This text substitution takes the value and produces a textual representation of it. Most kinds of value, and really all of the useful ones, are "sayable" - numbers, times, objects, rules, scenes, and so on. Example:

The description of the wrist watch is "The dial reads [time of day]."

Here "time of day" is a value - it's a time that varies, and time is a sayable kind of value, so we might get "The dial reads 11:03 AM."

See   5.3. 5.3. Text which names things

This text substitution writes out the number in English text. Example:

"You've been wandering around for [turn count in words] turns now."

might produce "You've been wandering around for two hundred and thirteen turns now." The "and" here is natural on one side of the Atlantic but not the other - so with the "Use American dialect." option in place, it disappears.

See   5.4. 5.4. Text with numbers

This text substitution produces the given time written out in English sentence form. For example:

"Through the glass you can see the reversed hands reading [the time of day in words]."

might produce

Through the glass you can see the reversed hands reading twenty to nine.

See   9.7. 9.7. Telling the time

This text substitution prints a letter "s" unless the last number printed was 1. Example:

"You've been wandering around for [turn count in words] turn[s] now."

produces "... for one turn now." or "... for two turns now." as appropriate. Note that it reacts only to numbers, not to other arithmetic values like times (or, for instance, weights from the "Metric Units" extension).

See   5.4. 5.4. Text with numbers

This text substitution produces the name of the object along with its indefinite article. Example:

Instead of examining something (called the whatever):
    "You can only just make out [a whatever]."

which might produce "You can only just make out a lamp-post.", or "You can only just make out Trevor.", or "You can only just make out some soldiers." The "a" or "an" in the wording is replaced by whatever indefinite article applies, if any.

See   5.3. 5.3. Text which names things

This text substitution produces the name of the object along with its definite article. Example:

Instead of examining something (called the whatever):
    "You can only just make out [the whatever]."

which might produce "You can only just make out the lamp-post.", or "You can only just make out Trevor.", or "You can only just make out the soldiers." The "the" in the wording is replaced by whatever definite article applies, if any.

See   5.3. 5.3. Text which names things

This text substitution produces no text. It's used only for a side-effect: it says that the text following should be said only if the condition is true. That continues until the end of the text, or until an "[end if]" substitution, whichever comes first. If the "[otherwise]" and "[otherwise if]" substitutions are also present, they allow alternatives to be added in case the condition is false. Example:

The wine cask is a container. The printed name of the cask is "[if open]broached, empty cask[otherwise]sealed wine cask".

we find that the cask is described as "a broached, empty cask" when open, and "a sealed wine cask" when closed. A longer example which begins and ends with fixed text, but has two alternatives in the middle:

The Customs Wharf is a room. "Amid the bustle of the quayside, [if the cask is open]many eyes stray to your broached cask. [otherwise]nobody takes much notice of a man heaving a cask about. [end if]Sleek gondolas jostle at the plank pier."

See   5.6. 5.6. Text with variations

This text substitution produces no text. It's used only for a side-effect: it says that the text following should be said only if the condition is false. That continues until the end of the text, or until an "[end if]" substitution, whichever comes first. If the "[otherwise]" and "[otherwise if]" substitutions are also present, they allow alternatives to be added in case the condition is true. Example:

The Customs Hall is a room. "With infinite slowness, with ledgers and quill pens, the clerks ruin their eyesight.[unless the player is a woman] They barely even glance in your direction."

See   5.6. 5.6. Text with variations

This text substitution produces no text, and can be used only following an "[if ...]" or "[unless ...]" text substitution. It gives an alternative text to use if the first condition didn't apply, but this one does. Example:

The wine cask is a container. The printed name of the cask is "[if open]broached, empty cask[otherwise if transparent]sealed cask half-full of sloshing wine[otherwise]sealed wine cask".

See   5.6. 5.6. Text with variations

This text substitution produces no text, and can be used only following an "[if ...]" or "[unless ...]" text substitution. It gives an alternative text to use if the first condition didn't apply, and this one is false too.

See   5.6. 5.6. Text with variations

This text substitution produces no text, and can be used only following an "[if ...]" or "[unless ...]" text substitution. It switches from text which appears if the condition is true, to text which appears if it is false. Example:

The wine cask is a container. The printed name of the cask is "[if open]broached, empty cask[otherwise]sealed wine cask".

See   5.6. 5.6. Text with variations

This text substitution produces no text, and can be used only to close off a stretch of varying text which begins with "[if ...]".

See   5.6. 5.6. Text with variations

This text substitution produces no text, and can be used only to close off a stretch of varying text which begins with "[unless ...]".

See   5.6. 5.6. Text with variations

This text substitution produces no text. It's used only for a side-effect: it switches between a number of alternative texts, which follow it and are divided by "[or]" substitutions, according to a strategy given in a closing substitution. Example:

"You flip the coin. [one of]Heads[or]Tails[purely at random]!"

Here there are just two alternatives, and the strategy is "purely at random". Exactly half of the time the text will be printed as "You flip the coin. Heads!"; and the other half, "You flip the coin. Tails!".

See   5.7. 5.7. Text with random alternatives

This text substitution produces no text, and can be used only in a "[one of]..." construction. It divides alternative wordings. Example:

"You flip the coin. [one of]Heads[or]Tails[purely at random]!"

See   5.7. 5.7. Text with random alternatives

This text substitution produces no text, and can be used only to end a "[one of]..." construction. It indicates that the alternatives are chosen at random except that the same choice cannot come up twice running. This is useful to avoid the deadening effect of repeating the exact same message. Example:

"The light changes randomly again; now it's [one of]green[or]amber[or]red[at random]."

Here we can safely say the light "changes", because the new colour cannot be the same as the one printed the last time.

See   5.7. 5.7. Text with random alternatives

This text substitution produces no text, and can be used only to end a "[one of]..." construction. It indicates that the alternatives are chosen uniformly randomly.

See   5.7. 5.7. Text with random alternatives

This text substitution produces no text, and can be used only to end a "[one of]..." construction. It indicates that the alternatives are chosen in sequence until all have been seen, and then after that, at random except that the same choice cannot come up twice running. Example:

"Maybe the murderer is [one of]Colonel Mustard[or]Professor Plum[or]Cardinal Cerise[then at random]."

See   5.7. 5.7. Text with random alternatives

This text substitution produces no text, and can be used only to end a "[one of]..." construction. It indicates that the alternatives are chosen in sequence until all have been seen, but that after that they are chosen uniformly randomly.

See   5.7. 5.7. Text with random alternatives

This text substitution produces no text, and can be used only to end a "[one of]..." construction. It indicates that a random choice is made the first time the text is printed, but that it sticks from there on. Example:

"The newspaper headline is: [one of]War Casualties[or]Terrorists[or]Banks[sticky random] [one of]Continue To Expand[or]Lose Out[sticky random]."

Although the newspaper headline will change with each playing, it will not alter during play.

See   5.7. 5.7. Text with random alternatives

This text substitution produces no text, and can be used only to end a "[one of]..." construction. It indicates that the alternatives are chosen at random, except that the first is most likely to be chosen, the second is next most likely, and so on down to the rarest at the end. Example:

"Zorro strides by, [one of]looking purposeful[or]grim-faced[or]deep in thought[or]suppressing a yawn[or]scratching his ribs[or]trying to conceal that he has cut himself shaving[as decreasingly likely outcomes]."

There are six outcomes here: the first is six times as likely as the last, and those in between are similarly scaled, so Zorro cuts himself shaving only once in 21 tries, while he looks purposeful almost a third of the time.

