Handlebars Reference: Text Helpers

You can use text helpers to modify strings of text in Handlebars code. These helpers can be applied to the name of a data field or a literal value (placed in double quotes).

# In this article

# Display the length of a string

The length helper displays the total number of characters (including spaces) of the value of a data field.

# Properties

fieldName — The name of the user or event data field containing a string whose length you want to display.

# Format

{{fieldName.length}}

# Example

Code	Example favoriteBook value	Output
	To Kill A Mockingbird	21

# Check if two strings are equal

The eq helper is generally used to check whether two numerical values are equal, but it can also be used to check for an exact match between two strings. If the two values are equal, it displays true. If the two values are not equal, false is displayed. (Alphabetic order comparisons are case-sensitive.)

Keep in mind: If a merge tag using the eq or #eq helper references an empty or missing field, the template will fail and the message will not be sent to that user.

# Properties

fieldName1 — The name of the first user or event data field whose string value you want to compare.
fieldName2 — The name of the second user or event data field whose string value you want to compare.

# Format

handlebars
{{eq fieldName1 fieldName2}}

# Example

Code	Example firstName value	Example preferredName value	Output
	Elizabeth	Ellie	False

# Check if a string comes before another alphabetically

The lt helper is generally used to compare two numerical values, but it can also be used to check whether two strings are in alphabetical order. When used this way, this helper checks to see whether the first letter of the first string is "less" (comes earlier in the alphabet) than the first letter of the second string. If the first value comes alphabetically after the second, it displays true. If the first value comes alphabetically before the second, it displays false. (Alphabetic order comparisons are case-sensitive.)

Keep in mind: If a merge tag using the lt or #lt helper references an empty or missing field, the template will fail and the message will not be sent to that user.

# Properties

fieldName1 — The name of the first user or event data field whose string value you want to compare.
fieldName2 — The name of the second user or event data field whose string value you want to compare.

# Format

handlebars
{{lt fieldName1 fieldName2}}

# Example

Code	Example favoriteFruit value	Example favoriteAnimal value	Output
	apple	zebra	true

# Check if a string comes after another alphabetically

The gt helper is generally used to compare two numerical values, but it can also be used to check whether two strings are in alphabetical order. When used this way, this helper checks to see whether the first letter of the first string is "greater" (comes later in the alphabet) than the first letter of the second string. If the first value comes alphabetically after the second, it displays true. If the first value comes alphabetically before the second, it displays false. (Alphabetic order comparisons are case-sensitive.)

Keep in mind: If a merge tag using the gt or #gt helper references an empty or missing field, the template will fail and the message will not be sent to that user.

# Properties

fieldName1 — The name of the first user or event data field whose string value you want to compare.
fieldName2 — The name of the second user or event data field whose string value you want to compare.

# Format

handlebars
{{gt fieldName1 fieldName2}}

# Example

Code	Example favoriteFruit value	Example favoriteAnimal value	Output
	apple	zebra	false

# Capitalize the first word of a string

The capitalizeFirst helper capitalizes the first word of a string.

# Properties

fieldName — The name of the user or event data field that contains the string you want to capitalize.

# Format

{{capitalizeFirst fieldName}}

# Example

Code	Example favoriteFoods value	Output
	blueberry scone	Blueberry scone

# Capitalize all words

The capitalize helper capitalizes the first letter of each word in a string.

# Properties

fieldName — The name of the user or event data field that contains the string you want to capitalize.

# Format

{{capitalize fieldName}}

# Example

Code	Example favoriteFoods.pastry value	Output
	blueberry scone	Blueberry Scone

# Uppercase all letters

The upper helper capitalizes every letter in a string.

# Properties

fieldName — The name of the user or event data field whose value should be uppercased.

# Format

{{upper fieldName}}

# Example

Code	Example birthday.month value	Output
	january	JANUARY

# Lowercase all letters

The lower helper lowercases every letter in a string.

# Properties

fieldName — The name of the user or event data field whose value should be lowercased.

# Format

{{lower fieldName}}

# Example

Code	Example brand value	Output
	FItErAbLE	fiterable

# Remove some text from a string

The cut helper removes all instances of a certain word, phrase, or character.

# Properties

fieldName — The name of the user or event data field containing the string to be modified.
text — The text that should be cut from the string.

# Format

{{cut fieldName "text"}}

# Example

Code	Example breakfastOrder value	Output
	pancakes	cakes

# Replace some text with other text

The replace helper finds and replaces all occurrences of one string with a different string.

# Properties

fieldName — The field containing the string you want to search.
searchFor — The string within fieldName that you want to change.
replaceWith — The string that should replace all occurrences of searchFor.

# Format

{{replace fieldName "searchFor" "replaceWith"}}

# Example

Code	Example timeOfYear value	Output
	The dog days of summer	The cat days of summer

# Abbreviate

The abbreviate helper shortens a string to a specified length and adds an ellipsis (...).

# Properties

fieldName — The user or event data field that contains the string you want to abbreviate.
length — The total number of characters you want the string abbreviated to (includes three characters for the ellipsis that's appended to the shortened string).

# Format

{{abbreviate fieldName length}}

# Example

Code	Example iceCreamFlavor value	Output
	chocolate	choc...

# Pad and center some text

The center helper adds a series of specified characters to each side of a word or phrase to add padding around the text and center it.

# Properties

fieldName — The user or event data field that contains the string you want to pad and center.
# — The total number of characters you want the string to be, once the padding characters have been added.
character — The character you want to add to each side of the string to pad it.

# Format

{{center fieldName size=# pad=character}}

# Example

Code	Example greeting value	Output
	Hi there	------Hi there------

# Turn a string into a URL slug

The slugify helper lowercases a string, removes non-word characters (numbers, underscores, and apostrophes), strips leading and trailing spaces, and converts spaces to hyphens.

# Properties

fieldName — The user or event data field that contains the string you want to turn into a slug.

# Format

{{slugify fieldName}}

# Example

Code	Example itemName value	Output
	lil' café milk frother 2.0	lil-café-milk-frother-

# Replace newlines

The #breaklines block helper replaces \n or \r\n with <br>. This is helpful for making sure newlines display correctly in HTML.

# Properties

fieldName — The user or event data field that contains the string you want to format with line breaks instead of newlines.

# Format

{{#breaklines}}{{fieldName}}{{/breaklines}}

# Example

Code	Example greeting value	Output
	Hi there! Welcome to Fiterable.	Hi there! Welcome to Fiterable.

# Display a substring by index

The substring helper displays part of a string, according to its position within the containing string.

# Properties

fieldName — The name of the field that contains the string (and substring) you want to display. index1 — The location within the string of the first character of the substring you want to display. index2 (optional) — The location within the string of the first character after the end of the substring. (The character at this index is not included in the output.)

# Format

{{substring fieldName index1 index2}}

# Example

Code	Example brand value	Output
	Fiterable	era

# Want to learn more?

For more information about some of the topics in this article, check out these resources. Iterable Academy is open to everyone — you don't need to be an Iterable customer!

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• Handlebars 101
• Intermediate Handlebars
• Advanced Handlebars

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• Handlebars Overview
• Templates Overview