NetLogo Dictionary

abs1.0

abs number

Reports the absolute value of number.

show abs -7
=> 7
show abs 5
=> 5

acos1.3

acos number

Reports the arc cosine (inverse cosine) of the given number. The input must be in the range -1 to 1. The result is in degrees, and lies in the range 0 to 180.

all?4.0

all? agentset [reporter]

Reports true if all of the agents in the agentset report true for the given reporter. Otherwise reports false as soon as a counterexample is found.

If the agentset is empty, reports true.

The reporter must report a boolean value for every agent (either true or false), otherwise an error occurs.

if all? turtles [color = red]
  [ show "every turtle is red!" ]

See also any?.

and1.0

boolean1 and boolean2

Reports true if both boolean1 and boolean2 are true. Otherwise reports false.

Note that if boolean1 is false, then boolean2 will not be run (since it can't affect the result).

if (pxcor > 0) and (pycor > 0)
  [ set pcolor blue ]  ;; the upper-right quadrant of
                       ;; patches turn blue

any?2.0

any? agentset

Reports true if the given agentset is non-empty, false otherwise.

Equivalent to "count agentset > 0", but more efficient (and arguably more readable).

if any? turtles with [color = red]
  [ show "at least one turtle is red!" ]

Note: nobody is not an agentset. You only get nobody back in situations where you were expecting a single agent, not a whole agentset. If any? gets nobody as input, an error results.

See also all?, nobody.

approximate-hsb4.0

approximate-hsb hue saturation brightness

Reports a number in the range 0 to 140, not including 140 itself, that represents the given color, specified in the HSB spectrum, in NetLogo's color space.

The first value (hue) should be in the range of 0 to 360, the second and third (saturation and brightness) in the range between 0 and 100.

The color reported may be only an approximation, since the NetLogo color space does not include all possible colors.

show approximate-hsb 0 0 0
=> 0  ;; (black)
show approximate-hsb 180 57.143 76.863
=> 85 ;; (cyan)

See also extract-hsb, approximate-rgb, extract-rgb.

approximate-rgb4.0

approximate-rgb red green blue

Reports a number in the range 0 to 140, not including 140 itself, that represents the given color, specified in the RGB spectrum, in NetLogo's color space.

All three inputs should be in the range 0 to 255.

The color reported may be only an approximation, since the NetLogo color space does not include all possible colors. (See approximate-hsb for a description of what parts of the HSB color space NetLogo colors cover; this is difficult to characterize in RGB terms.)

show approximate-rgb 0 0 0
=> 0  ;; black
show approximate-rgb 0 255 255
=> 85.2 ;; cyan

See also extract-rgb, approximate-hsb, and extract-hsb.

Arithmetic Operators +1.0 *1.0 -1.0 /1.0 ^1.0 <1.0 >1.0 =1.0 !=1.0 <=1.0 >=1.0

All of these operators take two inputs, and all act as "infix operators" (going between the two inputs, as in standard mathematical use). NetLogo correctly supports order of operations for infix operators.

The operators work as follows: + is addition, * is multiplication, - is subtraction, / is division, ^ is exponentiation, < is less than, > is greater than, = is equal to, != is not equal to, <= is less than or equal, >= is greater than or equal.

Note that the subtraction operator (-) always takes two inputs unless you put parentheses around it, in which case it can take one input. For example, to take the negative of x, write (- x), with the parentheses.

All of the comparison operators also work on strings.

All of the comparison operators work on agents. Turtles are compared by who number. Patches are compared top to bottom left to right, so patch 0 10 is less than patch 0 9 and patch 9 0 is less than patch 10 0. Links are ordered by end points and in case of a tie by breed. So link 0 9 is before link 1 10 as the end1 is smaller, and link 0 8 is less than link 0 9. If there are multiple breeds of links unbreeded links will come before breeded links of the same end points and breeded links will be sorted in the order they are declared in the Code tab.

Agentsets can be tested for equality or inequality. Two agentsets are equal if they are the same type (turtle or patch) and contain the same agents.

If you are not sure how NetLogo will interpret your code, you should add parentheses.

show 5 * 6 + 6 / 3
=> 32
show 5 * (6 + 6) / 3
=> 20

Many extension objects may be tested for equality and inequality using = and !=. For instance, the array, matrix, and table objects returned by their respective extensions may be compared for equality / inequality. Extension objects may not be tested using <, >, <=, or >=.

asin1.3

asin number

Reports the arc sine (inverse sine) of the given number. The input must be in the range -1 to 1. The result is in degrees, and lies in the range -90 to 90.

ask1.0

ask agentset [commands] ask agent [commands]

The specified agent or agentset runs the given commands. Because agentset members are always read in a random order, when ask is used with an agentset each agent will take its turn in a random order. See Agentsets for more information.

ask turtles [ fd 1 ]
  ;; all turtles move forward one step
ask patches [ set pcolor red ]
  ;; all patches turn red
ask turtle 4 [ rt 90 ]
  ;; only the turtle with id 4 turns right

Note: only the observer can ask all turtles or all patches. This prevents you from inadvertently having all turtles ask all turtles or all patches ask all patches, which is a common mistake to make if you're not careful about which agents will run the code you are writing.

Note: Only the agents that are in the agentset at the time the ask begins run the commands.

ask-concurrent4.0

ask-concurrent agentset [commands]

This primitive exists only for backwards compatibility. We don't recommend using it new models.

The agents in the given agentset run the given commands, using a turn-taking mechanism to produce simulated concurrency. See the Ask-Concurrent section of the Programming Guide for details on how this works.

Note: Only the agents that are in the agentset at the time the ask begins run the commands.

See also without-interruption.

at-points1.0

agentset at-points [[x1 y1] [x2 y2] ...]

