Pine Script [OUTDATED V4] Tutorial Lesson 3 Getting Basic User Input

[Music]
hi traders welcome back to Zen on the
auto trading today I'm going to be
covering basic inputs in pine script
this is lesson 3 in my pine script
tutorial course so if you haven't seen
the other videos you might want to go
back and watch them unless you're a
little bit experienced with pine script
so let's get straight into this one I'm
going to start with a blank script here
all I've done is changed the script name
to lesson 3 what I'm gonna do here is
just show you how to use all the basic
inputs I'm not going to go over
timeframes and sessions and symbols I'm
just going to go over the basics such as
number inputs boolean inputs which means
true or false float inputs which is just
floating point numbers decimal place
numbers and string inputs which is just
text inputs I'm gonna plot all these
inputs on to the chart to show you how
to use them in the script we're not
going to actually do anything with these
values I'm just going to show you how to
get input from the user
these concepts will come back later in
future lessons so it's very important
that we go over these now get it out of
the way and then some of you more
advanced users can start playing around
with them yourself in the mean time so
let's start with boolean input the
boolean input is set to the input
function and we're going to call it
boolean it's going to be type we're
gonna set its type to input dot and then
you can press control space here if you
forgot about that and it'll list all of
the inputs here we're going to go with
ball input bool and then the default
value def val is going to be set to true
and obviously you can set this to
whatever you want true or false so in
order to plot the boolean to our chart
there's no way to plot a true or false
value to the chart because there's no
way to visually represent that other
than using numbers so we could use a 1
for true and a 0 for false that's what
I'm going to do in this example and now
the way to plot this
the easiest way to plot this is using
what is called a conditional operator
this is a little bit advanced but it's
not that advanced and it's very useful
to know so I'm going to teach you that
in this lesson so in programming there's
what we call if statements so the way
that would work is we type if and then
next we put in a boolean value so in
this case we'd write boolean input now
this next line will not be executed
unless the boolean value is true so an
example of that would be this if I would
write data equals say negative 1 here we
could say if the boolean input is true
we could set the data value to 1 and now
if we change this to plot that data
value and I save the script and I add it
to my chart you'll see it's plotting 1
because data was set to negative 1 but
because this is set to true the script
changed data to 1 now if we go into the
Settings menu here and we turn this off
it's now plotting as a negative 1 you
see down here on the right axis an
easier way to do this is to use what's
called a conditional operator so what we
can do here is we can say plot boolean
input question mark now what this is
saying is that if this value is true if
this boolean is set to true then we want
to plot one and then if you do a colon
symbol and then you write say 0 on the
other side what this is going to do if I
click Save it's going to do exactly the
same thing here it's going to plot this
line is 1 because this value is set to
true and now if I change this to false
it'll plot as 0 and watch on the right
axis and there you go it's plotting a 0
so that's the power of these conditional
operators they can really save you some
time you don't have to write out all
that code we did earlier you just just
write it out in this format here now
we're going to change
this to plot in the color red so that we
can differentiate this from the other
inputs that I'm about to show you so
that's the first input value and you can
see we can play around with that here in
the settings menu now and it will adjust
the plotted value the next example is
going to be an integer input which is
just any whole number so if I say
integer input is set to input function
or the title of integer and the type is
input dot integer and the default value
is let's say because this is 1 and 0 we
don't want to plot another one so we'll
set this to 2 and then if we come down
here and I type in plot integer input we
don't need to do any conditional values
here there's no if or else about this
it's just a straight-up
number input and we'll set the color to
this time we'll set it to blue 5 click
Save that'll update these scripts and
there you go we've got to plot it up
here in blue and we've got one floated
down here in red which is our boolean
input and our integer input so that very
simple to get these inputs from the user
if we go up to these settings menu you
can see you can change this now I can
change it to 1 and then it paints over
the top of our boolean value if I change
it to 0 it plots below it so I'll leave
that as 2 for now the next example is
going to be a float input so if I type
in float input is set to input function
title is float the type is input dot
float and the default value in this case
is going to be let's say one point five
now I come down I've got a plot it to
the chart so plot float input and the
color is set to color dot purple this
time why not click Save and there we
have it we've got our three input
functions plotting to the chart right
now you can go into the settings and we
can fool around with this change it to
0.5 1.1 whatever floats your boat pun
not intended alright next input is
string we're going to go with a little
bit of text he
this is gonna be a little bit advanced
as well because the only way to plot
text to your chart is to use a label
function that's quite an advanced topic
so just focus on the input section here
you more advanced programmers can play
around with the label function later but
this is a bit of a taste of what's to
come I guess for you for future lessons
so this is the last in base this is the
last basic input that we're going to
cover here there's a lot more advanced
input supertype and input control space
we're not going to go over resolution
session source or symbol in this video
