Syntax Guide

• Basic syntax
• Scripts
• Control flow
• Variables and Lists
• Sprites


• Full Block List and Reference


• Go Home

Basic syntax

• ScratchScript's syntax is pretty similar to JavaScript syntax. If you know javascript syntax, you'll probably be able to catch on pretty quickly. Note that ScratchScript doesn't have the same keywords that JavaScript does. There are no break, let, await etc.
• Indentation is optional
• Functions always use parentheses
• You can have a space after the function name before the parentheses
• Strings are always surrounded by double quotes "
• Numbers do not need to be surrounded by quotes
• Everything is a function and needs parentheses, including blocks like xPos() or size()
• The exception to the rule above are variables and lists
• There isn't much error handling, so don't mess stuff up
• Note: Just because a project runs in the editor preview doesn't mean it will load into Scratch if you're using invalid syntax in your code.
• Note: To have the preview have updated code, you must recompile with the big green button. Just pressing the green flag doesn't recompile.
• To do comments, put // at the begining of the line

Example script:

whenGreenFlagClicked()
setVar("correct?", 0)
repeatUntil (=($correct?, 1)) {
    ask("What is 1 + 1?")
    if (=(answer(), 2)) {
        sayForSecs("You got it right!", 2)
        setVar("correct?", 1)
    } else {
        sayForSecs("You got it wrong...", 2)
    }
}
moveSteps(10)

Scripts

Scripts are sections of code begining with a hat block. For example, the whenGreenFlagClicked() block is a hat block.

To seperate scripts, use a blank line. For example:

whenGreenFlagClicked()
moveSteps(10)

whenKeyPressed("space")
sayForSecs("You pressed space!", 2)

Control Flow

For the blocks repeat, repeatUntil, while, if, and forever use curly braces {}

For example, to make a loop that repeats until the mouse is down, you would do:

repeatUntil (mouseDown()) {
    [more stuff here]
}

To do an else for an if, just add } else {

if (condition) {
    [code]
} else {
    [more code]
}

Variables and Lists

Variables and lists are created as you use them.

For example, to create and set a variable to the users input, you would do:

ask("what")
setVar("mycoolvar", answer())

For a list, creating and adding a item to a list would be:

addToList("myitem", "mycoolist")

The same applies for the other list and variable functions

To reference a variable or list, you would do $varname for variables or #listname for lists

Note: "reference" in this case means when reading out the value to use in another block. For blocks that change/edit the value, use a string quoted name as an argument

Sprites

You can add sprites by clicking the "New Sprite" button

I think that's it