{assign}, {$var=...}

{assign} or {$var=...} is used for assigning template variables during the execution of a template.

Attributes of the {assign} syntax

Attribute Name	Required	Description
var		The name of the variable being assigned
value		The value being assigned
scope	(optional)	The scope of the assigned variable: 'parent','root' or 'global'

Attributes of the {$var=...} syntax

Attribute Name	Required	Description
scope	(optional)	The scope of the assigned variable: 'parent','root' or 'global'

Option Flags

Name	Description
nocache	Assigns the variable with the 'nocache' attribute

Note

Assignment of variables in-template is essentially placing application logic into the presentation that may be better handled in PHP. Use at your own discretion.

Examples

{assign var="name" value="Bob"}  {* or *}
{assign "name" "Bob"} {* short-hand, or *}
{$name='Bob'}

The value of $name is {$name}.

The above example will output:

The value of $name is Bob.

{assign var="name" value="Bob" nocache}  {* or *}
{assign "name" "Bob" nocache} {* short-hand, or *}
{$name='Bob' nocache}

The value of $name is {$name}.

The above example will output:

The value of $name is Bob.

{assign var=running_total value=$running_total+$some_array[$row].some_value}  {* or *}
{$running_total=$running_total+$some_array[row].some_value}

Variables assigned in the included template will be seen in the including template.

{include file="sub_template.tpl"}

{* display variable assigned in sub_template *}
{$foo}<br>

The template above includes the example sub_template.tpl below:

{* foo will be known also in the including template *}
{assign var="foo" value="something" scope=parent}
{$foo="something" scope=parent}

{* bar is assigned only local in the including template *}
{assign var="bar" value="value"} {* or *}
{$var="value"}

You can assign a variable to root of the current root tree. The variable is seen by all templates using the same root tree.

{assign var=foo value="bar" scope="root"}

A global variable is seen by all templates.

{assign var=foo value="bar" scope="global"} {* or *}
{assign "foo" "bar" scope="global"} {* short-hand, or *}
{$foo="bar" scope="global"}

For more information on variable scope, please read the page on variable scopes.

To access {assign} variables from a php script use getTemplateVars(). Here's the template that creates the variable $foo.

{assign var="foo" value="Smarty"} {* or *}
{$foo="Smarty"}

The template variables are only available after/during template execution as in the following script.

<?php

// this will output nothing as the template has not been executed
echo $smarty->getTemplateVars('foo');

// fetch the template to a variable
$whole_page = $smarty->fetch('index.tpl');

// this will output 'smarty' as the template has been executed
echo $smarty->getTemplateVars('foo');

$smarty->assign('foo','Even smarter');

// this will output 'Even smarter'
echo $smarty->getTemplateVars('foo');

The following functions can also optionally assign template variables: {capture}, {include}, {counter}, {cycle}, {eval}, {fetch}, {math} and {textformat}.

See also {append}, assign() and getTemplateVars().