## Week 4: functions & arrays

Dr Charles Martin

Semester 2, 2020

assignment 1 submitted on Wednesday—marks will be released in 2 weeks

assignment 2 is now available—due 9pm first Monday of the teaching break.

assignment 3 also available (!), and is due in week 9.

major project ALSO out (!!) due end of week 12 and has the theme…

timeless attraction

## recap

• specifying positions & colours with numbers
• doing stuff with the p5 library (drawing rect()s and ellipse()s, setting fill() and stroke() colours)
• using variables (and maybe even declaring your own)
• doing simple maths with +, -, *, /
• doing things conditionally with if statements and Boolean expressions like mouseX < 100
• looping with while and for

## code theory

variable scope (a new word for something you’ve seen before)

functions (including making our own functions)

arrays (collections of things)

## scope

scope is related to flow—it’s a way of talking about which bits of code can “see” each other

if you ever get “missing variable” errors, but you can see (i.e. with your eyes) the variable in your code, you might have a scope problem

## global scope

variable declarations “outside” of all the functions (e.g. setup() and draw()) are said to be in the global scope, and they’re visible from anywhere in the program

// x is a "global" variable
let x = 200;

function setup() {
createCanvas(800, 600);
}

function draw() {
ellipse(x, x, x, x);
}


function setup() {
createCanvas(800, 600);
let x = 200;
}

function draw() {
ellipse(x, x, x, x);
}


if something’s not working

check the console

function setup() {
createCanvas(800, 600);
}

function draw() {
let x = 200;
ellipse(x, x, x, x);
}


this works because x is in the draw function’s scope—it’s visible inside draw’s curly brackets, but not outside

## scoping tips

scoping might cause frustration at first, but it’s actually a good thing—isolation makes our code clearer & more robust

in general, having lots of global variables is bad coding style—variables should only be visible (in scope) where they’ll be used

the brackets matter!

{ } [ ] ( )

## concept 2: functions

first, some definitions…

function (noun): the act of executing or performing any duty, office, or calling; performance https://www.wordnik.com/words/function

function (noun): a sequence of program instructions that perform a specific task, packaged as a unit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subroutine

## anatomy of a function (recap)

name(parameter1, parameter2, ...);

rect(100, 100, 100, 100);

the name (in this case rect) specifies what to do

the parameters (in the brackets) tell the function how to do it, e.g. where to draw the rect and how big

together, they allow us to tell the computer do some basic thing, repeatedly, and with slight differences each time

## speak the lingo

we say we “call” a function because we’re telling it to do its’ job (like the staff at a restaurant)

how many jobs should a function have?

the “you had one job” principle is important for functions!

## talk

rect(100, 100, 100, 100);

how do you find out what the parameters mean?

check the rect() reference

you’ve been using functions all along: setup() and draw(), as well as all the p5 functions like ellipse()

You can write your own functions where you get to pick the parameters & what they’re called. Here’s an example polkadot() function

function polkadot(x, y){
fill(255,0,0);
ellipse(x, y, 20, 20);
}


## creating functions that give back values

parameters allow us to send values (parameters) in to a function, how do we get values back out?

the answer: we use a return statement in the body of the function

function double(x) {
return x * 2;
}


now we can use our function like this

background(double(50));


## p5 has a few other “special” functions

special from a flow perspective, anyway

and a few more…

MDN has some great docs on Functions

we’ll use functions constantly for the rest of the course, so it’s really worth getting your head around them

sometimes when we’re referring to a function (in writing) we write “the background() function”

note the lack of parameters in between the brackets, even though the background() function does take parameters

this is because there are many different ways to call that function (e.g. with one number, with two numbers, etc.) so using a () with no arguments is just a general way to acknowledge that it’s a function (but to see exactly what parameters it requires you’ll need to look in the reference)

## example: making a button

from this week’s labs: making a simple “button” has two sub-tasks:

1. drawing the button
2. figuring out whether the button is clicked

these sub-tasks require the same info, though: where and how big is the button?

let’s combine them into a function which

1. draws a rectangle
2. returns a Boolean (either true or false depending on whether the button is being clicked)

## concept 3: arrays

we’ve already met the Number, String and Boolean types in this course

let myNumber = 7;
let myString = "tennis is fun";
let myBoolean = true;


Can we collect some of these things together into a group?

