Stock car racing:Substitution

Substitution is another way to handle templates than is usually done on. Typically, templates will be transcluded, which means that if a template is changed, every page that uses it will be updated to meet the changes. This is the procedure used for most templates. However, some templates are given special exceptions by substituting. This means that if a template is changed, the page that uses it will not change, and will continue to display the old version of the template. Some templates must always be substituted, while most of the remaining templates must always be transcluded.

To do a substitution, add the  after the brackets open, as an example of such. For example: "substitution"  is different from "translusion". The contents of Template:Medicine will be expanded (for any templates) and stored at each point where the " " is placed in a page. Note that the tag-ref refuse to run "subst:" unless temporarily renamed as "&lt;xref name=xx>" or similar.

This page also lists templates that must always or never be substituted except in the namespace. Automatic tools (or bot) that do the substitution "will never" be used on the original template. If you are going to use bots to replace multiple templates, please read and understand through talk page first, because many are at odds or experiencing status changes from time to time, whereas substitution is permanent.