Language Intrinsics

Context: HL Kit … Kit Reference 

The scripting language has an assortment of intrinsic (i.e. built-in) functions that can be used for various purposes. Some intrinsic functions operate on strings, while others operate on numbers. Some intrinsic functions return strings, while others return numbers.

The purpose of intrinsic functions is to provide authors with re-usable mechanisms that can be used to perform script operations that arise on a recurring basis. For example, the Kit includes intrinsic functions for searching string, carving up strings, comparing strings, and replacing text within strings. Intrinsics are also included to determine the minimum or maximum of two values, round a number off at a certain level of precision, and generate a random number.

The complete list of intrinsic functions provided by the language is presented below.

length	number length(string str) Returns the number of characters in the string str.
left	string left(string str, number num) Returns a new string containing the leftmost num characters of the string str.
right	string right(string str, number num) Returns a new string containing the rightmost num characters of the string str.
mid	string mid(string str, number start, number num) Returns a new string containing a substring of string str. The new string begins with the character at position start and is num characters in length. Character positions are 0-based, so the first character in a string is at position zero (0).
pos	number pos(string str, string search) Return the character position where the string search first appears within str. Character positions are 0-based, so the first character in a string is at position zero (0). If search does not exist within str, a value of –1 is returned.
uppercase	string uppercase(string str) Returns a new string that is an upper case version of string str.
lowercase	string lowercase(string str) Returns a new string that is an lower case version of string str.
lastpos	number lastpos(string str, string search) Return the character position where the string search last appears within str. Character positions are 0-based, so the first character in a string is at position zero (0). If search does not exist within str, a value of –1 is returned.
asc	number asc(string str) Returns the ASCII value of the first character of string str.
chr	string chr(number val) Returns a new string that consists of a single character, which has an ASCII value of val. For example, 'chr(10)' is the newline character.
compare	number compare(string str1, string str2) Compare the two strings str1 and str2. If the strings are identical, the value 0 is returned. If str1 would appear before str2 in an alphabetical sort (based on the ASCII code of each character), a value less than 0 is returned. If str1 would appear after str2 in an alphabetical sort, a value greater than 0 is returned. Note that all uppercase characters are sorted before lowercase characters.
replace	string replace(string str, string match, string replace, number maxcount) Searches through the string str and replaces all instances of the string match with the string replace. A maximum number of replacements is given by maxcount, with a value of zero indicating that all matches should be replaced. The converted string is returned, with the original string left untouched.
int	number int(number val) Returns a value that represents the integer portion only of val. For example, the integer portion of the value –123.45 would be –123.
random	number random(number range) Returns a random integer value between zero and range–1.
minimum	number minimum(number val1, number val2) Returns the lower of the two values given.
maximum	number maximum(number val1, number val2) Returns the higher of the two values given.
power	number power(number val1, number val2) Returns val1 raised to the power of val2 (e.g. x^y). For example, "power(4,2)" would yield 4 squared, which is 16.
nthroot	number nthroot(number val, number nth) Returns the nth root of a number, where val is the value to get the root of and nth indicates the root to obtain. For example, "nthroot(16,2)" would yield the square root of 16, which is 4.
round	number round(number val, number dec, number dir) Returns the rounded value of val, where dec indicates the number of decimal places at which to perform the rounding and dir indicates how to perform the rounding. If dir is zero, normal rounding is performed (e.g. 0.5-0.99 round up to 1.0 and 0.01-0.49 round down to 0.0). If dir is positive, the value is always rounded up. If dir is negative, the value is always rounded down. For example, "round(4.36,1,0)" would yield 4.4 and "round(4.36,1,-1)" would yield 4.3.
bitwise_and	number bitwise_and(number val1, number val2) Returns the bit-wise "and" of val1 and val2, treating both parameters as integer values for the operation. The bit-wise "and" performs a comparison of the two values, one bit at a time, with the resulting value having a bit value of 1 only if both val1 and val2 have that bit set to 1. There is no need for a bit-wise "or" operation, since that can be readily achieved by simply adding two integer values together. For example, "bitwise_and(14,7)" would yield 6, since the two parameters have binary representations of "1110" and "0111", which results in a value with a binary representation of "0110" (or 6).