## what do you think these are?

let arrayOfNumbers = [100, 24, -2, 18, 106, 42, 1, 8];
let arrayOfStrings = ["hello", "darkness",
"my", "old", "friend"];
let arrayOfBooleans = [true, false, true, true, false];

let arrayOfWhatever = [100, 200, false, "Banana"];
let emptyArray = [];


they’re arrays

## again, look for the matching pairs

when you see a [, there will be a matching ]

everything inside will be initialised as the elements of the array

## some new vocabulary

the array is the whole collection

each member of the array is called an element

the “element position” is called the index (e.g. the first element is at index 0, the second at index 1, etc.)

the number of elements in the array is called the length of the array

## what’s going on here?

let allTheThings = [0, 120, 500];


we’re declaring a variable called allTheThings, and initialising it to be an array with 3 elements: 0, 120 and 500

## arrays as variables

// < variable part >  < array part >
let allTheThings = [0, 120, 500];


we’re combining something we’re learning today (arrays) with something we learned in week 2 (declaring & initialising variables)

no magic here!

## why use arrays?

arrays are a really useful part of javascript

as well as just declaring & initialising an array, there are a bunch of things you can do to it by default

• find out how big it is
• join it to other arrays
• look for particular elements in the array
• etc.

the Array reference is on MDN, but several p5 functions use arrays as well

## oddNumbers array

for the following slides, assume we’ve got an array oddNumbers with some stuff in it

let oddNumbers = [1, 2, 3, 5, 7];


## using the elements in an array

use square brackets to “reference” (i.e. retrieve) an element from an array

let firstOddNumber = oddNumbers[0];
let secondOddNumber = oddNumbers[1];

background(oddNumbers[3]);


## array referencing gotchas

the array index starts at 0, so oddNumbers[0] is the first element, and oddNumbers[n] is the n+1th element for any index n

if you try and access an element that isn’t there, the result is undefined

// this will break because there is no 40th element
background(oddNumbers[40]);


can we change the things in arrays?

## putting elements into an array

to put an element onto the “end”, use push()

oddNumbers.push(53);
// oddNumbers is now [1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 53]


to put an element onto the “front”, use unshift() (weird name)

oddNumbers.unshift(-7);
// oddNumbers is now [-7, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 53]


## removing elements from an array

to remove an element from the “end”, use pop() (opposite of push())

oddNumbers.pop();
// oddNumbers is now [-7, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7]


to remove an element from the “front”, use shift() (oppposite of unshift())

oddNumbers.shift();
// oddNumbers is now [1, 2, 3, 5, 7]


## here’s a table

let things = [1, 2, 3];

 add remove front things.unshift(value) things.shift() back things.push(value) things.pop()

## modifying the elements in an array

similar to using the elements of the array (e.g. oddNumbers[0]) but this time we assign a new value to that element using the equals sign

// oddNumbers is [1, 2, 3, 5, 7];
oddNumbers[4] = 12;
// oddNumbers is now [1, 2, 3, 5, 12];


## talk

suppose you see this:

let allTheThings = [0, 120, 500];

// some code here you can't see

allTheThings.push(50);


what are the elements of allTheThings at this point? how do you know?

## how do I see what’s in my array at any point?

use print and the console!

// put this somewhere in your code
print(oddNumbers);


then, open up the console and see! (cmd ⌘+alt+J or ctrl+alt+J)

## arrays in arrays

remember how we said you could put any type into an array? that includes more arrays!

let nestedArray = [[1, 3], [2, 4]];

nestedArray[0] // the value at index 0 is the Array [1, 3]

nestedArray[0][1] // what do you think this is?


## “looping” over an array

the for loop from last week’s lecture can be used to generate the indexes

for(let i = 0; i < oddNumbers.length; i = i+1){
doStuff(oddNumbers[i]);
}