# Six Django template tags not often used in tutorials

This article is for those who don't read the documentation, and I, who had the [Dash](https://kapeli.com/dash) app for a few months now, which I never tinkered until last night.

During my first day on my internship a couple of months back, I was tasked to work on the scaffold of the company on which I was overwhelmed with the tags on it and never really bothered to research them.

Some of these are taken from the scaffold, some not.

Side note: There are spaces on the template tag because I have not figured out how to make the tags work on this site.

## 1.) for...empty

* The for tag can take an optional `{% empty %}` clause whose text is displayed if the given array is empty or could not be found:
    

```bash
{% for student in student_list %}
    ...
{% empty %}
    ...
{% endfor %}
```

Which is also equivalent to:

```bash

  {% if student_list %}
    {% for student in student_list %}
      ...
    { % endfor %}
  {% else %}
    ...
  {% endif %}
```

## 2.) lorem

* No, you don't need any other packages nor copy/paste a lorem text. This tag displays random “lorem ipsum” Latin text. This is useful for providing sample data in templates. Unless, of course, you don't.
    

```bash
{%  lorem [count] [method] [random] %}
```

e.g.

```bash
- {% lorem %} # will output the common “lorem ipsum” paragraph.
- {% lorem 3 p %} # will output the common “lorem ipsum” paragraph and two random paragraphs each wrapped in HTML <p> tags.
- {% lorem 2 w random %} # will output two random Latin words.
```

## 3.) now

* Displays the current date and/or time, using a format according to the given string. Such string can contain format specifiers characters as described in the date filter section.
    

```bash
{% now "jS F Y" %}
```

## 4.) resetcycle

* Resets a previous cycle so that it restarts from its first item at its next encounter. Without arguments, `{% resetcycle %}` will reset the last `{% cycle %}` defined in the template.
    

```bash
{% for coach in coach_list %}
      {{ coach.name }}
    {% for athlete in coach.athlete_set.all %}
        <p class="{% cycle 'odd' 'even' %}">{{ athlete.name }}</p>
    {% endfor %}
    {% resetcycle %}
{% endfor %}
```

This example would return this HTML:

```html
<h1>José Mourinho</h1>
<p class="odd">Thibaut Courtois</p>
<p class="even">John Terry</p>
<p class="odd">Eden Hazard</p>

<h1>Carlo Ancelotti</h1>
<p class="odd">Manuel Neuer</p>
<p class="even">Thomas Müller</p>
```

## 5.) verbatim

* Stops the template engine from rendering the contents of this block tag.
    
* A common use is to allow a JavaScript template layer that collides with Django’s syntax. For example:
    

```bash
{% verbatim %}
    {{if dying}}Still alive.{{/if}}
{% endverbatim %}
```

* You can also designate a specific closing tag, allowing the use of `{% endverbatim %}` as part of the unrendered contents:
    

```bash
{% verbatim myblock %}
    Avoid template rendering via the {% verbatim %}{% endverbatim %} block.
{% endverbatim myblock %}
```

## 6.) widthratio

* For creating bar charts and such, this tag calculates the ratio of a given value to a maximum value, and then applies that ratio to a constant.
    

```bash
<img src="#" alt="Imagine an image here"
     height="10" width="{% widthratio this_value max_value max_width %}" />
```

* If this\_value is 175, max\_value is 200, and max\_width is 100, the image in the above example will be 88 pixels wide (because 175/200 = .875; .875 \* 100 = 87.5 which is rounded up to 88).
    
* In some cases, you might want to capture the result of the width ratio in a variable. It can be useful, for instance, in a blocktrans like this:
    

```bash
{% widthratio this_value max_value max_width as width %}
{% blocktrans %}The width is: {{ width }}{% endblocktrans %}
```

Final side note: There are spaces on the template tag because I have not figured out how to make the tags work on this site.

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