Base docs

New line (enter)

Tab

Tabs are used to create blocks of commands. For example it is used in order to specify what commands should happen if a condition is true or what commands should be executed n-times.

_images/tabs.png

Comment

Comments are editable labels. Their purpose is to explain parts of the program.

Argument separator (Comma)

Comma is used to separate arguments in function calls, list items etc.

Left parenthesis

Parenthesis are used to specify parameters of commands. An example usage is “command(parameter, parameter)”.

Right parenthesis

See here.

If statement

If statements are used to create blocks of commands that are executed only if a specified condition is true.

Else

Runs the following block of commands if the previous condition was false.

You can add If icon after Else to create an Else if statement that runs the block of commands if the previous condition was false and the condition following after If was true.

Begin block of commands

Marks a block of commands for a statement like conditions or cycles.

_images/tabs.png

and

True if the preceding condition and the following condition are true.

or

True if at least one of surrounding conditions is true.

negation

Inverts the following statement. It’s true if the following statement is false and vice versa.

equals

Checks whether surrounding statements are equal.

not equals

Checks whether surrounding statements are not equal.

is less than

Compares two surrounding numbers. Can be combined with equals in order to create less or equals.

is greater than

Compares two surrounding numbers. Can be combined with equals in order to create greater or equals.

Repeat block of commands

This is used to repeat block of commands n times. Place a NUMBER after this command. If no number is specified the cycle will repeat infinitely.

See Begin fill for an example.

For loop

For loop executes a block of commands for every item in an iterable object (list etc.). List values are assigned to a variable that you can use then.

_images/for-loop.png

is item in an list? / for items in a colletion

Checks wheter item is in a list.

It is also used to create for loops.

Repeat while the condition is true

Checks whether the following condition is true. Then runs the following block of commands and does so until the condition if false.

_images/while-loop.png

Create a “wall” up to X coordinate 200.

Break out of a loop

Stops the loop the command is directly placed in. The program execution continues at command after the cycle.

Continue with the next iteration of a loop

Skips the rest of the commands block of the loop and continues with the next iteration (or exits the cycle if current iteration was the last one).

Define a function

Functions are used to deduplicate blocks of code. The function definition has to be executed before using the function.

You can also use the functions dialog to create functions and connect events to them with less effort. There you can also create function calls (object with parenthesis).

Functions can also return values just like normal commands.

_images/function.png

Creates an example function called “sum” that returns sum of two numbers.

Return a value

See functions.

Left square bracket

Square brackets are used create lists and to access list elements by index.

Example usage of list-related commands:

_images/lists.png

Right square bracket

See Left square bracket.

Length of (string, list etc)

Gets the length of the object. For example, number of items in a collection or count of characters in a string.

Parameters

  • OBJECT The object whose length is to be obtained

Delete an object

Deletes a varibale.

May be also used to remove items from list. For more information about lists see this.

Parameters

  • OBJECT The variable

Append an item to the list

For more information about lists see this.

Parameters

  • OBJECT The item

Insert an item to the list

For more information about lists see this.

Parameters

  • NUMBER Index

  • OBJECT The item

Clear the list

Removes all items from the list.

For more information about lists see this.

Find index of the first occurence of an item in a list or string

Returns -1 if no occurence was found.

For more information about lists see this.

Parameters

  • LIST List to find items in.

  • OBJECT Item to search for.

  • NUMBER Search start index. (default: 0)

  • NUMBER Direction of search. (direction: 1)

Convert a string to lower case

Makes the whole string to contain only lower case letters.

Parameters

  • STRING The string

Convert a string to upper case

Makes the whole string to contain only upper case letters.

Parameters

  • STRING The string

Split the string

Splits the string using a specified separator. Returns a list.

Parameters

  • STRING The separator

Replace a phrase with another phrase in the string

Returns the edited string.

Parameters

  • STRING Phrase to be replaced

  • STRING String to replace the phrase with

Define global variable

Forces specified object to be used as a global variable. Global variables have persistent values all over the program. For example if you change value of a global varibale in a function it will affect all occurences of the variable in the code.

If you would assign a value to a global varibale without marking it as global at the start of the function or program the program will only create a new local variable that will be destroyed after the functions ends.

Usage at the start of the program (recommended)

If you mark variable as global outside of any commands block it will be marked as global automatically in all following functions. This means that if you place this at the start of the program the variable will be accessible from anywhere.

