Mathematical Operators

SenseTalk provides a number of mathematical operators. They are outlined below.

+ , Plus Operators

Behavior: Adds two numbers or lists of numbers.

Syntax:
operand1 + operand2
operand1 plus operand2

Example:

put 12 + 97 into someSum

Example:

put a squared plus b squared into sumOfSquares

Example:

put [12,8] + [4,7] into vectorSum

- , Minus Operators

Behavior: Subtracts one number or list of numbers from another. Subtracting one date/time from another will give the difference as a time interval, measured in seconds.

Syntax:
operand1 - operand2
operand1 minus operand2

Example:

put c^2 - sumOfSquares into difference

Example:

put (1,3,5,6) - (1,1,0,2) into diffList

* , Times, Multiplied By Operators

Behavior: Multiplies two numbers or lists, or multiplies a list by a scalar. When used with two lists of equal length, the result will be a series of products of the corresponding elements of the two lists. When one operand is a list and the other is a single (scalar) value, the result is a list of values obtained by multiplying each original list element by the scalar value.

Syntax:
operand1 * operand2
operand1 times operand2
operand1 multiplied by operand2

Example:

put 2 * radius into diameter

Example:

put pi times diameter into circumference

Example:

put [1,2,3,4] * [2,2,1,3] --> [2,4,3,12]

Example:

put [1,2,3,4] * 4 --> [4,8,12,16]

Example:

put 7 multiplied by 3 --> 21

/ , Divided By Operators

Behavior: Divides one number or list by another, or divides a list by a scalar. The result is a quotient that may not be a whole number. Compare this to the div operator, which yields a whole number. When used with two lists of equal length, the result will be a series of quotients of the corresponding elements of the two lists. When the first operand is a list and the second is a single (scalar) value, the result is a list of values obtained by dividing each list element by the scalar value. If the second operand is zero, this operator will return the value infinity, displayed as Inf. Using an infinite value in other calculations will generally give expected results.

Syntax:
operand1 / operand2
operand1 divided by operand2

Example:

put pi / 2 into halfPi

Example:

put [1,2,3,4] / [2,1,1,2] --> [0.5,2,3,2]

Example:

put [2,4,5,8] / 2 --> [1,2,2.5,4]

^ , To The Power Of , Squared , Cubed Operators

Behavior: Raises a number to a given power.

Syntax:
operand1 ^ operand2
operand1 to the power of operand2
operand1 squared
operand1 cubed

Example:

put a squared + b squared into sumOfSquares

Example:

put 6 * x^4 - 2 * y^3 into z

% , Percent Operator

Behavior: Treats a number as a percentage, or computes add-on or discount percentages. In its simple form, % following a value divides that value by 100 (so 6% is the same as .06). However, if % is used following a + or - operator, the corresponding percent of the value to the left of that operator will be increased or decreased by the specified percent.

Syntax:
factor %
factor percent
value [ + | - | plus | minus ] factor [ % | percent ]

Example:

put 4% --> .04

Example:

put 50 * 4% --> 2

Example:

put 50 + 4% --> 52

Example:

put 50 - 4% --> 48

Example:

put sales plus ten percent into projectedSales

Div Operator

Behavior: Divides one number by another, giving the result as an integer. The companion rem operator can be used to find the remainder of such an operation. Division by zero will yield the result Inf.

Syntax:
operand1 div operand2

Example:

put cookieCount div numberOfPeople into cookiesForEach

Rem Operator

Behavior: Calculates the integer remainder of a division. This is the complement of the div operator. The result of the rem operator will always have the same sign as its first operand.

Syntax:
operand1 rem operand2

Example:

put cookieCount rem numberOfPeople into extrasForMe

Modulo, Mod Operators

Behavior: Performs the mathematical modulo operation. Obtains the amount by which one number exceeds the next-lower even multiple of another. The modulo operator is different from the rem operator, which gives the remainder of an integer division. When both operands are positive integers, rem and modulo will yield the same results. Negative numbers and non-integer values are treated much differently by the two operators, however.

Syntax:
operand1 modulo operand2
operand1 mod operand2

Example:

put someValue mod modulusValue into extrasForMe

Is a Multiple Of, Is Divisible By Operators

Behavior: These operators check whether one number is an exact multiple of another. That is, if the result of dividing one by the other would result in a whole number with no remainder.