I'm gonna go over those inputs in a
future video the reason for that is that
these two plot these two your chart
requires quite a bit of complex Pyne
scripts compared to what we're writing
here and I don't want to overload you
guys when we're only on lesson three so
let's get this string input working so
I'm going to call this input string and
it's gonna be type input dot string the
default value is going to be let's just
call it some text and now we need to use
what's called an array an array is
basically a collection of values in this
case it has to be called options so if
we say options equals open square
bracket and then close that square
bracket off anything we write in here is
basically a list it's gonna be a list of
values that can be selected from in this
settings menu so I'll show you what that
means right now we'll just type in some
text and then you separate these list
values these list entries using a comma
so if I say some text other value and
then final option if I click Save here
we come up to the settings menu this cog
icon we now have this drop-down box next
to string and there's a number of things
you can do with this type of input you
could use this to set for example
another symbol so say you wanted to plot
data on your chart on euro dollar here
from let's say the sp500 don't know why
you'd want to do that but you can't with
this sort of function here we'll go over
that in more advanced lessons but just
there you go that's how you would get a
list of string inputs to show up in your
settings menu here now if I get rid of
these get rid of this line and save it
to chart and we go up here now you can
type whatever you want in here so you
know whatever you whatever you feel like
and then you see up here in the
indicators values it's changed the text
so if that didn't make sense to you just
go over this video a couple of times
I'll cover a raise in a future video
because they can be quite complex
compared to what we've covered so far so
we'll go over that in the next video
today's video I'll just leave this is
this because I want to keep it simple so
if we go down here now this is going to
be a little bit complex so you can
ignore this part if you want to I'm just
going to draw this to the chart just to
show you that we can interact with this
string input so first of all I'm going
to use this if this is a good example of
an if statement so I'm gonna say if bar
state is last what that means is that if
the current candle that we're
calculating the script on is the last
bar in price action so this current bar
then this next few lines of code will be
executed we're going to create a label
example and the label example is gonna
be set to label dot new so we're
creating a new label the location of the
label is going to be the current bar
index which will be the current bar if
you were to type current a bar index
minus 2 then that will draw this label
two bars back from the current bar but
we don't want to do that in this case
the next input is not relevant so we're
gonna put in na and then the next input
after these two is string input that's
going to draw our string that we've just
created up here then we can set the
color I'll set the color to color green
now this is the color of the label
itself and then we can also
set the text color so I'll set the text
color to colored on white and then I'm
going to set the style to label dot
style label down there's a couple of
different styles you can go over such as
style label left label right label up
non-square blah blah blah blah blah I'm
just gonna go with label down for now
and then the Y location is where on this
y-axis do you want to do an it above the
bar do you want to below the bar so in
this case we're going to set it to Y
location Y lock dot above bar and now
that's our label created if I hit save
so I've got a couple of areas here I've
done a few typos done a couple of
whoopsies let's have a look I have first
of all a misspelled example because it's
early in the morning and I'm like that
at early in the morning I've also forgot
to put style in front of this option so
yeah another example of what happens
when you're not paying attention with
your coding you'll get errors but at
least the errors tell you what's going
wrong that's the best thing about pine
scripts and how easy it is to use and
learn so this should work theoretically
if I save now it should add a label to
the end and there we go there's our
label that's the end of this script and
this lesson to just recap let's just say
real quickly what we've done here so
first we created a boolean input we use
the input function we titled it boolean
so if I open the settings menu
we've got boolean here we can set that
to true or false and that will move the
plotting of our boolean value which is
assigned here to 1 or 0 based on whether
this boolean is true or false I'm sorry
it's this red line it's moving not this
purple line I don't know it looks like
the purple lines moving but if you can
look down on this right axis you can see
that the red line is plotting 0 and if I
turn it to true it's plotting 1 the next
thing we did was create an integer input
so if I adjust this this will move the
blue line at the top and it adjusts
scale of the right axis obviously and we
changed this value the next thing we did
was create a float input floating
decimal point input and that's plotting
the purple line so this one in the
middle so if we change this to say one
point one it will go down here above
just above our boolean input by changes
to one point zero one you can see you
can get quite a fair bit of precision
here so you can see here we've got one
two three four five decimal points on
this euro dollar so you can have one two
three four five decimal numbers after
the decimal point that's it for today's
lesson I hope you found it valuable hope
it wasn't too overwhelming just watch
this video a couple more times if it
didn't make sense to you or feel free to
leave any questions in the comment
section and I'll get back to you but
that's it for basic user inputs we'll
use this information in future videos so
make sure you practice with this in the
meantime thank you for watching guys
I'll see you in the next video have a
great week trade green good luck with
your coding take it easy guys goodbye
you