Reports a subset of the given agentset that includes only the agents on the patches at the given coordinates (relative to this agent). The coordinates are specified as a list of two-item lists, where the two items are the x and y offsets.

If the caller is the observer, then the points are measured relative to the origin, in other words, the points are taken as absolute patch coordinates.

If the caller is a turtle, the points are measured relative to the turtle's exact location, and not from the center of the patch under the turtle.

ask turtles at-points [[2 4] [1 2] [10 15]]
  [ fd 1 ]  ;; only the turtles on the patches at the
            ;; coordinates (2,4), (1,2) and (10,15),
            ;; relative to the caller, move

atan1.0

atan x y

Converts x and y offsets to a turtle heading in degrees (from 0 to 360).

Note that this version of atan is designed to conform to the geometry of the NetLogo world, where a heading of 0 is straight up, 90 is to the right, and so on clockwise around the circle. (Normally in geometry an angle of 0 is right, 90 is up, and so on, counterclockwise around the circle, and atan would be defined accordingly.)

When y is 0: if x is positive, it reports 90; if x is negative, it reports 270; if x is zero, you get an error.

show atan 1 -1
=> 135
show atan -1 1
=> 315
crt 1 [ set heading 30  fd 1  print atan xcor ycor ]
=> 30

In the final example, note that the result of atan equals the turtle's heading.

If you ever need to convert a turtle heading (obtained with atan or otherwise) to a normal mathematical angle, the following should be helpful:

to-report heading-to-angle [ h ]
  report (90 - h) mod 360
end

autoplot?1.0

autoplot?

Reports true if auto-plotting is on for the current plot, false otherwise.

auto-plot-off1.0 auto-plot-on1.0

auto-plot-off auto-plot-on

This pair of commands is used to control the NetLogo feature of auto-plotting in the current plot. Auto-plotting will automatically update the x and y axes of the plot whenever the current pen exceeds these boundaries. It is useful when wanting to show all plotted values in the current plot, regardless of the current plot ranges.

back1.0 bk1.0

back number

The turtle moves backward by number steps. (If number is negative, the turtle moves forward.)

Turtles using this primitive can move a maximum of one unit per time increment. So bk 0.5 and bk 1 both take one unit of time, but bk 3 takes three.

If the turtle cannot move backward number steps because it is not permitted by the current topology the turtle will complete as many steps of 1 as it can and stop.

See also forward, jump, can-move?.

base-colors4.0

base-colors

Reports a list of the 14 basic NetLogo hues.

print base-colors
=> [5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75 85 95 105 115 125 135]
ask turtles [ set color one-of base-colors ]
;; each turtle turns a random base color
ask turtles [ set color one-of remove gray base-colors ]
;; each turtle turns a random base color except for gray

beep2.1

beep

Emits a beep. Note that the beep sounds immediately, so several beep commands in close succession may produce only one audible sound.

Example:

beep                       ;; emits one beep
repeat 3 [ beep ]          ;; emits 3 beeps at once,
                           ;; so you only hear one sound
repeat 3 [ beep wait 0.1 ] ;; produces 3 beeps in succession,
                           ;; separated by 1/10th of a second

When running headless, this command has no effect.

behaviorspace-experiment-name5.2

behaviorspace-experiment-name

Reports the current experiment name in the current experiment.

If no BehaviorSpace experiment is running, reports "".

behaviorspace-run-number4.1.1

behaviorspace-run-number

Reports the current run number in the current BehaviorSpace experiment, starting at 1.

If no BehaviorSpace experiment is running, reports 0.

both-ends4.0

both-ends

Reports the agentset of the 2 nodes connected by this link.

crt 2
ask turtle 0 [ create-link-with turtle 1 ]
ask link 0 1 [
  ask both-ends [ set color red ] ;; turtles 0 and 1 both turn red
]

breed

breed

This is a built-in turtle and link variable. It holds the agentset of all turtles or links of the same breed as this turtle or link. (For turtles or links that do not have any particular breed, this is the turtles agentset of all turtles or the links agentset of all links respectively.)

You can set this variable to change a turtle or link's breed. (When a turtle changes breeds, its shape is reset to the default shape for that breed. See set-default-shape.)

See also breed, directed-link-breed, undirected-link-breed

Example:

breed [cats cat]
breed [dogs dog]
;; turtle code:
if breed = cats [ show "meow!" ]
set breed dogs
show "woof!"

directed-link-breed [ roads road ]
;; link code
if breed = roads [ set color gray ]

breed

breed [<breeds> <breed>]

This keyword, like the globals, turtles-own, and patches-own keywords, can only be used at the beginning of the Code tab, before any procedure definitions. It defines a breed. The first input defines the name of the agentset associated with the breed. The second input defines the name of a single member of the breed.

Any turtle of the given breed:

• is part of the agentset named by the breed name
• has its breed built-in variable set to that agentset

Most often, the agentset is used in conjunction with ask to give commands to only the turtles of a particular breed.

breed [mice mouse]
breed [frogs frog]
to setup
  clear-all
  create-mice 50
  ask mice [ set color white ]
  create-frogs 50
  ask frogs [ set color green ]
  show [breed] of one-of mice    ;; prints mice
  show [breed] of one-of frogs   ;; prints frogs
end

show mouse 1
;; prints (mouse 1)
show frog 51
;; prints (frog 51)
show turtle 51
;; prints (frog 51)

See also globals, patches-own, turtles-own, <breeds>-own, create-<breeds>, <breeds>-at, <breeds>-here.

but-first1.0 butfirst1.0 bf1.0 but-last1.0 butlast1.0 bl1.0

but-first list but-first string but-last list but-last string

When used on a list, but-first reports all of the list items of list except the first, and but-last reports all of the list items of list except the last.

