BBCode (original) (raw)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lightweight markup language used in message boards
Not to be confused with BBC.
BBCode ("Bulletin Board Code") is a lightweight markup language used to format messages in many Internet forum software. It was first introduced in 1998.[1] The available "tags" of BBCode are usually indicated by square brackets ([ and ]) surrounding a keyword, and are parsed before being translated into HTML.[_citation needed_]
| Example in HTML/CSS | BBCode | Output |
|---|---|---|
| <b>bolded text</b>[2],<strong>bolded text</strong> or<span style="font-weight: bold;">bolded text</span> | [b]bolded text[/b] | bolded text |
| <i>italicized text</i>,<em>italicized text</em> or<span style="font-style: italic;">italicized text</span> | [i]italicized text[/i] | italicized text |
| <ins>underlined text</ins> or<span style="text-decoration: underline;">underlined text</span> | [u]underlined text[/u] | underlined text |
| <del>strikethrough text</del> or<span style="text-decoration: line-through;">strikethrough text</span> | [s]strikethrough text[/s] | |
| <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org" title="undefined" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org"\>https://en.wikipedia.org</a><a href="English" title="undefined" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org"\>English Wikipedia</a> | [url]https://en.wikipedia.org\[/url\]\[url\=https://en.wikipedia.org\]English Wikipedia[/url] | https://en.wikipedia.orgEnglish Wikipedia |
| <img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Example.png" alt="This is just an example" /> | [img alt="This is just an example" ]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Example.png\[/img\] |  |
| <img src="Smileys/Face-smile.svg" alt=":-)"> | :) or [:-)]This would be another way to use the [img]url_img[/img] and must be pre-configured by the forum administrator.(This and other emoticons, depending on the variant. Most BBCodes do not enclose emoticons in square brackets, leading to frequent accidental usage.) |  (Specific image and size vary.) |
| <blockquote><p>quoted text</p></blockquote>(Usually implemented in more advanced ways.) | [quote]quoted text[/quote][quote="author"]quoted text[/quote](including optional author) | Using a Wikipedia template: quoted textquoted text— author |
| <pre>monospaced text</pre> | [code]monospaced text[/code] | monospaced text |
| <span style="font-size:30px">Large Text</span> or<span style="font-size:85%">Smaller Text</span> | [style size="30px"]Large Text[/style][style size="85"]Smaller Text[/style](The unit of measurement varies with each BBCode variant and could represent pixels, points, or relative HTML sizes.) | Large TextSmaller Text |
| <span style="color:fuchsia;">Text in fuchsia</span> or<span style="color:#FF00FF;">Text in fuchsia</span> | [style color="fuchsia"]Text in fuchsia[/style] or[style color=#FF00FF]Text in fuchsia[/style] or[color=#FF00FF]Text in fuchsia[/color](Both HTML color names and hexadecimal color values are generally supported, although on some boards, you must omit the # from selecting a hexadecimal color.) | Text in fuchsia |
| <ul> <li>Entry A</li> <li>Entry B</li> </ul> <ol> <li>Entry 1</li> <li>Entry 2</li> </ol> | [list] [*]Entry A [*]Entry B [/list] [list=1] [*]Entry 1 [*]Entry 2 [/list] Some message boards do not need the square brackets around the markers.[3] (Many variants for li and /li, list types – unordered and ordered, with different bullets or counter formats – etc.) | Entry A Entry B Entry 1 Entry 2 |
| <table> <tr> <td>table cell 1</td> <td>table cell 2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>table cell 3</td> <td>table cell 4</td> </tr> </table> | [table] [tr] [td]table cell 1[/td] [td]table cell 2[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]table cell 3[/td] [td]table cell 4[/td] [/tr] [/table] (Some variants for thead, rules, etc.) | table cell 1 table cell 2 table cell 3 table cell 4 |
| Source:[4] |
![https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Example.png\[/img\]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Example.png\[/img\]){kind=link}
BBCode is typically implemented by applying a series of regular expression string-replace operations upon the input. Because regular expressions are limited in analyzing the structure of text input, this has the artifact that any non-hierarchical BBCode input will be transformed into invalid non-hierarchical HTML without error.[_citation needed_]
Applying traditional parsing techniques is made difficult by ambiguities in the markup, such as in [quote=[b]text[/b][/quote], where the input can either be interpreted as "text" quoted from someone called [b, or the bolded text "text" surrounded by [quote= and [/quote], i.e. [quote=**text**[/quote].
- ^ "BBCode history". www.bbcode.org. Retrieved 21 February 2025.
- ^ "HTML Text Formatting". W3Schools. Retrieved 2021-05-01.
- ^ e.g. BOINC Project Forums et al.
- ^ "BBCode tags reference". www.bbcode.org. Retrieved 12 January 2022.