See   5.7. 5.7. Text with random alternatives

This text substitution produces no text, and can be used only to end a "[one of]..." construction. A random order is chosen for the alternative passages of text, and they are used in that order as the text is printed again and again. When one random cycle finishes, a new one begins. The effect is somewhat like the "shuffle album" feature on an iPod. Example:

"You dip into the chapter on [one of]freshwater fish[or]hairless mammals[or]extinct birds[or]amphibians such as the black salamander[in random order]."

One small restriction: if there are more than 32 variations, purely random choices will be printed, and there will be no guarantee that repeats are prevented.

See   5.7. 5.7. Text with random alternatives

This text substitution produces no text, and can be used only to end a "[one of]..." construction. It indicates that the alternatives are used one at a time, in turn: after the last one is reached, we start again from the first. Example:

"The pundits discuss [one of]the weather[or]world events[or]celebrity gossip[cycling]."

See   5.7. 5.7. Text with random alternatives

This text substitution produces no text, and can be used only to end a "[one of]..." construction. It indicates that the alternatives are used one at a time, in turn: once the last one is reached, it's used forever after. Example:

"[one of]The phone rings[or]The phone rings a second time[or]The phone rings again[stopping]."

See   5.7. 5.7. Text with random alternatives

This pair of text substitutions causes whatever is between them to be printed only the first time the text is printed. Example:

"The screen door squeaks loudly as when you open it. [first time]Well, you'll get used to it eventually. [only]"

This is exactly equivalent to

"The screen door squeaks loudly as when you open it. [one of]Well, you'll get used to it eventually. [or][stopping]";

but easier to read.

See   5.7. 5.7. Text with random alternatives

This text substitution produces a line break. Example:

"There is an endless sense of[line break]falling and[line break]falling."

Line breaks are not paragraph breaks, so the result is:

There is an endless sense of
falling and
falling.

with no extra vertical spacing between these lines.

See   5.8. 5.8. Line breaks and paragraph breaks

This text substitution produces no text. It's used only for a side-effect: it prevents a line break where Inform might otherwise assume one. Example:

"The chorus sing [one of]Jerusalem[or]Rule, Britannia![no line break][at random]."

Here the "[no line break]" stops Inform from thinking that the exclamation mark means a sentence ending - it's part of the name of the song "Rule, Britannia!". So we get

The chorus sing Rule, Britannia!.

with no line break between the "!" and ".".

See   5.8. 5.8. Line breaks and paragraph breaks

This text substitution either produces a paragraph break, or no text at all. It marks a place where Inform can put a paragraph break if necessary; in effect it simulates what Inform does every time a "before" or similar rule finishes. If there is text already printed, and text then follows on, a paragraph break is made. But if not, nothing is done. This is sometimes useful when producing a large amount of text which changes with the circumstances so that it is hard to predict in advance whether a paragraph break is needed or not.

See   5.8. 5.8. Line breaks and paragraph breaks

This text substitution produces a line break, and then also a paragraph break if the text immediately following is a room description brought about by having gone to to a different room and looking around, in which case a line break should be added. In traditional IF, this is used when clarifying what Inform thinks the player intended by a given command. Example:

say "(first opening [the noun])[command clarification break]";

might result in

(first opening the valise)
You rummage through the valise for tickets, but find nothing.

See   5.8. 5.8. Line breaks and paragraph breaks

This text substitution produces a paragraph break. Example:

"This is not right.[paragraph break]No, something is terribly wrong."

Paragraph breaks have a little vertical spacing in them, unlike mere line breaks, so the result is:

This is not right.

No, something is terribly wrong.

See   5.8. 5.8. Line breaks and paragraph breaks

This text substitution produces no text. It's used only for a side-effect: it prevents a paragraph break occurring after the present text is printed, in case Inform might be tempted to place one there. Example:

Before taking something, say "Very well. [run paragraph on]".

This allows the reply to, say, TAKE ENVELOPE to be

Very well. Taken.

rather than

Very well.

Taken.

which is how texts produced by different rules would normally be shown. (It's a traditional printer's term. See Oldfield's Manual of Typography, 1892, under "When two paragraphs are required to be made into one, or, in technical language, 'to run on'.")

See   5.8. 5.8. Line breaks and paragraph breaks

This text substitution produces no text. It's used only for a side-effect: it indicates that the current printing position does not follow a skipped line, and that further material is expected which will run on from the previous paragraph, but that if no further material turns up then a skipped line would be needed before the next command prompt. (It's very likely that only the Standard Rules will ever need this.)

See   5.8. 5.8. Line breaks and paragraph breaks

This condition is true if text has recently been said in such a way that Inform expects to add a paragraph break at the next opportunity (for instance when the present rule ends and another one says something, or when a "[conditional paragraph break]" is made).

See   5.8. 5.8. Line breaks and paragraph breaks

Kind: phrase nothing -> truth state

This text substitution expands to a single open square bracket, avoiding the problem that a literal [ in text would look to Inform like the opening of a substitution. Example:

"He [bracket]Lord Astor[close bracket] would, wouldn't he?"

prints as "He [Lord Astor] would, wouldn't he?".

See   5.2. 5.2. How Inform reads quoted text

This text substitution expands to a single close square bracket, avoiding the problem that a literal ] in text would look to Inform like the closing of a substitution. Example:

"He [bracket]Lord Astor[close bracket] would, wouldn't he?"

prints as "He [Lord Astor] would, wouldn't he?".

See   5.2. 5.2. How Inform reads quoted text

This text substitution expands to a single quotation mark, avoiding Inform's ordinary rule of converting literal single quotation marks to double at the edges of words. Example:

Instead of going outside, say "Lucy snaps, 'What's the matter? You don't trust my cookin[apostrophe] mister?'"

produces:

Lucy snaps, "What's the matter? You don't trust my cookin' mister?"

A more abbreviated form would be:

Instead of going outside, say "Lucy snaps, 'What's the matter? You don't trust my cookin['] mister?'"

which has exactly the same meaning.

See   5.2. 5.2. How Inform reads quoted text

This text substitution expands to a double quotation mark. Most of the time this is unnecessary because of Inform's rule of converting literal single quotation marks to double at the edges of words, so it's needed only if we want a double-quote in the middle of a word for some reason. Example:

"The compass reads 41o21'23[quotation mark]E."

which produces: The compass reads 41o21'23"E. (Note that ["] is not allowed; a double-quotation mark is never allowed inside double-quoted text, not even in a text substitution.)

See   5.2. 5.2. How Inform reads quoted text

This text substitution produces no text. It's used only for a side-effect: to make the text following it appear in bold face. "[roman type]" should be used to switch back to normal. Example:

"Jane looked down. [bold type]Danger[roman type], the sign read."

See   5.9. 5.9. Text with type styles

This text substitution produces no text. It's used only for a side-effect: to make the text following it appear in italics. "[roman type]" should be used to switch back to normal. Example:

"This is [italic type]very suspicious[roman type], said Peter."

See   5.9. 5.9. Text with type styles

This text substitution produces no text. It's used only for a side-effect: to return to ordinary Roman type after a previous use of "[bold type]" or "[italic type]".

See   5.9. 5.9. Text with type styles

This text substitution produces no text. It's used only for a side-effect: to make the text following it appear with fixed letter spacing. In variable letter spacing, a lower case "m" is much wider than an "l", which is natural to the eye since it has been printing practice since the Renaissance. Fixed letter spacing is more like typewriting, and it is best used to reproduce typewritten text or printed notices; it can also be convenient for making simple diagrams. Example:

"On the door is written: [fixed letter spacing]J45--O-O-O[variable letter spacing]."

See   5.9. 5.9. Text with type styles

This text substitution produces no text. It's used only for a side-effect: to return to ordinary letter spacing after a previous use of "[fixed letter spacing]".