On strings, but-first and but-last report a shorter string omitting the first or last character of the original string.

;; mylist is [2 4 6 5 8 12]
set mylist but-first mylist
;; mylist is now [4 6 5 8 12]
set mylist but-last mylist
;; mylist is now [4 6 5 8]
show but-first "string"
;; prints "tring"
show but-last "string"
;; prints "strin"

can-move?3.1

can-move? distance

Reports true if this turtle can move distance in the direction it is facing without violating the topology; reports false otherwise.

It is equivalent to:

          patch-ahead distance != nobody

carefully2.1

carefully [ commands1 ] [ commands2 ]

Runs commands1. If a runtime error occurs inside commands1, NetLogo won't stop and alert the user that an error occurred. It will suppress the error and run commands2 instead.

The error-message reporter can be used in commands2 to find out what error was suppressed in commands1. See error-message.

carefully [ print one-of [1 2 3] ] [ print error-message ]
=> 3
observer> carefully [ print one-of [] ] [ print error-message ]
=> ONE-OF got an empty list as input.

ceiling1.0

ceiling number

Reports the smallest integer greater than or equal to number.

show ceiling 4.5
=> 5
show ceiling -4.5
=> -4

See also floor, round, precision.

date-and-time3.0

date-and-time

Reports a string containing the current date and time. The format is shown below. All fields are fixed width, so they are always at the same locations in the string. The potential resolution of the clock is milliseconds. (Whether you get resolution that high in practice may vary from system to system, depending on the capabilities of the underlying Java Virtual Machine.)

show date-and-time
=> "01:19:36.685 PM 19-Sep-2002"

die1.0

die

The turtle or link dies.

if xcor > 20 [ die ]
;; all turtles with xcor greater than 20 die
ask links with [color = blue] [ die ]
;; all the blue links will die

A dead agent ceases to exist. The effects of this include:

• The agent will not execute any further code. So if you write ask turtles [ die print "last words?" ], no last words will be printed, because the turtles are already dead before they have a chance to print anything.
• The agent will disappear from any agentsets it was in, reducing the size of those agentsets by one.
• Any variable that was storing the agent will now instead have nobody in it. So for example let x one-of turtles ask x [ die ] print x prints nobody.
• If the dead agent was a turtle, every link connected to it also dies.
• If the observer was watching or following the agent, the observer's perspective resets, as if reset-perspective had been run.

See also: clear-turtles clear-links

diffuse1.0

diffuse patch-variable number

Tells each patch to give equal shares of (number * 100) percent of the value of patch-variable to its eight neighboring patches. number should be between 0 and 1. Regardless of topology the sum of patch-variable will be conserved across the world. (If a patch has fewer than eight neighbors, each neighbor still gets an eighth share; the patch keeps any leftover shares.)

Note that this is an observer command only, even though you might expect it to be a patch command. (The reason is that it acts on all the patches at once -- patch commands act on individual patches.)

diffuse chemical 0.5
;; each patch diffuses 50% of its variable
;; chemical to its neighboring 8 patches. Thus,
;; each patch gets 1/8 of 50% of the chemical
;; from each neighboring patch.)

diffuse41.0

diffuse4 patch-variable number

Like diffuse, but only diffuses to the four neighboring patches (to the north, south, east, and west), not to the diagonal neighbors.

diffuse4 chemical 0.5
;; each patch diffuses 50% of its variable
;; chemical to its neighboring 4 patches. Thus,
;; each patch gets 1/4 of 50% of the chemical
;; from each neighboring patch.)

directed-link-breed

directed-link-breed [<link-breeds> <link-breed>]

This keyword, like the globals and breeds keywords, can only be used at the beginning of the Code tab, before any procedure definitions. It defines a directed link breed. Links of a particular breed are always all directed or all undirected The first input defines the name of the agentset associated with the link breed. The second input defines the name of a single member of the breed. Directed links can be created using create-link(s)-to, and create-link(s)-from, but not create-link(s)-with

Any link of the given link breed:

• is part of the agentset named by the link breed name
• has its built-in variable breed set to that agentset
• is directed or undirected as declared by the keyword

Most often, the agentset is used in conjunction with ask to give commands to only the links of a particular breed.

directed-link-breed [streets street]
directed-link-breed [highways highway]
to setup
  clear-all
  crt 2
  ;; create a link from turtle 0 to turtle 1
  ask turtle 0 [ create-street-to turtle 1 ]
  ;; create a link from turtle 1 to turtle 0
  ask turtle 0 [ create-highway-from turtle 1 ]
end

ask turtle 0 [ show one-of my-in-links ]
;; prints (street 0 1)
ask turtle 0 [ show one-of my-out-links ]
;; prints (highway 1 0)

See also breed, undirected-link-breed

display1.0

display

Causes the view to be updated immediately. (Exception: if the user is using the speed slider to fast-forward the model, then the update may be skipped.)

Also undoes the effect of the no-display command, so that if view updates were suspended by that command, they will resume.

no-display
ask turtles [ jump 10 set color blue set size 5 ]
display
;; turtles move, change color, and grow, with none of
;; their intermediate states visible to the user, only
;; their final state

Even if no-display was not used, "display" can still be useful, because ordinarily NetLogo is free to skip some view updates, so that fewer total updates take place, so that models run faster. This command lets you force a view update, so whatever changes have taken place in the world are visible to the user.

ask turtles [ set color red ]
display
ask turtles [ set color blue]
;; turtles turn red, then blue; use of "display" forces
;; red turtles to appear briefly

Note that display and no-display operate independently of the switch in the view control strip that freezes the view.

See also no-display.

distance1.0

distance agent

Reports the distance from this agent to the given turtle or patch.

