Help:Redirects

Purpose and functionality
The possibility of redirecting pages is used because some concepts and results are known under various names.

Rather than creating a full-fledged entry at each of them (which puts a heavy burden on contributors because every edit needs to be reflected on all pages) all entries are simply redirected – transferred, so to say – to a single page, which may be edited as usual.

Technical details
The effect of a redirect is exemplified by Pythagoras' Theorem redirecting to Pythagoras's Theorem.

To achieve this, the first line of the Pythagoras' Theorem entry needs to be:


 * 1) Redirect Pythagoras's Theorem

This will achieve the desired effect.

When to redirect
In general, a redirect may be placed when it makes locating a certain page easier.

Subpages
This pertains mainly to subpages (e.g., Definition:Closed Operation redirects to Definition:Closure (Abstract Algebra)/Algebraic Structure) and to named results (as in the above example).

Especially in the former case, it is considered good practice to add the categories of the destination page to the redirect page as well.

This will make the redirect appear in the category listings, further increasing the visibility of the destination page.

For example, Definition:Closed Operation contains the following code:


 * 1) Redirect Definition:Closure (Abstract Algebra)/Algebraic Structure

so that it appears in the Category:Definitions/Abstract Algebra category.

Accented characters
If a page name contains accented characters, such as in Hölder's Inequality, it is customary to create a redirect without accents. The redirect page is placed in the Search Convenience category, and no other category. This is to avoid duplicate entries in lists of pages.

Assigning Categories

 * See also Help:Categories