See   5.9. 5.9. Text with type styles

This phrase displays the given text on screen in an overlaid box. For reasons to do with the way such quotations are plotted onto the screen, their text is treated literally: no substitutions in square brackets are obeyed. The quotation will only ever appear once, regardless of the number of times the "display the boxed quotation ..." phrase is reached. Rather than being shown immediately - and thus, probably, scrolling away before it can be seen - the display is held back until the next command prompt is shown to the player. Example:

After looking in the Wabe, display the boxed quotation
    "And 'the wabe' is the grass-plot round
    a sun-dial, I suppose? said Alice,
    surprised at her own ingenuity.

    Of course it is. It's called 'wabe,'
    you know, because it goes a long way
    before it, and a long way behind it --

    -- Lewis Carroll".

This was the original example used in Trinity, by Brian Moriarty, which invented the idea. A player exploring Kensington Gardens comes upon a location enigmatically called The Wabe; and by way of explanation, this quotation pops up.

See   5.12. 5.12. Displaying quotations

Kind: phrase text -> nothing

This text substitution expands to the banner text giving bibliographic details of the current story file, rather like the opening credits of a movie, or the title page of a book.

See   18.37. 18.37. Printing the banner text

This text substitution expands to one or more lines of text crediting each of the extensions used by the current source text, along with their version numbers and authors. Extensions whose authors have chosen the "use authorial modesty" option are missed out. Example:

Standard Rules version 2/090402 by Graham Nelson

See   27.6. 27.6. Version numbering

This text substitution expands to one or more lines of text crediting each of the extensions used by the current source text, along with their version numbers and authors. Every extension is included, even those whose authors have opted for "use authorial modesty". Example:

Standard Rules version 2/090402 by Graham Nelson
Locksmith version 9 by Emily Short

See   27.6. 27.6. Version numbering

This text substitution produces a succinct description of where the player is, be this in darkness, in a lighted room or inside an opaque container such as a large packing case. Example:

now the left hand status line is "You: [the player's surroundings]";

See   8.3. 8.3. Changing the status line

This phrase produces a list of all things whose holder is the given object, according to Inform's traditional conventions for room descriptions and inventory listings. Example:

list the contents of Marley Wood, as a sentence, with newlines
and including all contents;

Where this is possible, it's generally better to use "[list of things in ...]" instead, which produces the same result in an acceptable way for the middle of a sentence.

See   11.14. 11.14. Phrase options

Kind: phrase object -> nothing

This text substitution produces a list, in sentence form, of everything matching the description. Each item is prefaced by its indefinite article. Example:

a maritime bill of lading, some hemp rope and Falconer's Naval Dictionary

See   5.5. 5.5. Text with lists

This text substitution produces a list, in sentence form, of everything matching the description. Example:

"Mr Darcy glares proudly at you. He is wearing [list of things worn by Darcy] and carrying [list of things carried by Darcy]."

And, if this were from a dramatisation of the novel by Miss Fielding rather than Miss Austen, we might find:

Mr Darcy glares proudly at you. He is wearing a pair of Newcastle United boxer shorts and carrying a self-help book.

If the description matches nothing - for instance, if Darcy has empty hands - then "nothing" is printed.

See   5.5. 5.5. Text with lists

This text substitution produces a list, in sentence form, of everything matching the description. Each item is prefaced by its definite article. Example:

the maritime bill of lading, the hemp rope and Falconer's Naval Dictionary

See   5.5. 5.5. Text with lists

This text substitution produces a list, in sentence form, of everything matching the description. Each item is prefaced by its indefinite article, and the whole list starts with "is" (if there's one item or none) or "are" (more than one). Examples:

is a marlin-spike
are a maritime bill of lading, some hemp rope and Falconer's Naval Dictionary

See   5.5. 5.5. Text with lists

This text substitution produces a list, in sentence form, of everything matching the description. The whole list starts with "is" (if there's one item or none) or "are" (more than one). Examples:

is marlin-spike
are maritime bill of lading, hemp rope and Falconer's Naval Dictionary

See   5.5. 5.5. Text with lists

This text substitution produces a list, in sentence form, of everything matching the description. Each item is prefaced by its definite article, and the whole list starts with "is" (if there's one item or none) or "are" (more than one). Examples:

is the marlin-spike
are the maritime bill of lading, the hemp rope and Falconer's Naval Dictionary

See   5.5. 5.5. Text with lists

This text substitution produces a list, in sentence form, of everything matching the description, noting any contents in brackets. This is really intended only to be used by the Standard Rules.

See   5.5. 5.5. Text with lists

This phrase causes the objects described to be listed together in a single item as part of an inventory or room description. The effect is temporary, and the phrase should only be used when this list is imminent. Example:

Utensil is a kind of thing. The knife, the fork and the spoon are utensils. Before listing contents: group utensils together.

This might produce the list item "fork and spoon".

See   18.13. 18.13. Listing contents of something

Kind: phrase description of objects -> nothing

This phrase causes the objects described to be listed together in a single item as part of an inventory or room description, but giving each individual item its indefinite article. The effect is temporary, and the phrase should only be used when this list is imminent. Example:

Utensil is a kind of thing. The knife, the fork and the spoon are utensils. Before listing contents: group utensils together giving articles.

This might produce the list item "a fork and a spoon".

See   18.13. 18.13. Listing contents of something

Kind: phrase description of objects -> nothing

This phrase causes the objects described to be listed together in a single item as part of an inventory or room description, summarised with the given text. The effect is temporary, and the phrase should only be used when this list is imminent. Example:

Utensil is a kind of thing. The knife, the fork and the spoon are utensils. Before listing contents: group utensils together as "utensils".

This might produce the list item "two utensils (fork and spoon)".

See   18.13. 18.13. Listing contents of something

Kind: phrase (description of objects, text) -> nothing

This phrase changes the form of an inventory listing, room description, etc., so that it will simply list "a bottle of sand" or "an empty bottle", rather than "a bottle (in which is sand)" or "a bottle (which is empty)". It should be used only when the listing is imminent, and does not have permanent effect.

See   18.10. 18.10. Printing the name of something

Kind: phrase nothing -> nothing

This text substitution produces the list in the form of "{", then a comma-separated list, and then "}", which looks less like an English sentence but more mathematical. Example:

"[list of people in brace notation]"

might produce "{ yourself, Mr Darcy, Flashman }".

See   21.3. 21.3. Saying lists of values

This text substitution writes out the list in sentence form, adding the appropriate definite articles. Example:

let L be {the piano, the music stand};
say "[L with definite articles]";

says "the piano and the music stand".

See   21.3. 21.3. Saying lists of values

This text substitution writes out the list in sentence form, adding the appropriate indefinite articles. Example:

let L be {the piano, the music stand};
say "[L with definite articles]";

says "a piano and a music stand".

See   21.3. 21.3. Saying lists of values

This text substitution writes out the current text of the given response.

See   14.10. 14.10. Responses

This phrase makes the condition become true. Examples:

now the score is 100;
now the player is Kevin;
now the front door is open;
now Mr Darcy is wearing the top hat;
now all the doors are open;
now all of the things in the sack are in the box;

Inform issues a problem message if the condition asks to do the impossible ("now 3 is an even number") or is vague ("now the duck is not in the Lily Pond") or not in the present tense ("now the front door had been open").

See   8.11. 8.11. Now...

Kind: phrase nothing -> nothing

This phrase creates a new temporary variable, starting it with the value supplied. The variable lasts only for the present block of phrases, which certainly means that it lasts only for the current rule. Examples:

let outer bull be 25;
let the current appearance be "reddish brown";
let the special room be Marley Wood;

The kinds of these are deduced from the values given, so that, for instance,

say "The outer bull scores [the outer bull in words] when you practice archery in [special room]."

produces

The outer bull scores twenty-five when you practice archery in Marley Wood.