The distance to or a from a patch is measured from the center of the patch. Turtles and patches use the wrapped distance (around the edges of the world) if wrapping is allowed by the topology and the wrapped distance is shorter.

ask turtles [ show max-one-of turtles [distance myself] ]
;; each turtle prints the turtle farthest from itself

distancexy1.0

distancexy x y

Reports the distance from this agent to the point (x, y).

The distance from a patch is measured from the center of the patch. Turtles and patches use the wrapped distance (around the edges of the world) if wrapping is allowed by the topology and the wrapped distance is shorter.

if (distancexy 0 0) > 10
  [ set color green ]
;; all turtles more than 10 units from
;; the center of the world turn green.

downhill1.0 downhill41.0

downhill patch-variable downhill4 patch-variable

Moves the turtle to the neighboring patch with the lowest value for patch-variable. If no neighboring patch has a smaller value than the current patch, the turtle stays put. If there are multiple patches with the same lowest value, the turtle picks one randomly. Non-numeric values are ignored.

downhill considers the eight neighboring patches; downhill4 only considers the four neighbors.

Equivalent to the following code (assumes variable values are numeric):

          move-to patch-here  ;; go to patch center
          let p min-one-of neighbors [patch-variable]  ;; or neighbors4
          if [patch-variable] of p < patch-variable [
          face p
          move-to p
          ]

Note that the turtle always ends up on a patch center and has a heading that is a multiple of 45 (downhill) or 90 (downhill4).

See also uphill, uphill4.

dx1.0 dy1.0

dx dy

Reports the x-increment or y-increment (the amount by which the turtle's xcor or ycor would change) if the turtle were to take one step forward in its current heading.

Note: dx is simply the sine of the turtle's heading, and dy is simply the cosine. (If this is the reverse of what you expected, it's because in NetLogo a heading of 0 is north and 90 is east, which is the reverse of how angles are usually defined in geometry.)

Note: In earlier versions of NetLogo, these primitives were used in many situations where the new patch-ahead primitive is now more appropriate.

empty?1.0

empty? list empty? string

Reports true if the given list or string is empty, false otherwise.

Note: the empty list is written []. The empty string is written "".

end

end

Used to conclude a procedure. See to and to-report.

end14.0

end1

This is a built-in link variable. It indicates the first endpoint (turtle) of a link. For directed links this will always be the source for undirected links it will always be the turtle with the lower who number. You cannot set end1.

crt 2
ask turtle 0
[ create-link-to turtle 1 ]
ask links
[ show end1 ] ;; shows turtle 0

end24.0

end2

This is a built-in link variable. It indicates the second endpoint (turtle) of a link. For directed links this will always be the destination for undirected links it will always be the turtle with the higher who number. You cannot set end2.

crt 2
ask turtle 1
[ create-link-with turtle 0 ]
ask links
[ show end2 ] ;; shows turtle 1

error5.0

error value

Causes a runtime error to occur.

The given value is converted to a string (if it isn't one already) and used as the error message.

See also error-message, carefully.

error-message2.1

error-message

Reports a string describing the error that was suppressed by carefully.

This reporter can only be used in the second block of a carefully command.

See also error, carefully.

every1.0

every number [ commands ]

Runs the given commands only if it's been more than number seconds since the last time this agent ran them in this context. Otherwise, the commands are skipped.

By itself, every doesn't make commands run over and over again. You need to use every inside a loop, or inside a forever button, if you want the commands run over and over again. every only limits how often the commands run.

Above, "in this context" means during the same ask (or button press or command typed in the Command Center). So it doesn't make sense to write ask turtles [ every 0.5 [ ... ] ], because when the ask finishes the turtles will all discard their timers for the "every". The correct usage is shown below.

every 0.5 [ ask turtles [ fd 1 ] ]
;; twice a second the turtles will move forward 1
every 2 [ set index index + 1 ]
;; every 2 seconds index is incremented

See also wait.

exp1.0

exp number

Reports the value of e raised to the number power.

Note: This is the same as e ^ number.

export-view3.0 export-interface2.0 export-output1.0 export-plot1.0 export-all-plots1.2.1 export-world1.0

export-view filename export-interface filename export-output filename export-plot plotname filename export-all-plots filename export-world filename

export-view writes the current contents of the current view to an external file given by the string filename. The file is saved in PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format, so it is recommended to supply a filename ending in ".png".

export-interface is similar, but for the whole interface tab.

Note that export-view still works when running NetLogo in headless mode, but export-interface doesn't.

export-output writes the contents of the model's output area to an external file given by the string filename. (If the model does not have a separate output area, the output portion of the Command Center is used.)

export-plot writes the x and y values of all points plotted by all the plot pens in the plot given by the string plotname to an external file given by the string filename. If a pen is in bar mode (mode 0) and the y value of the point plotted is greater than 0, the upper-left corner point of the bar will be exported. If the y value is less than 0, then the lower-left corner point of the bar will be exported.

export-all-plots writes every plot in the current model to an external file given by the string filename. Each plot is identical in format to the output of export-plot.

export-world writes the values of all variables, both built-in and user-defined, including all observer, turtle, and patch variables, the drawing, the contents of the output area if one exists, the contents of any plots and the state of the random number generator, to an external file given by the string filename. (The result file can be read back into NetLogo with the import-world primitive.) export-world does not save the state of open files.

export-plot, export-all-plots and export-world save files in in plain-text, "comma-separated values" (.csv) format. CSV files can be read by most popular spreadsheet and database programs as well as any text editor.

If you wish to export to a file in a location other than the model's location, you should include the full path to the file you wish to export. (Use the forward-slash "/" as the folder separator.)

