Details

The user language object is the language object selected in user preferences. It is one of two global language objects, the other was $wgContLang (removed in 1.36). See the page Manual:Language for more information.

$wgLang is initialized towards the end of setup; some hooks are called earlier than that and should avoid using it. When in doubt use $wgUser->isSafeToLoad() to check.

Often used Methods

This is not an exhaustive list, view class above to see a complete listing.

$wgLang->commaList( $list )

delimit a list of strings according to the conventions of the user's language

$wgLang->getCode()

return the user's language code, for example "en"

Recommended alternative

It is best that new code avoids using global variables when alternatives exist. In the case of $wgLang, two alternatives exist and can be used:

• Use an instance of Context class to get the language used in that context, e.g. $contextSource->getLanguage(). (see also: Manual:RequestContext.php#Accessors)
• Use MediaWikiServices to get the content language statically, e.g. MediaWikiServices::getInstance()->getContentLanguage();. (To read more about MediaWikiServices, see Dependency Injection )