The variable name should be a new one; if it's the name of an existing one, then the kinds must agree. So:

let outer bull be 25;
let outer bull be 50;

is a legal combination, because the second "let" simply changes the value of the existing "outer bull" variable to a different number.

See   11.15. 11.15. Let and temporary variables

Kind: phrase (value, value) -> nothing

This phrase creates a new temporary variable of the given kind. The variable lasts only for the present block of phrases, which certainly means that it lasts only for the current rule. Example:

let inner bull be a number;

The variable created holding the default value for that kind - in this case, the number 0. A handful of very obscure kinds have no default values, and then a problem message is produced. Inform also disallows:

let the conveyance be a vehicle;

because temporary variables aren't allowed to have kinds more specific than "object". (This is a good thing: suppose there are no vehicles in the world?) It's quite safe in such cases to use

let the conveyance be an object;

instead, which creates it as the special object value "nothing".

See   11.15. 11.15. Let and temporary variables

Kind: phrase (value, value) -> nothing

This phrase creates a new temporary variable, and sets its value to the identity of a newly created and equally temporary relation. These last only for the present block of phrases, which certainly means that they exist only in the current rule. Example:

let the password dictionary be a relation of texts;

This makes a purely temporary various-to-various relation between texts, which lasts as long as the temporary value "password dictionary" lasts. By default, relations are various-to-various, but we could instead write, say:

let the nicknames catalogue be a various-to-one relation of texts;

See   13.15. 13.15. Temporary relations

Kind: phrase (value, description of relations of Ks to Ls) -> nothing

This phrase creates a new temporary variable, starting it with the value found by solving the given equation. The variable lasts only for the present block of phrases, which certainly means that it lasts only for the current rule. Example:

let F be given by Newton's Second Law where a is the acceleration due to gravity;

There is also a more compact syntax, giving the equation explicitly:

let KE be given by KE = mv^2/2 where KE is an energy;

See   15.18. 15.18. Equations

Kind: phrase (value, equation name) -> nothing

This phrase creates a new temporary variable, starting it with the value supplied. The variable lasts only for the present block of phrases, which certainly means that it lasts only for the current rule. Examples:

let outer bull be 25;
let the current appearance be "reddish brown";
let the special room be Marley Wood;

The kinds of these are deduced from the values given, so that, for instance,

say "The outer bull scores [the outer bull in words] when you practice archery in [special room]."

produces

The outer bull scores twenty-five when you practice archery in Marley Wood.

The variable name should be a new one; if it's the name of an existing one, then the kinds must agree. So:

let outer bull be 25;
let outer bull be 50;

is a legal combination, because the second "let" simply changes the value of the existing "outer bull" variable to a different number.

See   11.15. 11.15. Let and temporary variables

Kind: phrase (value, value) -> nothing

This phrase creates a new temporary variable, starting it with the value found by solving the given equation. The variable lasts only for the present block of phrases, which certainly means that it lasts only for the current rule. Example:

let F be given by Newton's Second Law where a is the acceleration due to gravity;

There is also a more compact syntax, giving the equation explicitly:

let KE be given by KE = mv^2/2 where KE is an energy;

See   15.18. 15.18. Equations

Kind: phrase (value, equation name) -> nothing

This phrase increases the variable, table entry, list entry, or property by the given amount, which must be of a compatible kind. Example:

increase the score by 8;
increase the time of day by 5 minutes;

See   8.12. 8.12. Increasing and decreasing

Kind: phrase (value, value) -> nothing

This phrase decreases the variable, table entry, list entry, or property by the given amount, which must be of a compatible kind. Example:

decrease the score by 6;
decrease the carrying capacity of the player by 10;

See   8.12. 8.12. Increasing and decreasing

Kind: phrase (value, value) -> nothing

This phrase increases the variable, table entry, list entry, or property by 1. Example:

increment the score;

See   8.12. 8.12. Increasing and decreasing

Kind: phrase value -> nothing

This phrase decreases the variable, table entry, list entry, or property by 1. Example:

decrement the score;

See   8.12. 8.12. Increasing and decreasing

Kind: phrase value -> nothing

This phrase performs signed addition on the given values, whose kinds must agree, and produces the result. Examples:

200 + 1 = 201
10:04 AM + two minutes = 10:06 AM

See   15.5. 15.5. Arithmetic

Kind: phrase (arithmetic value, arithmetic value) -> arithmetic value

This phrase performs signed subtraction on the given values, whose kinds must agree, and produces the result. Examples:

200 - 1 = 199
10:04 AM - two minutes = 10:02 AM

See   15.5. 15.5. Arithmetic

Kind: phrase (arithmetic value, arithmetic value) -> arithmetic value

This phrase performs signed multiplication on the given values, whose kinds must be dimensionally compatible, and produces the result. Examples:

201 times 3 = 603
two minutes times 4 = eight minutes

See   15.5. 15.5. Arithmetic

Kind: phrase (arithmetic value, arithmetic value) -> arithmetic value

This phrase performs signed division on the given values, whose kinds must be dimensionally compatible, and produces the result. Examples:

201 divided by 3 = 67
202 divided by 3 = 67
202.0 divided by 3 = 67.33334
twenty minutes divided by 4 = five minutes
twenty minutes divided by five minutes = 4

Division rounds whole-number values down to the nearest whole number. An attempt to divide a number by 0 will cause a run-time problem message; but an attempt to divide a real number by 0 will instead produce plus infinity or minus infinity.

See   15.5. 15.5. Arithmetic

Kind: phrase (arithmetic value, arithmetic value) -> arithmetic value

This phrase performs signed division on the given values, whose kinds must be dimensionally compatible, and then produces the remainder. Examples:

remainder after dividing 201 by 5 = 1
remainder after dividing twenty minutes by 7 = six minutes

It is mathematically impossible to divide by 0, so any attempt to find the remainder after dividing a number by 0 will cause a run-time problem message. For a real number this won't arise and the remainder will usually be 0.0.

See   15.5. 15.5. Arithmetic

Kind: phrase (arithmetic value, arithmetic value) -> arithmetic value

This phrase rounds the given value off, rounding upward in boundary cases. Examples:

201 to the nearest 5 = 200
205 to the nearest 10 = 210
10:27 AM to the nearest five minutes = 10:25 AM

See   15.5. 15.5. Arithmetic

Kind: phrase (arithmetic value, arithmetic value) -> arithmetic value

This phrase produces an approximate square root, to the nearest integer, of the given value, which must be of a kind which has square roots. Example:

square root of 16 = 4

Trying to take the square root of a negative number will cause a run-time problem, because then we can't even nearly solve it.

(Warning: this is slow to compute if the Z-machine setting is used. For

best performance, use Glulx.)

See   15.5. 15.5. Arithmetic

Kind: phrase arithmetic value -> arithmetic value

This phrase produces an approximate cube root, to the nearest integer, of the given value, which must be of a kind which has cube roots. Example:

cube root of 27 = 3
cube root of -27 = -3

(Warning: this is not very accurate if the Z-machine setting is used. For

best performance, use Glulx.)

See   15.5. 15.5. Arithmetic

Kind: phrase arithmetic value -> arithmetic value

This phrase produces the total of some property held by all of the values matching the description. A problem message is produced if the values in question can't have that property ("the total carrying capacity of scenes"), or if it holds a kind of value which can't meaningfully be added up ("the total description of open doors"). Example:

total carrying capacity of people in the Deep Pool

See   15.17. 15.17. Totals

Kind: phrase (arithmetic values valued property, description of values) -> arithmetic value

This text substitution writes out the number to the given number of decimal places. Examples:

"The semicircle is roughly [pi to 3 decimal places] paces around."

produces "The semicircle is roughly 3.142 paces around." The number of places can only usefully be from 1 to 8. Note that, for example, "[1.235 x 10^-7 to 3 decimal places]" produces 0.0; "[1.235678 x 10^8 to 3 decimal places]" produces "1.236 x 10^8".