Note that the functionality of these primitives is also available directly from NetLogo's File menu.

export-world "fire.csv"
;; exports the state of the model to the file fire.csv
;; located in the NetLogo folder
export-plot "Temperature" "c:/My Documents/plot.csv"
;; exports the plot named
;; "Temperature" to the file plot.csv located in
;; the C:\My Documents folder
export-all-plots "c:/My Documents/plots.csv"
;; exports all plots to the file plots.csv
;; located in the C:\My Documents folder

If the file already exists, it is overwritten. To avoid this you may wish to use some method of generating fresh names. Examples:

export-world user-new-file
export-world (word "results " date-and-time ".csv") ;; Colon characters in the time cause errors on Windows
export-world (word "results " random-float 1.0 ".csv")

extensions

extensions [name ...]

Allows the model to use primitives from the extensions with the given names. See the Extensions guide for more information.

extract-hsb1.0

extract-hsb color

Reports a list of three values, the first (hue) in the range of 0 to 360, the second and third (brightness and saturation) in the range of 0 to 100.

The given color can either be a NetLogo color in the range 0 to 140, not including 140 itself, or an RGB list of three values in the range 0 to 255 representing the levels of red, green, and blue.

show extract-hsb cyan
=> [180 57.143 76.863]
show extract-hsb red
=> [3.103 80.93 84.314]
show extract-hsb [255 0 0]
=> [0 100 100]

See also approximate-hsb, approximate-rgb, extract-rgb.

extract-rgb1.0

extract-rgb color

Reports a list of three values in the range 0 to 255 representing the levels of red, green, and blue, respectively, of the given NetLogo color in the range 0 to 140, not including 140 itself.

show extract-rgb red
=> [215 50 41]
show extract-rgb cyan
=> [84 196 196]

See also approximate-rgb, approximate-hsb, extract-hsb.

face3.0

face agent

Set the caller's heading towards agent.

If wrapping is allowed by the topology and the wrapped distance (around the edges of the world) is shorter, face will use the wrapped path.

If the caller and the agent are at the exact same position, the caller's heading won't change.

facexy3.0

facexy x y

Set the caller's heading towards the point (x,y).

If wrapping is allowed by the topology and the wrapped distance (around the edges of the world) is shorter and wrapping is allowed, facexy will use the wrapped path.

If the caller is on the point (x,y), the caller's heading won't change.

file-at-end?2.0

file-at-end?

Reports true when there are no more characters left to read in from the current file (that was opened previously with file-open). Otherwise, reports false.

file-open "my-file.txt"
print file-at-end?
=> false ;; Can still read in more characters
print file-read-line
=> This is the last line in file
print file-at-end?
=> true ;; We reached the end of the file

See also file-open, file-close-all.

file-close2.0

file-close

Closes a file that has been opened previously with file-open.

Note that this and file-close-all are the only ways to restart to the beginning of an opened file or to switch between file modes.

If no file is open, does nothing.

See also file-close-all, file-open.

file-close-all2.0

file-close-all

Closes all files (if any) that have been opened previously with file-open.

See also file-close, file-open.

file-delete2.0

file-delete string

Deletes the file specified as string

string must be an existing file with writable permission by the user. Also, the file cannot be open. Use the command file-close to close an opened file before deletion.

Note that the string can either be a file name or an absolute file path. If it is a file name, it looks in whatever the current directory is. This can be changed using the command set-current-directory. It is defaulted to the model's directory.

file-exists?2.0

file-exists? string

Reports true if string is the name of an existing file on the system. Otherwise it reports false.

Note that the string can either be a file name or an absolute file path. If it is a file name, it looks in whatever the current directory is. This can be changed using the command set-current-directory. It defaults to to the model's directory.

file-flush4.0

file-flush

Forces file updates to be written to disk. When you use file-write or other output commands, the values may not be immediately written to disk. This improves the performance of the file output commands. Closing a file ensures that all output is written to disk.

Sometimes you need to ensure that data is written to disk without closing the file. For example, you could be using a file to communicate with another program on your machine and want the other program to be able to see the output immediately.

file-open2.0

file-open string

This command will interpret string as a path name to a file and open the file. You may then use the reporters file-read, file-read-line, and file-read-characters to read in from the file, or file-write, file-print, file-type, or file-show to write out to the file.

Note that you can only open a file for reading or writing but not both. The next file i/o primitive you use after this command dictates which mode the file is opened in. To switch modes, you need to close the file using file-close.

Also, the file must already exist if opening a file in reading mode.

When opening a file in writing mode, all new data will be appended to the end of the original file. If there is no original file, a new blank file will be created in its place. (You must have write permission in the file's directory.) (If you don't want to append, but want to replace the file's existing contents, use file-delete to delete it first, perhaps inside a carefully if you're not sure whether it already exists.)

Note that the string can either be a file name or an absolute file path. If it is a file name, it looks in whatever the current directory is. This can be changed using the command set-current-directory. It is defaulted to the model's directory.

file-open "my-file-in.txt"
print file-read-line
=> First line in file ;; File is in reading mode
file-open "C:\\NetLogo\\my-file-out.txt"
;; assuming Windows machine
file-print "Hello World" ;; File is in writing mode

Opening a file does not close previously opened files. You can use file-open to switch back and forth between multiple open files.

See also file-close See also file-close-all.

file-print2.0

file-print value

Prints value to an opened file, followed by a carriage return.

This agent is not printed before the value, unlike file-show.

Note that this command is the file i/o equivalent of print, and file-open needs to be called before this command can be used.

See also file-show, file-type, file-write, and Output (programming guide).

file-read2.0

file-read

This reporter will read in the next constant from the opened file and interpret it as if it had been typed in the Command Center. It reports the resulting value. The result may be a number, list, string, boolean, or the special value nobody.

Whitespace separates the constants. Each call to file-read will skip past both leading and trailing whitespace.

Note that strings need to have quotes around them. Use the command file-write to have quotes included.

