcase ​

Converts string to uppercase:

liquid
{{ "Hello World" | upcase }}
<!-- Output: HELLO WORLD -->

<h2>{{ section.title | upcase }}</h2>

downcase ​

Converts string to lowercase:

liquid
{{ "HELLO WORLD" | downcase }}
<!-- Output: hello world -->

{{ email | downcase }}

String Manipulation ​

strip ​

Removes leading and trailing whitespace:

liquid
{{ "   Hello World   " | strip }}
<!-- Output: "Hello World" -->

{{ user_input | strip }}

lstrip / rstrip ​

Remove whitespace from left or right side only:

liquid
{{ "   Hello" | lstrip }}  <!-- "Hello" -->
{{ "Hello   " | rstrip }}   <!-- "Hello" -->

strip_html ​

Removes all HTML tags from string:

liquid
{{ "<p>Hello <strong>World</strong></p>" | strip_html }}
<!-- Output: "Hello World" -->

{{ blog_post.excerpt | strip_html | truncate: 150 }}

strip_newlines ​

Removes all newline characters:

liquid
{{ "Hello\nWorld" | strip_newlines }}
<!-- Output: "HelloWorld" -->

Truncation ​

truncate ​

Shortens string to specified length:

liquid
{{ "Hello World" | truncate: 5 }}
<!-- Output: "He..." -->

{{ product.description | truncate: 200, "..." }}

Parameters:

  • Length (required): Maximum characters
  • Ellipsis (optional): String to append, default "..."

truncatewords ​

Truncates to word count instead of characters:

liquid
{{ "The quick brown fox jumps" | truncatewords: 3 }}
<!-- Output: "The quick brown..." -->

{{ article.content | strip_html | truncatewords: 50 }}

excerpt ​

Extracts text around a search phrase:

liquid
{{ content | excerpt: "search term", radius: 20 }}
<!-- Returns ~20 chars before/after "search term" -->

{{ article.body | excerpt: params.q, radius: 50 }}

Text Replacement ​

replace ​

Replace all occurrences of a substring:

liquid
{{ "Hello World" | replace: "World", "Universe" }}
<!-- Output: "Hello Universe" -->

{{ product.description | replace: "old", "new" }}

replace_first ​

Replace only the first occurrence:

liquid
{{ "one two one" | replace_first: "one", "three" }}
<!-- Output: "three two one" -->

remove ​

Remove all occurrences of a substring:

liquid
{{ "Hello World World" | remove: "World " }}
<!-- Output: "Hello World" -->

{{ title | remove: "[DRAFT] " }}

remove_first ​

Remove only the first occurrence:

liquid
{{ "one two one" | remove_first: "one " }}
<!-- Output: "two one" -->

URL & Parameter Formatting ​

parameterize ​

Convert string to URL-friendly format:

liquid
{{ "Hello World!" | parameterize }}
<!-- Output: "hello-world" -->

{{ category.name | parameterize }}

url_encode ​

Encode string for URL parameters:

liquid
{{ "Hello World" | url_encode }}
<!-- Output: "Hello+World" -->

<a href="/search?q={{ params.query | url_encode }}">Search</a>

url_decode ​

Decode URL-encoded string:

liquid
{{ "Hello+World" | url_decode }}
<!-- Output: "Hello World" -->

escape ​

HTML-escape string:

liquid
{{ "<script>alert('hi')</script>" | escape }}
<!-- Output: "&lt;script&gt;alert('hi')&lt;/script&gt;" -->

{{ user_comment | escape }}

Markup Rendering ​

markdown ​

Render markdown to HTML:

liquid
{{ "# Hello\n\nThis is **bold**" | markdown }}
<!-- Output: <h1>Hello</h1><p>This is <strong>bold</strong></p> -->

<div class="content">
  {{ page.body | markdown }}
</div>

textile ​

Render Textile markup to HTML:

liquid
{{ "h1. Title\n\nThis is *bold*" | textile }}

{{ blog_post.content | textile }}

simple_format ​

Convert plain text to HTML with paragraph and line breaks:

liquid
{{ "Line one\n\nLine two" | simple_format }}
<!-- Output: <p>Line one</p><p>Line two</p> -->