See   15.4. 15.4. Printing real numbers

This text substitution writes out the number in decimal form, that is, avoiding "x 10^n" even for very large or very small quantities. For example,

"[1.23457 x 10^8 in decimal notation]"

produces 123457000.0 rather than 1.23457 x 10^8. This can look pretty extreme: for example, "[1.8983 x 10^27 in decimal notation]", the mass of the planet Jupiter in kilograms, produces 1898296960000000000000000000.0.

See   15.4. 15.4. Printing real numbers

This text substitution writes out the number in decimal form, but rounding to the accuracy given.

See   15.4. 15.4. Printing real numbers

This text substitution writes out the number in scientific form, that is, using "x 10^n" even for easy-to-judge quantities. For example,

"[the reciprocal of 137 in scientific notation]"

produces 7.29927 x 10^-3 rather than 0.0073. This can look odd: for example, "[pi in scientific notation]" comes out as 3.14159 x 10^0 rather than 3.14159.

See   15.4. 15.4. Printing real numbers

This text substitution writes out the number in scientific form, but rounding to the accuracy given.

See   15.4. 15.4. Printing real numbers

Calculates 1/x, that is, divides up 1 into this many pieces. Examples:

reciprocal of -2 = -0.5
reciprocal of 0.1 = 10.0
reciprocal of 7 = 0.14286
reciprocal of plus infinity = 0.0

See   15.6. 15.6. Powers and logarithms

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

Removes the sign from a value, leaving positive numbers alone but making negative ones positive. Examples:

absolute value of 62.1 = 62.1
absolute value of 0 = 0.0
absolute value of -62.1 = 62.1
absolute value of minus infinity = plus infinity

See   15.6. 15.6. Powers and logarithms

In equations: write as  abs()

Name:  abs function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

This phrase produces a square root, as accurately as a real number can hold it, of the given value, which must be of a kind which has square roots. Example:

real square root of 2 = 1.41421

The real square root of a negative number is nonexistent.

See   15.5. 15.5. Arithmetic

In equations: write as  root()

Name:  root function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

In equations: write as  rsqr()

Name:  rsqr function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

Produces the smallest integer value greater than or equal to the one given. Examples:

ceiling of pi = 4.0
ceiling of -16.315 = -16.0

(Note that the result is still a real number; it simply has no fractional part any more.)

See   15.6. 15.6. Powers and logarithms

In equations: write as  ceiling()

Name:  ceiling function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

Produces the largest integer value less than or equal to the one given. Examples:

floor of pi = 3.0
floor of -16.315 = -17.0

(Note that the result is still a real number; it simply has no fractional part any more.)

See   15.6. 15.6. Powers and logarithms

In equations: write as  floor()

Name:  floor function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

This phrase performs signed addition on the given values, whose kinds must agree, and produces the result. Examples:

1.4 to the nearest whole number = 1
1.6 to the nearest whole number = 2
-1.6 to the nearest whole number = -2

We probably ought to bear in mind that the limited range of "number" means that the nearest whole number might not be all that near. For example:

6 x 10^23 to the nearest whole number = 2147483647

because 2147483647 is the highest value a "number" can have.

See   15.3. 15.3. Real number conversions

In equations: write as  int()

Name:  int function

Kind: phrase real number -> number

Finds what power e would have to be raised to in order to get this value. Examples:

logarithm of e = 1.0
logarithm of 1 = 0.0
logarithm of 1000 = 6.90776
logarithm of exponential of 7.12 = 7.12

Logarithms of zero or negative numbers are nonexistent. This is the function which most calculators label as "ln", for "log natural", but in mathematical and scientific papers it's more often written "log", and Inform follows that convention.

See   15.6. 15.6. Powers and logarithms

In equations: write as  log()

Name:  log function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

Finds what power the base would have to be raised to in order to get this value. Examples:

logarithm to base 10 of 1000000 = 6.0
logarithm to base 10 of 350 = 2.54407
logarithm to base 2 of 256 = 8.0

Logarithms of zero or negative numbers are nonexistent. Note that "logarithm to base 10 of ..." is what most calculators call simply "log", but Inform doesn't: it uses "log" for natural logarithms.

See   15.6. 15.6. Powers and logarithms

Kind: phrase (number, real number) -> real number

Computes e to the given power, where e is the base of natural logarithms. Examples:

exponential of 0 = 1.0
exponential of 1 = e = 2.7182818
exponential of -10 = 4.53999 x 10^-5
exponential of 10 = 22026.46484
exponential of logarithm of 7.12 = 7.12

See   15.6. 15.6. Powers and logarithms

In equations: write as  exp()

Name:  exp function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

Computes x to the power y. Examples:

2 to the power 4 = 16.0
100 to the power 0.5 = 10.0
7 to the power -1 = 0.14286
pi to the power 0 = 1.0

In the words of the Glulx specification document (section 2.12), "the special cases are breathtaking": if you need to know exactly what, say, "minus infinity to the power Y" will do for different cases of Y, refer to the details of the "pow" opcode.

See   15.6. 15.6. Powers and logarithms

Kind: phrase (real number, real number) -> real number

Inform measures angles in radians, a convention in which the angle for a half circle is pi, and a right angle is pi divided by 2. This is better from a mathematical point of view, but in practice most people think about angles using degrees, where 180 degrees is a half-circle and a right angle is 90 degrees. This phrase helps with that by converting from degrees to radians: in other words, it multiplies by 0.0174532925, since that's roughly 1/180th of pi. Examples:

sine of 90 degrees = 0.0
cosine of 60 degrees = 0.5

See   15.7. 15.7. Trigonometry

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

The length of the upright of a right-angled triangle with this angle and a hypotenuse of length 1, where angle is measured in radians. Examples:

sine of 0 = 0
sine of 45 degrees = 0.70711
sine of (pi divided by 4) = 0.70711
sine of (pi divided by 2) = 1.0
sine of pi = 0

See   15.7. 15.7. Trigonometry

In equations: write as  sin()

Name:  sin function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

The length of the base of a right-angled triangle with this angle and a hypotenuse of length 1, where angle is measured in radians. Examples:

cosine of 0 = 1.0
cosine of 45 degrees = 0.70711
cosine of (pi divided by 4) = 0.70711
cosine of (pi divided by 2) = 0.0
cosine of pi = -1.0

See   15.7. 15.7. Trigonometry

In equations: write as  cos()

Name:  cos function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

The ratio of the upright length to the base length in a right-angled triangle with this angle and a hypotenuse of length 1, where angle is measured in radians. Examples:

tangent of 0 = 0.0
tangent of 45 degrees = 1.0
tangent of (pi divided by 4) = 1.0
tangent of (pi divided by 2) = plus infinity

See   15.7. 15.7. Trigonometry

In equations: write as  tan()

Name:  tan function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

The inverse of the sine function.

See   15.7. 15.7. Trigonometry

In equations: write as  arcsin()

Name:  arcsin function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

The inverse of the cosine function.

See   15.7. 15.7. Trigonometry

In equations: write as  arccos()

Name:  arccos function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

The inverse of the tangent function.

See   15.7. 15.7. Trigonometry

In equations: write as  arctan()

Name:  arctan function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

The hyperbolic sine function, often written "sinh" but pronounced "shine".

See   15.7. 15.7. Trigonometry

In equations: write as  sinh()

Name:  sinh function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

The hyperbolic cosine function, often written "cosh".

See   15.7. 15.7. Trigonometry

In equations: write as  cosh()

Name:  cosh function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

The hyperbolic tangent function, often written "tanh".

