Types of Arguments

Fortunately for us, there are not many types of arguments that iptscrae can deal with. The two we will use for the most part are numbers and strings. The use for numbers is fairly obvious, but how can I use string in iptscrae and what would I be tying up with that string anyway?

Well the term string has nothing to do with the string you tie things up with. String is a hold over from many years ago when only pure computer geeks wrote programs. String refers to a string of characters, such as my name, Steve. To specify a string, you put it in quotes, such as "Steve"

There are many commands that operate on strings, but one of the most used is say. The say command takes one argument, a string and speaks it, as if you had typed it in to the chat box and pressed return. Remember our example from the "What is scripting?" page?

"Hello!" say

Does this make a little more sense the second time around? First, the string "Hello!" is pushed onto the stack (just like a number!) and then the say command is executed. say pops off the top value, hoping its a string and if it is, it says it to the room. What if the argument on the top of the stack is a number? In this case, you would see a error message in your log window.

Is that all of the types available? No. There are arrays, which you can think of as lists of arguments, there are atoms, which are a fancy term for a script inside of a script and a few others. For now, we're only going to be using numbers and strings.

Last Updated on 03/08/2000