{{ testimonial.quote | simple_format }}

Highlighting & Wrapping ​

highlight ​

Wrap search terms with HTML highlighting:

liquid
{{ "Hello World" | highlight: "World" }}
<!-- Output: Hello <mark>World</mark> -->

{{ article.body | highlight: params.search }}

Options:

liquid
{{ text | highlight: "term", highlighter: '<strong class="search-term">\1</strong>' }}

word_wrap ​

Wrap text at specified line width:

liquid
{{ long_text | word_wrap: 80 }}

{{ product.description | word_wrap: 120 }}

Advanced Text Processing ​

replace_by_regex ​

Replace text using regular expressions:

liquid
{{ "Product-123-XYZ" | replace_by_regex: '\d+', 'NUM' }}
<!-- Output: "Product-NUM-XYZ" -->

{{ sku | replace_by_regex: '^PROD-', '' }}

Example: Clean phone numbers

liquid
{{ "+32 (0)123 45 67 89" | replace_by_regex: '[^0-9+]', '' }}
<!-- Output: "+3212345679" -->

Example: Extract domain

liquid
{{ email | replace_by_regex: '.*@', '' }}
<!-- "[email protected]" → "example.com" -->

String Inspection ​

size ​

Get string length:

liquid
{{ "Hello" | size }}
<!-- Output: 5 -->

{% if product.description | size > 200 %}
  {{ product.description | truncate: 200 }}
{% else %}
  {{ product.description }}
{% endif %}

split ​

Split string into array:

liquid
{% assign words = "one,two,three" | split: "," %}
{% for word in words %}
  <span>{{ word }}</span>
{% endfor %}

slice ​

Extract substring by position and length:

liquid
{{ "Hello World" | slice: 0, 5 }}
<!-- Output: "Hello" -->

{{ sku | slice: 0, 4 }}

Practical Examples ​

Blog Excerpt with Highlighting ​

liquid
<div class="search-results">
  {% for article in articles %}
    <article>
      <h3>{{ article.title | highlight: params.q }}</h3>
      <p class="excerpt">
        {{ article.body | strip_html | excerpt: params.q, radius: 100 }}
      </p>
    </article>
  {% endfor %}
</div>

Clean User Input ​

liquid
{% assign clean_name = user_input | strip | truncate: 100 | escape %}
{% assign clean_email = email_input | strip | downcase %}

SEO-Friendly URLs ​

liquid
{% assign slug = page.title | parameterize %}
<link rel="canonical" href="{{ site.url }}/{{ slug }}">

Markdown Content with Cleanup ​

liquid
<div class="content prose">
  {{ page.content | markdown }}
</div>

<!-- Or sanitize first -->
{{ page.content | strip_html | markdown }}

Dynamic Text Truncation ​

liquid
{% if product.description.size > 150 %}
  <p>
    {{ product.description | truncatewords: 30 }}
    <a href="{{ product.url }}">Read more</a>
  </p>
{% else %}
  <p>{{ product.description }}</p>
{% endif %}

Format Product SKUs ​

liquid
<!-- Remove prefix -->
{{ product.sku | replace_by_regex: '^PROD-', '' }}

<!-- Format consistently -->
{{ product.sku | upcase | replace: "-", " " }}

Best Practices ​

1. Sanitize User Input ​

Always escape or strip HTML from user-generated content:

liquid
<!-- ❌ Dangerous -->
{{ comment.body }}

<!-- ✅ Safe -->
{{ comment.body | escape }}
{{ comment.body | strip_html }}

2. Chain Filters Efficiently ​

Order matters for performance and correctness:

liquid
<!-- ✅ Good: strip_html before truncate -->
{{ content | strip_html | truncatewords: 50 }}

<!-- ❌ Bad: might truncate mid-tag -->
{{ content | truncatewords: 50 | strip_html }}

3. Provide Fallbacks ​

Handle empty or nil values:

liquid
{{ product.description | default: "No description available" | truncate: 200 }}

Next Steps ​

Format and transform text effectively with Nimbu's text filters!