See   15.7. 15.7. Trigonometry

In equations: write as  tanh()

Name:  tanh function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

The inverse of the hyperbolic sine function.

See   15.7. 15.7. Trigonometry

In equations: write as  arcsinh()

Name:  arcsinh function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

The inverse of the hyperbolic cosine function.

See   15.7. 15.7. Trigonometry

In equations: write as  arccosh()

Name:  arccosh function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

The inverse of the hyperbolic tangent function.

See   15.7. 15.7. Trigonometry

In equations: write as  arctanh()

Name:  arctanh function

Kind: phrase real number -> real number

This phrase counts the number of values matching the description, which may of course be 0. Example:

number of open doors

produces the number of doors, anywhere in the model world, which are currently open. A Problem message is produced if the number is potentially infinite, or impractical to count: for instance, Inform rejects "number of odd numbers".

See   6.1. 6.1. What are descriptions?

Kind: phrase description of values -> number

This phrase produces the next-created value of the given kind, which should be an enumeration. Example: if we have

Colour is a kind of value. The colours are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

then "colour after orange" is yellow.

See   11.18. 11.18. The value after and the value before

Kind: phrase (K [enumerated value], K) -> K

This phrase produces the previous-created value of the given kind, which should be an enumeration. Example: if we have

Colour is a kind of value. The colours are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

then "colour before blue" is green.

See   11.18. 11.18. The value after and the value before

Kind: phrase (K [enumerated value], K) -> K

This phrase produces the first-created value of the given kind, which should be an enumeration. Example: if we have

Colour is a kind of value. The colours are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

then "first value of colour" is red.

See   11.18. 11.18. The value after and the value before

Kind: phrase K [enumerated value] -> K

This phrase produces the last-created value of the given kind, which should be an enumeration. Example: if we have

Colour is a kind of value. The colours are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

then "last value of colour" is violet.

See   11.18. 11.18. The value after and the value before

Kind: phrase K [enumerated value] -> K

This phrase converts a condition into its result as a value, which is always either "true" or "false". Example:

whether or not 20 is an odd number

produces the truth state "false". This is mostly useful for storing up results to look at later:

let victory be whether or not all the treasures are in the cabinet;

and then subsequently:

if victory is true, ...

See   11.5. 11.5. Conditions and questions

Kind: phrase nothing -> truth state

This phrase makes a uniformly random choice from values satisfying the description given. Example:

a random visited room
a random scene

A problem message is issued if the range is too large (for instance, "a random text"). Unexpected results may follow if no value fits the description, unless we are describing objects, in which case the result is the special value "nothing".

See   8.19. 8.19. Random choices of things

Kind: phrase description of Ks -> K

This phrase produces a uniformly random value in the range given. Examples:

a random number from 10 to 99
a random time from 2:31 PM to 2:57 PM

If we make a new kind of value:

A cloud pattern is a kind of value. The cloud patterns are cumulus, altocumulus, cumulonimbus, stratus, cirrus, nimbus, nimbostratus.

then we can also take random values from it:

a random cloud pattern between stratus and nimbus

which has three possible outcomes, all equally likely.

See   8.18. 8.18. Randomness

Kind: phrase (K [arithmetic value], K, K) -> K

This condition is true X/Yths of the time, where X and Y are the numbers. Example:

if a random chance of 2 in 3 succeeds, ...

Here is a rule which applies only 15% of the time:

Instead of waiting when a random chance of 15 in 100 succeeds: ...

See   8.18. 8.18. Randomness

Kind: phrase (number, number) -> truth state

This phrase changes the seed number as specified. Any random numbers generated after that depend only on the seed. Example: the following sentence will "fix" the process of generating these random numbers so that they are not random at all - the same sequence of random numbers will be produced on each run.

When play begins, seed the random-number generator with 1234.

The seed value "1234" can be anything positive; a different sequence of random numbers will be produced for each different seed value. A seed value of 0 restores the RNG to properly random behaviour again.

See   8.18. 8.18. Randomness

Kind: phrase number -> nothing

This phrase selects the row with the given number. Row numbers in a table start from 1, so

choose row 1 from the Table of Recent Monarchs

selects the top row.

See   16.5. 16.5. Choosing rows

Kind: phrase (number, table name) -> nothing

This phrase selects the first row, working down from the top of the given table, in which the given column has the given value. Example:

choose row with a name of "Victoria" in the Table of Recent Monarchs;

A run-time problem message is produced if the value isn't found anywhere in that column.

See   16.5. 16.5. Choosing rows

Kind: phrase (Ks valued table column, K, table name) -> nothing

This phrase chooses a row in the given table which is currently blank under every column. A run-time problem message is issued if no rows are blank. Example:

choose a blank row in Table 3;
now element entry is "Fluorine";
now symbol entry is "F";
now atomic number entry is 9;
now atomic weight entry is 19;

See   16.10. 16.10. Adding and removing rows

Kind: phrase table name -> nothing

This phrase makes a uniformly random choice of non-blank rows in the given table. Note that although a table always has at least one row, it can't be guaranteed that it always has a non-blank row, so it's possible for this to fail: if it does, a real-time problem message is thrown.

See   16.5. 16.5. Choosing rows

Kind: phrase table name -> nothing

This phrase produces the number of rows (including any blank rows) in the given table. Example:

number of rows in the Table of Selected Elements

See   16.2. 16.2. Looking up entries

Kind: phrase table name -> number

This phrase produces the number of rows in the given table which are entirely blank (that is, blank under every column).

See   16.10. 16.10. Adding and removing rows

Kind: phrase table name -> number

This phrase produces the number of rows in the given table which are not entirely blank (that is, at least one column has a value in this row).

See   16.10. 16.10. Adding and removing rows

Kind: phrase table name -> number

This condition is true if the entry referred to exists, that is, that is, the space for it in the table is not blank. Examples:

if there is a symbol corresponding to an atomic number of 30 in the Table of Standard Elements ...
if there is an atomic number in row 2 of the Table of Standard Elements ...

See   16.7. 16.7. Blank entries

Kind: phrase value -> truth state

This condition is true if the entry referred to does not exist, that is, the space for it in the table is blank. Examples:

if there is no symbol corresponding to an atomic number of 30 in the Table of Standard Elements ...
if there is no atomic number in row 2 of the Table of Standard Elements ...

See   16.7. 16.7. Blank entries

Kind: phrase value -> truth state

This phrase replaces the entry referred to with a blank, erasing any value previously stored there. Example:

choose row 1 in the Table of Fish Habitats;
blank out the salinity entry;

See   16.10. 16.10. Adding and removing rows

Kind: phrase value -> nothing

This phrase replaces the currently chosen row with blanks, erasing any value previously stored under any of the columns. Example:

choose row 1 in the Table of Fish Habitats;
blank out the whole row;

See   16.10. 16.10. Adding and removing rows

Kind: phrase nothing -> nothing

This phrase replaces the currently chosen column with blanks, erasing any value previously stored in any of the rows. Example:

blank out the whole salinity column in the Table of Fish Habitats;

See   16.10. 16.10. Adding and removing rows

Kind: phrase (table column, table name) -> nothing

This phrase replaces every row of the currently chosen table with blanks, erasing any value previously stored anywhere in it. Example:

blank out the whole of the Table of Fish Habitats;

This is only really useful when a Table is being used to hold working space for some calculation or other.

See   16.10. 16.10. Adding and removing rows

Kind: phrase table name -> nothing

This phrase prints a crude but sometimes useful display on screen of the current contents of the named table. It's intended for authors to see when testing, not for players of the finished version to see.

See   16.4. 16.4. Changing entries

Kind: phrase table name -> nothing

This text substitution produces a crude but sometimes useful listing of the entries in the currently chosen table row.