Also note that the file-open command must be called before this reporter can be used, and there must be data remaining in the file. Use the reporter file-at-end? to determine if you are at the end of the file.

file-open "my-file.data"
print file-read + 5
;; Next value is the number 1
=> 6
print length file-read
;; Next value is the list [1 2 3 4]
=> 4

Note: This primitive is not compatible with NetLogo Web. If you wish to read the contents of a file with the same code and the same behavior in both NetLogo and NetLogo Web, see fetch:user-file-async.

See also file-open and file-write.

file-read-characters2.0

file-read-characters number

Reports the given number of characters from an opened file as a string. If there are fewer than that many characters left, it will report all of the remaining characters.

Note that it will return every character including newlines and spaces.

Also note that the file-open command must be called before this reporter can be used, and there must be data remaining in the file. Use the reporter file-at-end? to determine if you are at the end of the file.

file-open "my-file.txt"
print file-read-characters 5
;; Current line in file is "Hello World"
=> Hello

See also file-open.

file-read-line2.0

file-read-line

Reads the next line in the file and reports it as a string. It determines the end of the file by a carriage return, an end of file character or both in a row. It does not return the line terminator characters.

Also note that the file-open command must be called before this reporter can be used, and there must be data remaining in the file. Use the reporter file-at-end? to determine if you are at the end of the file.

file-open "my-file.txt"
print file-read-line
=> Hello World

See also file-open.

file-show2.0

file-show value

Prints value to an opened file, preceded by this agent agent, and followed by a carriage return. (This agent is included to help you keep track of what agents are producing which lines of output.) Also, all strings have their quotes included similar to file-write.

Note that this command is the file i/o equivalent of show, and file-open needs to be called before this command can be used.

See also file-print, file-type, file-write, and Output (programming guide).

file-type2.0

file-type value

Prints value to an opened file, not followed by a carriage return (unlike file-print and file-show). The lack of a carriage return allows you to print several values on the same line.

This agent is not printed before the value. unlike file-show.

Note that this command is the file i/o equivalent of type, and file-open needs to be called before this command can be used.

See also file-print, file-show, file-write, and Output (programming guide).

file-write2.0

file-write value

This command will output value, which can be a number, string, list, boolean, or nobody to an opened file, not followed by a carriage return (unlike file-print and file-show).

This agent is not printed before the value, unlike file-show. Its output also includes quotes around strings and is prepended with a space. It will output the value in such a manner that file-read will be able to interpret it.

Note that this command is the file i/o equivalent of write, and file-open needs to be called before this command can be used.

file-open "locations.txt"
ask turtles
  [ file-write xcor file-write ycor ]

See also file-print, file-show, file-type, and Output (programming guide).

filter1.3

filter reporter list

Reports a list containing only those items of list for which the reporter reports true -- in other words, the items satisfying the given condition. reporter may be an anonymous reporter or the name of a reporter.

show filter is-number? [1 "2" 3]
=> [1 3]
show filter [ i -> i < 3 ] [1 3 2]
=> [1 2]
show filter [ s -> first s != "t" ] ["hi" "there" "everyone"]
=> ["hi" "everyone"]

See also map, reduce, -> (anonymous procedure).

first1.0

first list first string

On a list, reports the first (0th) item in the list.

On a string, reports a one-character string containing only the first character of the original string.

floor1.0

floor number

Reports the largest integer less than or equal to number.

show floor 4.5
=> 4
show floor -4.5
=> -5

See also ceiling, round, precision.

follow3.0

follow turtle

Similar to ride, but, in the 3D view, the observer's vantage point is behind and above turtle.

The observer may only watch or follow a single subject. Calling follow will alter the highlight created by prior calls to watch and watch-me, highlighting the followed turtle instead.

See also follow-me, ride, reset-perspective, watch, subject.

follow-me3.0

follow-me

Asks the observer to follow this turtle.

The observer may only watch or follow a single subject. Calling follow-me will remove the highlight created by prior calls to watch and watch-me, highlighting this turtle instead.

See also follow.

foreach1.3

foreach list command (foreach list1 ... command)

With a single list, runs the command for each item of list. command may be the name of a command, or an anonymous command created with ->.

foreach [1.1 2.2 2.6] show
=> 1.1
=> 2.2
=> 2.6
foreach [1.1 2.2 2.6] [ x -> show (word x " -> " round x) ]
=> 1.1 -> 1
=> 2.2 -> 2
=> 2.6 -> 3

With multiple lists, runs command for each group of items from each list. So, they are run once for the first items, once for the second items, and so on. All the lists must be the same length.

Some examples make this clearer:

(foreach [1 2 3] [2 4 6]
   [ [a b] -> show word "the sum is: " (a + b) ])
=> "the sum is: 3"
=> "the sum is: 6"
=> "the sum is: 9"
(foreach list (turtle 1) (turtle 2) [3 4]
  [ [the-turtle num-steps] -> ask the-turtle [ fd num-steps ] ])
;; turtle 1 moves forward 3 patches
;; turtle 2 moves forward 4 patches

See also map, -> (anonymous procedure).

forward1.0 fd1.0

forward number

The turtle moves forward by number steps, one step at a time. (If number is negative, the turtle moves backward.)

fd 10 is equivalent to repeat 10 [ jump 1 ]. fd 10.5 is equivalent to repeat 10 [ jump 1 ] jump 0.5.

If the turtle cannot move forward number steps because it is not permitted by the current topology the turtle will complete as many steps of 1 as it can, then stop.

See also jump, can-move?.

fput1.0

fput item list

Adds item to the beginning of a list and reports the new list.

;; suppose mylist is [5 7 10]
set mylist fput 2 mylist
;; mylist is now [2 5 7 10]

globals

globals [var1 ...]

