This Lua module is used on approximately 5,600 pages and changes may be widely noticed. Test changes in the module's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own module sandbox. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

The political parties contained in this module are split into alphabetised lists based on the first character of the name (for example, "Labour Party (UK)" would be under /L). The /1 subpage is for any party that does not start with the letters A to Z of the Latin alphabet (including numbers and accented characters).

Within each data submodule are two local groups: local alternate and local full.

The alternate group is for alternate names of a party. The following is an example of alternate names for the Labour Party (UK):

local alternate = {
    ....
	["Labour and Co-operative"] = "Labour Party (UK)",
	["Labour Co-operative"] = "Labour Party (UK)",
    ...
}

The first entry in square brackets is the alternate name, and the second entry only in quotes is the name found in the full group, seen below. Note that the alternate name of a party should be stored in its corresponding letter-based subpage; "Alabama Democratic Party" is listed in /A even though it is an alternate name for "Democratic Party (US)" (which is stored in /D).

local full = {
    ....
	["Labour Party (UK)"] = {abbrev = "Lab", color = "#E4003B", shortname = "Labour",},
    ...
}

There are three values stored for each party:

• The abbreviation (abbrev).
• The color of the party (color), which can either be a hex triplet or basic color name or, if the party does not have an associated color, "default".
• A shorter name for the party (shortname).

The values added to these parameters need not be unique from other parties in this module, unlike the primary name of a party.

If a name value is not stored for a party, the module will attempt to return the other "short" name variant before returning the input. Thus, if abbrev is stored but shortname is not, regardless of which value is asked for it will return the abbrev value.