_images/global-varibales.png

Usage at start of functions

You can also mark variable as global only for specific function. Just place this at the start of the function.

However if you only read from a global variable you don’t have to use this command at all but is is recommended to use it in order to make code easier to read.

assign value

See Object.

increase value by

Increases value of a variable by specified amount. Example:

_images/increase-value-by.png

Increases value of variable “n” by 10

decrease value by

Decreases value of a variable by specified amount. Also see Increase value by.

Dot (access properties of an object)

Some objects (e.g. turtles and lists) have properties like varibales or methods. Dot is used in order to access them. To look at an example usage check out Create new turtle.

Try

Expections raised by commands in a command block following a try can be handled by Except without crashing the whole program.

Except

Runs the following command block when an exception occurs during the execution of the try.

If no exception is specified catches all exceptions. You can specify an exception in the following form: “Exception type” “as” “variable name”.

Raise exception

Parameters

  • EXCEPTION The exception

plus

minus

multiply

divide

modulo

Type conversion

Type conversion is used in order to make value of specified type from another value (e.g. a number from a string).

Example usage (note that the number 100 is a string):

_images/type-conversion.png

Direct Python code

This is an editable icon that represents direct Python code.

as variable

This is used to specify name of variable that contains preceding value. For example it is used with For loop.

Random number

Returns a random number in range.

Parameters

  • NUMBER Minimum (default: 0)

  • NUMBER Maximum (default: 100, excluding)

List of numbers in specified range

Parameters

  • NUMBER Start (default: 0)

  • NUMBER End (default: 100, excluding)

Converts a character to an int value

Returns an integer represeting the character. The result is a Unicode code point or a value of the byte when the argument is an 8-bit string. You can also check out the Unicode table to determine int values of various characters.

Parameters

  • STRING The character. The string must be exactly one character long.

Converts an int value to a character

Returns a string representing a character whose Unicode code point is an integer.

Parameters

  • NUMBER Int value of the character.

Create multidimensional list

Creates a multidimensional list (multidimensional array/list of lists). This can be used for example to store a grid of numbers.

The list must have at least one dimension. Sizes of dimensions are specified in form of separate parameters. The number of parameters specifies the number of dimensions.

Parameters

  • OBJECT The initial value for all cells.

  • NUMBER Size of the first dimension of the list.

  • NUMBER …

Exit the program

Parameters

  • NUMBER Program return code. (default: 0)

East (0°)

Direction constant.

North (90°)

Direction constant.

West (180°)

Direction constant.

South (270°)

Direction constant.

Pi (3.14)

The Pi (π) constant.

Sine

Return the sine of x radians.

Parameters

  • NUMBER Number x

Cosine

Return the cosine of x radians.

Parameters

  • NUMBER Number x

Tangent

Return the tangent of x radians.

Parameters

  • NUMBER Number x

Absolute value

Return absolute value of x. Example results 3→3, -3→3.

Parameters

  • NUMBER Number x

Degrees to radians

Parameters

  • NUMBER Angle to be converted

Radians to degrees

Parameters

  • NUMBER Angle to be converted

True

Represents always true condition.

False

Represents always false condition.

Round a number

Parameters

  • NUMBER “number” The number to be roundend

  • NUMBER “digits” The number of decimals to use (default: 0)

Floor

Return the largest integer not greater than x. E.g. 3.4→3.

Parameters

  • NUMBER Number x

Ceil

Return the smallest integer not less than x. E.g. 3.4→4.

Parameters

  • NUMBER Number x

Square root

Return square root of x. E.g. 16→4.

Parameters

  • NUMBER Number x

For getting int powers you can use **:

_images/int-powers.png

Lowest value

Returns the lowest value from specified numbers. You can either pass an array or pass the numbers as individual arguments.

Parameters

  • LIST[NUMBER] The numbers

Parameters

  • NUMBER First number.

  • NUMBER Second number.

  • NUMBER …

Highest value

Returns the highest value from specified numbers. You can either pass an array or pass the numbers as individual arguments.

Parameters

  • LIST[NUMBER] The numbers.

Parameters

NUMBER First number. NUMBER Second number. NUMBER …

Color (property or editable)

This editable icon represents a color. If no color is set then it represents color property.

If a color is set and the icon is placed standalone into the program it changes turtle pen color.