This keyword, like the breed, <breeds>-own, patches-own, and turtles-own keywords, can only be used at the beginning of a program, before any function definitions. It defines new global variables. Global variables are "global" because they are accessible by all agents and can be used anywhere in a model.

Most often, globals is used to define variables or constants that need to be used in many parts of the program.

hatch1.0

hatch number [ commands ] hatch-<breeds> number [ commands ]

This turtle creates number new turtles. Each new turtle inherits of all its variables, including its location, from its parent. (Exceptions: each new turtle will have a new who number, and it may be of a different breed than its parent if the hatch-<breeds> form is used.)

The new turtles then run commands. You can use the commands to give the new turtles different colors, headings, locations, or whatever. (The new turtles are created all at once, then run one at a time, in random order.)

If the hatch-<breeds> form is used, the new turtles are created as members of the given breed. Otherwise, the new turtles are the same breed as their parent.

hatch 1 [ lt 45 fd 1 ]
;; this turtle creates one new turtle,
;; and the child turns and moves away
hatch-sheep 1 [ set color black ]
;; this turtle creates a new turtle
;; of the sheep breed

See also create-turtles, sprout.

heading

heading

This is a built-in turtle variable. It indicates the direction the turtle is facing. This is a number greater than or equal to 0 and less than 360. 0 is north, 90 is east, and so on. You can set this variable to make a turtle turn.

See also right, left, dx, dy.

Example:

set heading 45      ;; turtle is now facing northeast
set heading heading + 10 ;; same effect as "rt 10"

hidden?

hidden?

This is a built-in turtle or link variable. It holds a boolean (true or false) value indicating whether the turtle or link is currently hidden (i.e., invisible). You can set this variable to make a turtle or link disappear or reappear.

See also hide-turtle, show-turtle, hide-link, show-link

Example:

set hidden? not hidden?
;; if turtle was showing, it hides, and if it was hiding,
;; it reappears

hide-link4.0

hide-link

The link makes itself invisible.

Note: This command is equivalent to setting the link variable "hidden?" to true.

See also show-link.

hide-turtle1.0 ht1.0

hide-turtle

The turtle makes itself invisible.

Note: This command is equivalent to setting the turtle variable "hidden?" to true.

See also show-turtle.

histogram1.0

histogram list

Histograms the values in the given list

Draws a histogram showing the frequency distribution of the values in the list. The heights of the bars in the histogram represent the numbers of values in each subrange.

Before the histogram is drawn, first any previous points drawn by the current plot pen are removed.

Any non-numeric values in the list are ignored.

The histogram is drawn on the current plot using the current plot pen and pen color. Auto scaling does not affect a histogram's horizontal range, so set-plot-x-range should be used to control the range, and the pen interval can then be set (either directly with set-plot-pen-interval, or indirectly via set-histogram-num-bars) to control how many bars that range is split up into.

Be sure that if you want the histogram drawn with bars that the current pen is in bar mode (mode 1).

For histogramming purposes the plot's X range is not considered to include the maximum X value. Values equal to the maximum X will fall outside of the histogram's range.

histogram [color] of turtles
;; draws a histogram showing how many turtles there are
;; of each color

home1.0

home

This turtle moves to the origin (0,0). Equivalent to setxy 0 0.

hsb1.0

hsb hue saturation brightness

Reports a RGB list when given three numbers describing an HSB color. Hue, saturation, and brightness are integers in the range 0-360, 0-100, 0-100 respectively. The RGB list contains three integers in the range of 0-255.

See also rgb

hubnet-broadcast1.1

hubnet-broadcast tag-name value

This broadcasts value from NetLogo to the interface element with the name tag-name on the clients.

See the HubNet Authoring Guide for details and instructions.

hubnet-broadcast-clear-output4.1

hubnet-broadcast-clear-output

This clears all messages printed to the text area on every client.

See also: hubnet-broadcast-message, hubnet-send-clear-output

hubnet-broadcast-message4.1

hubnet-broadcast-message value

This prints the value in the text area on each client. This is the same functionality as the "Broadcast Message" button in the HubNet Control Center.

See also: hubnet-send-message

hubnet-clear-override4.1 hubnet-clear-overrides4.1

hubnet-clear-override client agent-or-set variable-name hubnet-clear-overrides client

Remove overrides from the override list on client. hubnet-clear-override removes only the override for the specified variable for the specified agent or agentset. hubnet-clear-overrides removes all overrides from the specified client.

See also: hubnet-send-override

hubnet-clients-list5.0

hubnet-clients-list

Reports a list containing the names of all the clients currently connected to the HubNet server.

hubnet-enter-message?1.2.1

hubnet-enter-message?

Reports true if a new client just entered the simulation. Reports false otherwise. hubnet-message-source will contain the user name of the client that just logged on.

See the HubNet Authoring Guide for details and instructions.

hubnet-exit-message?1.2.1

hubnet-exit-message?

Reports true if a client just exited the simulation. Reports false otherwise. hubnet-message-source will contain the user name of the client that just logged off.

See the HubNet Authoring Guide for details and instructions.

hubnet-fetch-message1.1

hubnet-fetch-message

If there is any new data sent by the clients, this retrieves the next piece of data, so that it can be accessed by hubnet-message, hubnet-message-source, and hubnet-message-tag. This will cause an error if there is no new data from the clients.

See the HubNet Authoring Guide for details.

hubnet-kick-client5.0

hubnet-kick-client client-name

Kicks the client with the given client-name. This is equivalent to clicking the client name in the HubNet Control Center and pressing the Kick button.

hubnet-kick-all-clients5.0

hubnet-kick-all-clients

Kicks out all currently connected HubNet clients. This is equivalent to selecting all clients in the HubNet Control Center and pressing the Kick button.

hubnet-message1.1

hubnet-message

Reports the message retrieved by hubnet-fetch-message.

