# Highlight.js
Highlight.js highlights syntax in code examples on blogs, forums and
in fact on any web pages. It's very easy to use because it works
automatically: finds blocks of code, detects a language, highlights it.
Autodetection can be fine tuned when it fails by itself (see "Heuristics").
## Installation and usage
Downloaded package includes file "highlight.pack.js" which is a full compressed
version of the library intended to use in production. All uncompressed source
files are also available, feel free to look into them!
The script is installed by linking to a single file and making a single
initialization call:
<script type="text/javascript" src="highlight.pack.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
hljs.initHighlightingOnLoad();
</script>
Also you can replaces TAB ('\x09') characters used for indentation in your code
with some fixed number of spaces or with a `<span>` to set them special styling:
<script type="text/javascript">
hljs.tabReplace = ' '; // 4 spaces
// ... or
hljs.tabReplace = '<span class="indent">\t</span>';
hljs.initHighlightingOnLoad();
</script>
Then the script looks in your page for fragments `<pre><code>...</code></pre>`
that are used traditionally to mark up code examples. Their content is
marked up by logical pieces with defined class names.
### Custom initialization
If you use different markup for code blocks you can initialize them manually
with `highlightBlock(code, tabReplace)` function. It takes a DOM element
containing the code to highlight and optionally a string with which to replace
TAB characters.
Initialization using for example jQuery might look like this:
$(document).ready(function() {
$('pre code').each(function(i, e) {hljs.highlightBlock(e, ' ')});
});
### Styling
Elements of code marked up with classes can be styled as desired:
.comment {
color: gray;
}
.keyword {
font-weight: bold;
}
.python .string {
color: blue;
}
.html .atribute .value {
color: green;
}
Highligt.js comes with several style themes located in "styles" directory that
can be used directly or as a base for your own experiments.
A full list of available classes is below ("Languages").
## Export
File export.html contains a little program that shows and allows to copy and paste
an HTML code generated by the highlighter for any code snippet. This can be useful
in situations when one can't use the script itself on a site.
## Languages
This is a full list of available classes corresponding to languages'
syntactic structures. In parentheses after language names are identifiers
used as class names in `<code>` element.
Python ("python"):
keyword keyword
built_in built-in objects (None, False, True and Ellipsis)
number number
string string (of any type)
comment comment
decorator @-decorator for functions
function function header "def some_name(...):"
class class header "class SomeName(...):"
title name of a function or a class inside a header
params everything inside parentheses in a function's or class' header
Python profiler results ("profile"):
number number
string string
builtin builtin function entry
filename filename in an entry
summary profiling summary
header header of table of results
keyword column header
function function name in an entry (including parentheses)
title actual name of a function in an entry (excluding parentheses)
Ruby ("ruby"):
keyword keyword
string string
subst in-string substitution (#{...})
comment comment
yardoctag YARD tag
function function header "def some_name(...):"
class class header "class SomeName(...):"
title name of a function or a class inside a header
parent name of a parent class
symbol symbol
instancevar instance variable
Perl ("perl"):
keyword keyword
comment comment
number number
string string
regexp regular expression
sub subroutine header (from "sub" till "{")
variable variable starting with "$", "%", "@"
operator operator
pod plain old doc
PHP ("php"):
keyword keyword
number number
string string (of any type)
comment comment
phpdoc phpdoc params in comments
variable variable starting with "$"
preprocessor preprocessor marks: "<?php" and "?>"
Scala ("scala"):
keyword keyword
number number
string string
comment comment
annotaion annotation
javadoc javadoc comment
javadoctag @-tag in javadoc
class class header
title class name inside a header
params everything in parentheses inside a class header
inheritance keywords "extends" and "with" inside class header
XML ("xml"):
tag any tag from "<" till ">"
comment comment
pi processing instruction (<? ... ?>)
cdata CDATA section
attribute attribute
value attribute's value
HTML ("html"):
keyword HTML tag
tag any tag from "<" till ">"
comment comment
doctype <!DOCTYPE ... > declaration
attribute tag's attribute with or without value
value attribute's value
CSS ("css"):
keyword HTML tag when in selectors, CSS keyword when in rules
id #some_name in selectors
class .some_name in selectors
at_rule @-rule till first "{" or ";"
attr_selector attribute selector (square brackets in a[href^=http://])
pseudo pseudo classes and elemens (:after, ::after etc.)
comment comment
rules everything from "{" till "}"
value property's value inside a rule, from ":" till ";" or
till the end of rule block
number number within a value
string string within a value
hexcolor hex color (#FFFFFF) within a value
function CSS function within a value
params everything between "(" and ")" within a function
Django ("django"):
keyword HTML tag in HTML, default tags and default filters in templates
tag any tag from "<" till ">"
comment comment
doctype <!DOCTYPE ... > declaration
attribute tag's attribute with or withou value
value attribute's value
template_tag template tag {% .. %}
variable template variable {{ .. }}
template_comment template comment, both {# .. #} and {% comment %}
filter filter from "|" till the next filter or the end of tag
argument filter argument
Javascript ("javascript"):
keyword keyword
comment comment
number number
literal special literal: "true", "false" and "null"
string string
regexp regular expression
function header of a function
title name of a function inside a header
params everything inside parentheses in a function's header
VBScript ("vbscript"):
keyword keyword
number number
string string
comment comment
built_in built-in function
Lua ("lua"):
keyword keyword
number number
string string