Wraps a short span of text in <syntaxhighlight> tags (see mw:Extension:SyntaxHighlight GeSHi). This template should be used for short samples; longer content should use <pre>...</pre> or <source>...</source>. See Help:Wiki markup for an explanation of what the various tags do.

If the content includes an equals sign (=), you must specify the parameter explicitly: {{code|1=date=30 Feb 2010}}.

The template uses the <syntaxhighlight> tag with the attribute enclose="none". This works like the combination of the <code> and <nowiki> tags, applied to the expanded wikitext. For example, {{code|some '''wiki''' text}} will not render the word "wiki" in bold, and will render the tripled-single-quotes:

some '''wiki''' text

However, {{code|a {{template}} call}} will still invoke the template:

a {{[[Template:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]]}} call

This template does not need to be substituted.

Use parameter {{{2}}}/{{{lang}}} to specify a language for Extension:SyntaxHighlight GeSHi. This option defaults to plain-text i.e. no highlighting.

input output
Lorem {{code|ipsum '''dolor'''}} sit amet
Lorem ipsum '''dolor''' sit amet
The declaration {{code| lang = cpp |int foo(const std::string& bar, const std::vector<long double*>& baz);}} is the prototype for a function defined later.
The declaration int foo(const std::string& bar, const std::vector<long double*>& baz); is the prototype for a function defined later.
If the code contains an [[equals sign]], such as {{code| lang = javascript | code = var img = document.getElementsByTagName("img");}}, you must identify the first parameter explicitly as {{{1}}} or {{{code}}}, see also [[:bugzilla:5138]].
If the code contains an equals sign, such as var img = document.getElementsByTagName("img");, you must identify the first parameter explicitly as {{{1}}} or {{{code}}}, see also bugzilla:5138.