Module:Article link count

Module documentationviewedithistorypurge

Returns the count of unique article (namespace 0) links on a page. While usable with any wiki page, this is especially useful in conjunction with the results of {{Database report}}-based or other internally generated reports that list articles using a standard wikilink format ([[link|pipe]]).

Usage

{{#invoke:Article link count|pagename}}

Or via template:
{{Article link count|pagename}}

Notes:

• Links within html comments or nowiki tags will not be counted.
• For performance reasons, this module does not check for the existence of any article linked on the page. Therefore, red links will be counted.

The above documentation is transcluded from Module:Article link count/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this module's sandbox (create | mirror) and testcases (create) pages.
Subpages of this module.

-- Article link count module
-- Initial code by Stefen 𝕋ower né Steve Magruder (5 March 2026) [[User:StefenTower]].
-- @module Article link count
local p = {}

function p.countUniqueArticleLinks(frame)
    local args = frame.args
    if args[1] == nil and args.page == nil then
        args = frame:getParent().args
    end
    
    local pageName = args[1] or args.page or ""
    if pageName == "" then return "0" end

    local targetTitle = mw.title.new(pageName)
    if not targetTitle or not targetTitle.exists then
        return "0" -- Returns 0 if the page doesn't exist
    end

    local text = targetTitle:getContent()
    
    -- Disregard links within html comments or nowiki tags
    text = text:gsub("<!%-%-.-%-%->", "")
    text = text:gsub("<[Nn][Oo][Ww][Ii][Kk][Ii]>.-</[Nn][Oo][Ww][Ii][Kk][Ii]>", "")
    
    local uniqueLinks = {}
    local count = 0

    for linkText in text:gmatch("%[%[([^%[%]|]+)") do
        linkText = mw.text.trim(linkText)
        
        if linkText ~= "" and not uniqueLinks[linkText] then
            local linkTitle = mw.title.new(linkText)
            if linkTitle and linkTitle.namespace == 0 then
                uniqueLinks[linkText] = true
                count = count + 1
            end
        end
    end

    return count
end

return p