Syntax:
value is {not} {a | an} {exact | even} multiple of divisor
value is {not} {exactly | evenly} divisible by divisor

Example:

put 2895 is a multiple of 5 --> True

Example:

put 169 is divisible by 13 --> True

Example:

put 98.6 is an exact multiple of 3.14 --> False

Example:

if cookieCount is evenly divisible by numberOfPeople then put "Hooray!"

Rounded To, Rounded to Nearest Operators

Behavior: Rounds a value to a number of decimal places, or to the nearest multiple of another value. Also rounds to a unit name or to a variable whose value is a unit name. These operators provide an alternate syntax for calling the round() and roundToNearest() functions (see Arithmetic Calculations).

Syntax:
value rounded {to} numberOfPlaces {{decimal} places}
value rounded to {the} nearest {multiple of} nearestMultiple
value rounded to {the} nearest unit

Example:

put 123.4567 rounded to 2 places --> 123.46

Example:

put 123.4567 rounded -1 decimal places --> 120

Example:

put 98.6 rounded to the nearest multiple of 3.14 --> 97.34

Example:

put total rounded to nearest .25 into amountDue

Example:

put 12.345 meters rounded to the nearest foot --> 41 feet

But at Least, But No Less Than, But At Most, But No More Than Operators

Behavior: Limits a number to a minimum or maximum value.

Syntax:
operand but at least value
operand but no less than value
operand but at most value
operand but no more than value

Example:

set highScore to largest value in scores but at most 100

Example:

set lowScore to rawScore - 9 but no less than zero

Example:

set volume to myVolume but no more than 11

Example:

set roomCapacity to sizeLimit but at least 123

BitNot, BitAnd, BitOr, BitXOr, BitShift Operators

Behavior: Performs operations on the individual bits of a number. Operands are treated as integers composed of 64 bits or fewer, as set by the bitLength global property.

• BitNot: Reverses each of the bits of a number, with 0's becoming 1's and 1's becoming 0's.
• BitAnd: Compares each bit of operand1 to the corresponding bit of operand2 to generate a bit in the result. When both bits are 1's the result is 1, otherwise the result is 0.
• BitOr: Compares each bit of operand1 to the corresponding bit of operand2 to generate a bit in the result.
  • When both bits are 0's the result is 0.
  • When either or both bits are 1's the result is 1.
• BitXOr: Compares each bit of operand1 to the corresponding bit of operand2 to generate a bit in the result.
  • When both bits are 0's or both bits are 1's, the result is 0.
  • When exactly one of the bits is 1, the result is 1.
• BitShift operator: Shifts all the bits in a number by the specified number of bits to the right or left. If right or left is not specified:
  • A positive number shifts bits to the right.
  • A negative number shifts bits to the left.

Syntax:
bitNot {of} operand
operand1 bitAnd operand2
operand1 bitOr operand2
operand1 bitXOr operand2
operand bitShift {left | right} shiftAmount

Example:

set the numberFormat to "binary8" // Display numbers in binary as eight digits
put bitNot 0b00011011 --> 0b11100100
put 0b00010101 bitAnd 0b00111100 --> 0b00010100
put 0b00010101 bitOr 0b00111100 --> 0b00111101
put 0b00010101 bitXOr 0b00111100 --> 0b00101001
put 0b00010101 bitShift left 2 --> 0b01010100

Bit Expression, Bit Function

Behavior: Gives access to or sets an individual bit within a number. The source value is treated as an integer composed of 64 bits or fewer, as set by the bitLength global property.

A bit expression is a container, which allows you to:

• Get the value of an individual bit within a number, either 0 or 1, or True or False.
• Set the value of an individual bit within a number to either 0 or 1, On or Off, Yes or No, True or False, when the sourceValue is a variable or other container.

note

In a 64-bit number, bit 1 is the low-order bit, and bit 64 is the high-order bit.

You can also use a bit expression as a boolean, for example, as the conditional in an if statement.

Syntax: Use either bit expression, or bit function syntax (with parentheses).
bit bitNumber of sourceValue
bit( bitNumber ) of sourceValue
sourceValue .bit( bitNumber ) sourceValue's bit( bitNumber )

Examples:

put bit 3 of 0b100110 --> 1
if bit(1) of 543 then put "It's an odd number!" --> It's an odd number!

set flags to 0b100000
put flags.bit(2) --> 0
set flags.bit(2) to yes
turn on bit 3 of flags
put flags --> 0b100110