See   16.4. 16.4. Changing entries

This text substitution produces a crude but sometimes useful listing of the entries in the specified row.

See   16.4. 16.4. Changing entries

This text substitution produces a crude but sometimes useful listing of the entries in the specified column.

See   16.4. 16.4. Changing entries

This phrase rearranges the rows of the given table so that the non-blank rows occur at the top, in a uniformly random order, and any blank rows at the bottom. Example:

sort the Table of Recent Monarchs in random order;

See   16.11. 16.11. Sorting

Kind: phrase table name -> nothing

This phrase rearranges the rows of the given table so that the non-blank rows occur at the top, so that the given column has ascending order, and any blank rows at the bottom. Example:

sort the Table of Recent Monarchs in accession order;

Ascending order means 1 up to 10, say, or A up to Z, with blank values coming last.

See   16.11. 16.11. Sorting

Kind: phrase (table name, table column) -> nothing

This phrase rearranges the rows of the given table so that the non-blank rows occur at the top, so that the given column has descending order, and any blank rows at the bottom. Example:

sort the Table of Recent Monarchs in reverse name order;

Descending order means 10 down to 1, say, or Z down to A, with blank values coming last.

See   16.11. 16.11. Sorting

Kind: phrase (table name, table column) -> nothing

This phrase produces the number of characters from the text. Characters include letters, digits, punctuation symbols, spaces or other letter-forms. Examples:

number of characters in "War and Peace"
number of characters in ""

produce 13 and 0 respectively.

See   20.3. 20.3. Characters, words, punctuated words, unpunctuated words, lines, paragraphs

Kind: phrase text -> number

This phrase produces the number of words from the text. Words for this purpose are what's left after breaking the text up at punctuation or spacing (spaces, line breaks, paragraph breaks) and then removing that punctuation or spacing. Example:

number of words in "ice-hot, don't you think?"

produces 5.

See   20.3. 20.3. Characters, words, punctuated words, unpunctuated words, lines, paragraphs

Kind: phrase text -> number

This phrase produces the number of words from the text. Words for this purpose are what's left after breaking the text up at punctuation or spacing (spaces, line breaks, paragraph breaks) and then removing the spacing, but leaving the punctuation as independent words. Example:

number of punctuated words in "ice-hot, don't you think?"

produces 8; see if you can find them all.

See   20.3. 20.3. Characters, words, punctuated words, unpunctuated words, lines, paragraphs

Kind: phrase text -> number

This phrase produces the number of words from the text. Words for this purpose are what's left after breaking the text up at spacing (spaces, line breaks, paragraph breaks) but including all punctuation as if it were part of the spelling of the words it joins to. Example:

number of unpunctuated words in "ice-hot, don't you think?"

produces just 4.

See   20.3. 20.3. Characters, words, punctuated words, unpunctuated words, lines, paragraphs

Kind: phrase text -> number

This phrase produces the number of lines in the text. Unless explicit use is made of line-breaking, lines and paragraphs will be the same - it doesn't refer to lines as visible on screen, because we have no way of knowing what size screen the player might have. Example: the number of lines in

"Sensational news just in![paragraph break]The Martians have invaded Miranda.[line break](One of the moons of Uranus, that is.)"

is 3.

See   20.3. 20.3. Characters, words, punctuated words, unpunctuated words, lines, paragraphs

Kind: phrase text -> number

This phrase produces the number of paragraphs in the text. Example: the number of paragraphs in

"Sensational news just in![paragraph break]The Martians have invaded Miranda.[line break](One of the moons of Uranus, that is.)"

is 2.

See   20.3. 20.3. Characters, words, punctuated words, unpunctuated words, lines, paragraphs

Kind: phrase text -> number

This phrase produces the Nth character from the text, counting from 1. Characters include letters, digits, punctuation symbols, spaces or other letter-forms. Example:

character number 8 in "numberless projects of social reform"

produces "e". If the index is less than 1 or more than the length of the text, the result is an empty text, "".

See   20.3. 20.3. Characters, words, punctuated words, unpunctuated words, lines, paragraphs

Kind: phrase (number, text) -> text

This phrase produces the Nth word from the text, counting from 1. Words for this purpose are what's left after breaking the text up at punctuation or spacing (spaces, line breaks, paragraph breaks) and then removing that punctuation or spacing. Example:

word number 3 in "ice-hot, don't you think?"

produces "don't". If the index is less than 1 or more than the number of words in the text, the result is an empty text, "".

See   20.3. 20.3. Characters, words, punctuated words, unpunctuated words, lines, paragraphs

Kind: phrase (number, text) -> text

This phrase produces the Nth word from the text, counting from 1. Words for this purpose are what's left after breaking the text up at punctuation or spacing (spaces, line breaks, paragraph breaks) and then removing the spacing, but leaving the punctuation as independent words. Example:

punctuated word number 2 in "ice-hot, don't you think?"

produces "-". The punctuated words here are "ice", "-", "hot", ",", "don't", "you", "think", "?". If two or more punctuation marks are adjacent, they are counted as different words, except for runs of dashes or periods: thus ",," has two punctuated words, but "--" and "..." have only one each. If the index is less than 1 or more than the number of punctuated words in the text, the result is an empty text, "".

See   20.3. 20.3. Characters, words, punctuated words, unpunctuated words, lines, paragraphs

Kind: phrase (number, text) -> text

This phrase produces the Nth word from the text, counting from 1. Words for this purpose are what's left after breaking the text up at spacing (spaces, line breaks, paragraph breaks) but including all punctuation as if it were part of the spelling of the words it joins to. Example:

unpunctuated word number 1 in "ice-hot, don't you think?"

produces "ice-hot,". The unpunctuated words in "ice-hot, don't you think?" are "ice-hot,", "don't", "you", "think?". If the index is less than 1 or more than the number of punctuated words in the text, the result is an empty text, "".

See   20.3. 20.3. Characters, words, punctuated words, unpunctuated words, lines, paragraphs

Kind: phrase (number, text) -> text

This phrase produces the Nth line from the text, counting from 1. Unless explicit use is made of line-breaking, lines and paragraphs will be the same - it doesn't refer to lines as visible on screen, because we have no way of knowing what size screen the player might have.

See   20.3. 20.3. Characters, words, punctuated words, unpunctuated words, lines, paragraphs

Kind: phrase (number, text) -> text

This phrase produces the Nth paragraph from the text, counting from 1.

See   20.3. 20.3. Characters, words, punctuated words, unpunctuated words, lines, paragraphs

Kind: phrase (number, text) -> text

This takes a text and makes substitution occur immediately. For example,

substituted form of "time of death, [time of day]"

produces something like "time of death, 9:15 AM" rather than "time of death, [time of day]". It's entirely legal to apply this to text which never had any substitutions in, so

substituted form of "balloon"

produces "balloon".

See   20.7. 20.7. Making new text with text substitutions

Kind: phrase text -> text

This condition is true if the second text matches the first, starting at the beginning and finishing at the end. This appears to be the same as testing if one is equal to the other, but that's not quite true: for example,

if "[score]" exactly matches the text "[best score]", ...

is true if the score and best score currently print out as the same text, which will be true if they are currently equal as numbers; but

if "[score]" is "[best score]", ...

is never true - these are different texts, even if they sometimes look the same.

See   20.5. 20.5. Matching and exactly matching

Kind: phrase (text, text) -> truth state

This condition is true if the second text occurs anywhere inside the first. Examples:

if "[score]" matches the text "3", ...

tests whether the digit 3 occurs anywhere in the score, as printed out; and

if the printed name of the location matches the text "the", ...

tests to see whether "the" can be found anywhere in the current room's name. Note that the location "Smotheringly Hot Jungle" would pass this test - it's there if you look. On the other hand, "The Orangery" would not, because "The" does not match against "the". We can get around this in a variety of ways, one of which is to tell Inform to be insensitive to the case (upper or lower) of letters:

if the printed name of the location matches the text "the", case insensitively: ...

