What is "using the pipe"?

Question

The following category page makes reference to "using the pipe":

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:United_States_Navy_Ships

Note: Ships are sorted alphabetically by ship name, using the pipe

What is "using the pipe"?

Comments

The pipe character is also known as the vertical bar -- |

It usually divides parameters in templates, such as {{Wikidata|######|en}}

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The use of the pipe character for sorting profiles in categories is discussed at this help page subsection.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Category_Creation_and_Removal#Changing_the_sort_order

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Many people - probably nearly all non-programmers - would not be familiar with the pipe character.  Just as we shun use of acronyms without making sure to first identify them, we should also avoid using "tekky" terms without identifying them.  I would recommend a change in the wording of that note to something like:

Ships are sorted alphabetically by ship name, using the pipe character ("|", typically found as upper case of the backslash at the right of many keyboards immediately above the ENTER key).

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I just removed "using the pipe" and left it at that. Also left a link to the sorting explanation.

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The example given on the help (New York, Religious Institutions) might not be the best one. It doesn't actually use a pipe (maybe the category info box doesn't support them.)

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hmm, would get that changed, my ''pipe'' is top left below esc key.  Different keyboards. 

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Brad, no the category info box does not sort. You have to add the category below the category info box with the sorting added to it. And the category you mentioned IS a bad example since the CIB automatically adds it to the top of the categories in New York, but by using a space. (such as [[Catetegory:New York| Religious Ins]]

Here I had to sort Emigrants to the top of the US categories.

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Brad, how about this instead for the help page?

For example, let's say you want  Category: USS Ajax (AR-6), United States Navy to be listed in Category: United States Navy Ships but under A, not U.

Instead of putting the usualCategory: United States Navy Ships]]on the [Category: USS Ajax (AR-6), United States Navy category page, use [[Category: USS Ajax (AR-6), United States Navy|Ajax]].

The part after the pipe (|) is the sort key that specifies what the category should be sorted as in that category.

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My 'pipe', although uppercase of the backslash, is under the Caps Lock key and nowhere near the Enter key.

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Gaile, the red part of your comment is only valid for US-keyboards. I have a German keyboard and on that the pipe is located as a third option (so only available in connection with the "alt gr" key) on the "bigger as/smaller as"-key. So, to keep the explanation internationally, we should simply show what the pipe looks like.

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That help seems perfect Natalie. Now I'm curious, can we not use pipes and infoboxes together?

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It doesn't work. I think Aleš would need to code it that way.

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Ha, I was struggling with pipes and infoboxes and totally forgot we'd had this conversation a year ago. Very helpful, thanks to you folks, and younger me!

Answer 1

Select any of the categories on the page, then look at the Categories line on the next page 'under the heading'.  It has the 'pipe' for the next parameter with the sub-category that you had selected.