Font (property or editable)

This is an editable icon that represents a font description string.

Number

This editable icon represents a number.

String

This editable icon represents a string.

Object

Objects represent a variable or a function. Value of this icon represents the object name.

Functions

See functions.

Varibales

Variables are used to store values like numbers (e.g. game scores) or strings (e.g. user names). You have to assert a value to a variable and then you can use it in following code.

_images/variables-snail.png

Creates a “snail” using line length variable

None

None represents a null value or no value at all. It is not the same as 0, False or an emtpy string. It is a datatype of its own (NoneType).

Key

Editable icon that represents a key string.

Read all lines from file

Returns an array of strings.

If file path is None then the functions automatically chooses file name based on the name of the program.

Parameters

  • STRING File path (default: None)

Write lines to a file

Writes a list of string lines to a file.

Parameters

  • LIST[STRING] Lines to write

  • STRING File path (default: None)

File dialog

Opens a file dialog and lets user to choose a file. Returns file path as a string.

Parameters

  • STRING “text” Text to show in the header of the dialog (default: ‘Choose a file’)

  • STRING “filter” File filter. Format: ‘[Filter name] | [File name pattern]’ (default: ‘All files | *’)

  • BOOL “save” Activate file save mode

Check if file exists

Returns boolean.

Parameters

  • STRING File path

Check if directory exists

Returns boolean

Parameters

  • STRING Directory path

Delete file or directory

Deletes the specified directory or file.

Parameters

  • STRING File/directory path

Get files in directory

Returns a sorted list of subfiles of the specified directory.

Parameters

  • STRING Directory path

Get subdirs in directory

Returns a sorted list of subdirs of the specified directory.

Parameters

  • STRING Directory path

Get parent directory

Returns the parent directory. E.g. for ‘/dir1/dir2/file’ this returns ‘/dir1/dir2’.

Parameters

  • STRING Path

Get file name

Parameters

  • None

Run system command

Runs a command in the system shell.

Please note that commands behave differently on different platforms.

Parameters

  • STRING The command

Open file in default program

Opens a file in the program that is associated with the file type. The path can be also an URL.

Parameters

  • STRING Path to the file or an URL

Get current timestamp

Return the time in seconds since the epoch (1 January 1970 00:00:00) as a float.

Parameters

  • None

Convert timestamp to string

Returns a string that represents the timestamp.

Format codes:

Directive

Meaning

Example (English (US) locale)

%a

Weekday as locale’s abbreviated name.

Sun, Mon, …, Sat

%A

Weekday as locale’s full name.

Sunday, Monday, …, Saturday

%w

Weekday as a decimal number, where 0 is Sunday and 6 is Saturday.

0, 1, …, 6

%d

Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal number.

01, 02, …, 31

%b

Month as locale’s abbreviated name.

Jan, Feb, …, Dec

%B

Month as locale’s full name.

January, February, …, December

%m

Month as a zero-padded decimal number.

01, 02, …, 12

%y

Year without century as a zero-padded decimal number.

00, 01, …, 99

%Y

Year with century as a decimal number.

0001, 0002, …, 2013, 2014

%H

Hour (24-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number.

00, 01, …, 23

%I

Hour (12-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number.

01, 02, …, 12

%p

Locale’s equivalent of either AM or PM.

AM, PM

%M

Minute as a zero-padded decimal number.

00, 01, …, 59

%S

Second as a zero-padded decimal number.

00, 01, …, 59

%j

Day of the year as a zero-padded decimal number.

001, 002, …, 366

%U

Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week) as a zero padded decimal number. All days in a new year preceding the first Sunday are considered to be in week 0.

00, 01, …, 53

%W

Week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number. All days in a new year preceding the first Monday are considered to be in week 0.

00, 01, …, 53

%c

Locale’s appropriate date and time representation.

Tue Aug 16 21:30:00 2000

%x

Locale’s appropriate date representation.

08/16/1988

%X

Locale’s appropriate time representation.

21:30:00

%%

A literal ‘%’ character.

%

Parameters

  • NUMBER Timestamp

  • STRING Format of the output string (default: ‘%d/%m/%y %H:%M:%S’)

Convert string to timestamp

For list of format codes see Convert timestamp to string.

Parameters

  • NUMBER String representing a date/time

  • STRING Format of the string (default: ‘%d/%m/%y %H:%M:%S’)