See   20.5. 20.5. Matching and exactly matching

Kind: phrase (text, text) -> truth state

This produces the number of times the second text occurs within the first. The matches are not allowed to overlap. Example:

number of times "pell-mell sally" matches the text "ll" = 3
number of times "xyzzy" matches the text "Z" = 0
number of times "xyzzy" matches the text "Z", case insensitively = 2
number of times "aaaaaaaa" matches the text "aaaa" = 2

See   20.5. 20.5. Matching and exactly matching

Kind: phrase (text, text) -> number

This condition is true if the whole text (starting from the beginning and finishing at the end) can be matched against the given regular expression. The option "case insensitively" causes lower and upper case letters to be treated as equivalent.

See   20.6. 20.6. Regular expression matching

Kind: phrase (text, text) -> truth state

This condition is true if any contiguous part of the text can be matched against the given regular expression. Examples:

if "taramasalata" matches the regular expression "a.*l", ...

is true, since this looks for a part of "taramasalata" which begins with "a", continues with any number of characters, and finishes with "l"; so it matches "aramasal". (Not "asal", because it gets the makes the leftmost match it can.) The option "case insensitively" causes lower and upper case letters to be treated as equivalent.

See   20.6. 20.6. Regular expression matching

Kind: phrase (text, text) -> truth state

This phrase is only meaningful immediately after a successful match of a regular expression against text, and it produces the text which matched. Example:

if "taramasalata" matches the regular expression "m.*l":
    say "[text matching regular expression].";

says "masal."

See   20.6. 20.6. Regular expression matching

Kind: phrase nothing -> text

This phrase is only meaningful immediately after a successful match of a regular expression against text, and it produces the text which matched. The number must be from 1 to 9, and must correspond to one of the bracketed groups in the expression just matched. Example: after

if "taramasalata" matches the regular expression "a(r.*l)a(.)":

the "text matching regular expression" is "aramasalat", the "text matching subexpression 1" is "ramasal", and "text matching subexpression 2" is "t".

See   20.6. 20.6. Regular expression matching

Kind: phrase number -> text

This produces the number of times that contiguous pieces of the text can be matched against the regular expression, without allowing them to overlap.

See   20.6. 20.6. Regular expression matching

Kind: phrase (text, text) -> number

This phrase acts on the named text by searching and replacing, as many non-overlapping times as possible. Example:

replace the text "a" in V with "z"

changes every lower-case "a" to "z": the same thing done with the "case insensitively" option would change each "a" or "A" to "z".

See   20.8. 20.8. Replacements

Kind: phrase (text, text, text) -> nothing

This phrase acts on the named text by matching the regular expression and replacing anything which fits it, as many non-overlapping times as possible. Example:

replace the regular expression "\d+" in V with "..."

changes "The Battle of Waterloo, 1815, rivalled Trafalgar, 1805" to "The Battle of Waterloo, ..., rivalled Trafalgar, ...". The "case insensitively" causes lower and upper case letters to be treated as if the same letter.

When replacing a regular expression, the replacement text also has a few special meanings (though, thankfully, many fewer than for the expression itself). Once again "\n" and "\t" can be used for line break and tab characters, and "\\" must be used for an actual backslash. But, very usefully, "\1" to "\9" expand as the contents of groups numbered 1 to 9, and "\0" to the exact text matched. So:

replace the regular expression "\d+" in V with "roughly \0"

adds the word "roughly" in front of any run of digits in V, because \0 becomes in turn whichever run of digits matched. And

replace the regular expression "(\w+) (.*)" in V with "\2, \1"

performs the transformation "Frank Booth" to "Booth, Frank".

Finally, prefixing the number by "l" or "u" forces the text it represents into lower or upper case, respectively. For instance:

replace the regular expression "\b(\w)(\w*)" in X with "\u1\l2";

changes the casing of X to "title casing", where each individual word is capitalised. (This is a little slow on large texts, since so many matches and replacements are made: it's more efficient to use the official phrases for changing case.)

See   20.8. 20.8. Replacements

Kind: phrase (text, text, text) -> nothing

This phrase acts on the named text by searching and replacing, as many non-overlapping times as possible, where the search text must occur as a whole word. Example:

replace the word "Bob" in V with "Robert"

changes "Bob got on the Bobsleigh" to "Robert got on the Bobsleigh".

See   20.8. 20.8. Replacements

Kind: phrase (text, text, text) -> nothing

This phrase acts on the named text by searching and replacing, as many non-overlapping times as possible, where the search text must occur as a whole word or run of punctuation.

See   20.8. 20.8. Replacements

Kind: phrase (text, text, text) -> nothing

This phrase acts on the named text by placing the given text in place of the Nth character, counting from 1. Example:

let V be "mope";
replace character number 3 in V with "lecul";
say V;

says "molecule".

See   20.8. 20.8. Replacements

Kind: phrase (number, text, text) -> nothing

This phrase acts on the named text by placing the given text in place of the Nth word, counting from 1, and dividing words at spacing or punctuation. Example:

let V be "Does the well run dry?";
replace word number 3 in V with "jogger";
say V;

says "Does the jogger run dry?".

See   20.8. 20.8. Replacements

Kind: phrase (number, text, text) -> nothing

This phrase acts on the named text by placing the given text in place of the Nth word, counting from 1, and dividing words at spacing, counting punctuation runs as words in their own right. Example:

let V be "Frankly, yes, I agree.";
replace punctuated word number 2 in V with ":";
say V;

says "Frankly: yes, I agree.".

See   20.8. 20.8. Replacements

Kind: phrase (number, text, text) -> nothing

This phrase acts on the named text by placing the given text in place of the Nth word, counting from 1, and dividing words at spacing, counting punctuation as part of a word just as if it were lettering. Example:

let V be "Frankly, yes, I agree.";
replace unpunctuated word number 2 in V with "of course";
say V;

says "Frankly, of course I agree.".

See   20.8. 20.8. Replacements

Kind: phrase (number, text, text) -> nothing

This phrase acts on the named text by placing the given text in place of the Nth line, counting from 1. Lines are divided by paragraph or line breaks.

See   20.8. 20.8. Replacements

Kind: phrase (number, text, text) -> nothing

This phrase acts on the named text by placing the given text in place of the Nth paragraph, counting from 1.

See   20.8. 20.8. Replacements

Kind: phrase (number, text, text) -> nothing

This phrase produces a new version of the given text, but with all upper case letters reduced to lower case. Example: "a ticket to Tromsø via Østfold" becomes

"a ticket to tromsø via østfold"

See   20.4. 20.4. Upper and lower case letters

Kind: phrase text -> text

This phrase produces a new version of the given text, but with all upper case letters reduced to lower case. Example: "a ticket to Tromsø via Østfold" becomes

"A TICKET TO TROMSØ VIA ØSTFOLD"

See   20.4. 20.4. Upper and lower case letters

Kind: phrase text -> text

This phrase produces a new version of the given text, but with casing of words changed to title casing: this capitalises the first letter of each word, and lowers the rest. Example: "a ticket to Tromsø via Østfold" becomes

"A Ticket To Tromsø Via Østfold"

See   20.4. 20.4. Upper and lower case letters

Kind: phrase text -> text

This phrase produces a new version of the given text, but with casing of words changed to sentence casing: this capitalises the first letter of each sentence and reduces the rest to lower case. Example: "a ticket to Tromsø via Østfold" becomes

"A ticket to tromsø via østfold"

See   20.4. 20.4. Upper and lower case letters

Kind: phrase text -> text