String Filters

String filters change text. Use them to add, remove, replace, trim, or cut parts of a string. They are some of the most used filters in any template.

append

Add text to the end of a string. This is handy for building paths or adding units:

{{ 'hello' | append: ' world' }}

Output: hello world

prepend

Add text to the start of a string. Works the same as append but puts the new text at the front:

{{ 'world' | prepend: 'hello ' }}

Output: hello world

capitalize

Make the first letter of the string uppercase:

{{ 'hello world' | capitalize }}

Output: Hello world

Only the very first letter changes. The rest stays as it is.

upcase

Turn every letter in the string to uppercase:

{{ 'hello' | upcase }}

Output: HELLO

downcase

Turn every letter in the string to lowercase:

{{ 'HELLO' | downcase }}

Output: hello

strip

Remove whitespace from both ends of a string:

{{ '  hello  ' | strip }}

Output: hello

lstrip

Remove whitespace from the left side only:

{{ '  hello  ' | lstrip }}

Output: hello (trailing space remains)

rstrip

Remove whitespace from the right side only:

{{ '  hello  ' | rstrip }}

Output: hello (leading space remains)

replace

Find a piece of text and swap it for something new. This changes every match in the string:

{{ 'I like cats and cats like me' | replace: 'cats', 'dogs' }}

Output: I like dogs and dogs like me

replace_first

Swap only the first match and leave the rest alone:

{{ 'I like cats and cats like me' | replace_first: 'cats', 'dogs' }}

Output: I like dogs and cats like me

remove

Delete every match of the given text from the string:

{{ 'hello world' | remove: 'l' }}

Output: heo word

remove_first

Delete only the first match:

{{ 'hello world' | remove_first: 'l' }}

Output: helo world

truncate

Shorten a string to a set number of characters. Adds an ellipsis by default:

{{ 'This is a long product description' | truncate: 20 }}

Output: This is a long pr...

The total count includes the three dots at the end. You can use a different ending instead:

{{ 'This is a long product description' | truncate: 20, '—' }}

Output: This is a long prod—

truncatewords

Shorten a string to a set number of words:

{{ 'This is a long product description that goes on' | truncatewords: 5 }}

Output: This is a long product...

split

Break a string into an array using a delimiter:

{% assign colours = 'red,green,blue' | split: ',' %}
{% for colour in colours %}
  <span>{{ colour }}</span>
{% endfor %}

This creates an array with three items: red, green, and blue.

slice

Extract part of a string by position. The first character is at position 0:

{{ 'hello' | slice: 1, 3 }}

Output: ell

The first argument is the start position. The second is how many characters to take. If you leave out the length, you get one character:

{{ 'hello' | slice: 0 }}

Output: h

Use a negative number to count from the end:

{{ 'hello' | slice: -3, 3 }}

Output: llo

handleize

Convert a string into a URL-safe handle (also called a slug). Spaces become hyphens, special characters are removed, and everything is lowercased:

{{ 'Summer Collection 2026!' | handleize }}

Output: summer-collection-2026

This is useful when you need to build links or CSS class names from user-entered text:

<div class="collection-{{ collection.title | handleize }}">
  {{ collection.title }}
</div>

The filter handle is an alias for handleize. Both work the same way.

Encoding filters

These filters make text safe for use in HTML or URLs.

escape

Turn special HTML characters into safe codes. This stops the browser from reading the text as real HTML tags:

{{ '<p>Hello & welcome</p>' | escape }}

Output: <p>Hello & welcome</p>

escape_once

Works like escape, but it will not encode text that has been encoded before. This keeps you safe from double encoding:

{{ '<p>Already escaped & safe</p>' | escape_once }}

Output stays the same. No double encoding.

url_encode

Encode a string for use in a URL:

{{ 'hello world' | url_encode }}

Output: hello+world

url_decode

Decode a URL-encoded string back to plain text:

{{ 'hello+world' | url_decode }}

Output: hello world

HTML filters

strip_html

Remove all HTML tags from a string. Only the plain text inside the tags is kept:

{{ '<p>Hello <strong>world</strong></p>' | strip_html }}

Output: Hello world

strip_newlines

Remove all line breaks from a string:

{{ product.description | strip_newlines }}

Useful when you need a single line of text, such as a meta description.

newline_to_br

Convert line breaks to HTML <br> tags:

{{ product.description | newline_to_br }}

Each \n in the text becomes a <br> tag so the line breaks show on the page.

pluralize

Choose between singular and plural forms based on a number:

{{ cart.item_count }} {{ cart.item_count | pluralize: 'item', 'items' }}

If the count is 1, the output is 1 item. For any other number, the output uses the second argument: 3 items.