See the HubNet Authoring Guide for details.

hubnet-message-source1.1

hubnet-message-source

Reports the name of the client that sent the message retrieved by hubnet-fetch-message.

See the HubNet Authoring Guide for details.

hubnet-message-tag1.1

hubnet-message-tag

Reports the tag that is associated with the data that was retrieved by hubnet-fetch-message. The tag will be one of the Display Names of the interface elements in the client interface.

See the HubNet Authoring Guide for details.

hubnet-message-waiting?1.1

hubnet-message-waiting?

This looks for a new message sent by the clients. It reports true if there is one, and false if there is not.

See the HubNet Authoring Guide for details.

hubnet-reset1.1

hubnet-reset

Starts up the HubNet system. HubNet must be started to use any of the other hubnet primitives.

See the HubNet Authoring Guide for details.

hubnet-reset-perspective4.1

hubnet-reset-perspective tag-name

Clears watch or follow sent directly to the client. The view perspective will revert to the server perspective.

See also: hubnet-send-watch hubnet-send-follow

hubnet-send1.1

hubnet-send string tag-name value

hubnet-send list-of-strings tag-name value

For a string, this sends value from NetLogo to the tag tag-name on the client that has string for its user name.

For a list-of-strings, this sends value from NetLogo to the tag tag-name on all the clients that have a user name that is in the list-of-strings.

Sending a message to a non-existent client, using hubnet-send, generates a hubnet-exit-message.

See the HubNet Authoring Guide for details.

hubnet-send-clear-output4.1

hubnet-send-clear-output string

hubnet-send-clear-output list-of-strings

This clears all messages printed to the text area on the given client or clients (specified in the string or list-of-strings.

See also: hubnet-send-message, hubnet-broadcast-clear-output

hubnet-send-follow4.1

hubnet-send-follow client-name agent radius

Tells the client associated with client-name to follow agent showing a radius sized Moore neighborhood around the agent.

A client may only watch or follow a single subject. Calling hubnet-send-follow will alter the highlight created by prior calls to hubnet-send-watch, highlighting the followed agent instead.

See also: hubnet-send-watch, hubnet-reset-perspective

hubnet-send-message4.1

hubnet-send-message string value

This prints value in the text area on the client specified by string.

See also: hubnet-broadcast-message

hubnet-send-override4.1

hubnet-send-override client-name agent-or-set variable-name [ reporter ]

Evaluates reporter for the agent or agentset indicated then sends the values to the client to "override" the value of variable-name only on client-name. This is used to change the appearance of agents in the client view, hence, only built-in variables that affect the appearance of the agent may be selected. For example, you can override the color variable of a turtle:

ask turtles [ hubnet-send-override client-name self "color" [ red ] ]

In this example assume that there is a turtles-own variable client-name which is associated with a logged in client, and all the turtles are blue. This code makes the turtle associated with each client appear red in his or her own view but not on anyone else's or on the server.

See also: hubnet-clear-overrides

hubnet-send-watch4.1

hubnet-send-watch client-name agent

Tells the client associated with client-name to watch agent.

A client may only watch or follow a single subject. Calling hubnet-send-watch will undo perspective changes caused by prior calls to hubnet-send-follow.

See also: hubnet-send-follow, hubnet-reset-perspective

if1.0

if boolean [ commands ]

If boolean reports true then the commands are run, otherwise the commands are not run if boolean reports false.

If boolean reports a value other than true or false a runtime error will occur.

The boolean may report a different value for different agents when used with a primitive like ask, so some agents may run commands and others don't.

ask turtles [
  if xcor > 0 [ set color blue ]
  ;; turtles in the right half of the world
  ;; turn blue
]

See also ifelse, ifelse-value.

ifelse1.0

ifelse boolean1 [ commands1 ] [ elsecommands ] (ifelse boolean1 [ commands1 ] boolean2 [ commands2 ] ... [ elsecommands ])6.1

For the first boolean that reports true, runs the commands that follow.

If no boolean reports true, runs elsecommands or does nothing if elsecommands is not given. When using only one boolean you do not need to surround the entire ifelse primitive and its blocks in parentheses.

If a boolean reports a value other than true or false a runtime error will occur.

ask patches
  [ ifelse pxcor > 0
      [ set pcolor blue ]
      [ set pcolor red ] ]
;; the left half of the world turns red and
;; the right half turns blue

The reporters may report a different value for different agents, so some agents may run different command blocks. When using more than one boolean you must surround the whole ifelse primitive and its blocks in parentheses. This functionality was added in NetLogo 6.1.

ask patches [
  let choice random 4
  (ifelse
    choice = 0 [
      set pcolor red
      set plabel "r"
    ]
    choice = 1 [
      set pcolor blue
      set plabel "b"
    ]
    choice = 2 [
      set pcolor green
      set plabel "g"
    ]
    ; elsecommands
    [
      set pcolor yellow
      set plabel "y"
  ])
]

See also if, ifelse-value.

ifelse-value2.0

ifelse-value boolean1 [ reporter1 ] [ elsereporter ] (ifelse-value boolean1 [ reporter1 ] boolean1 [ reporter2 ] ... [ elsereporter ])6.1

For the first boolean that reports true, runs the reporter that follows and reports that result. When using only one boolean you do not need to surround the entire ifelse-value primitive and its blocks in parentheses.

If all booleans report false, the result is the value of elsereporter. You may leave out the elsereporter, but if all booleans report false then a runtime error will occur.

If a boolean reports a value other than true or false a runtime error will occur.

This can be used when a conditional is needed in the context of a reporter, where commands (such as ifelse) are not allowed.

ask patches [
  set pcolor ifelse-value (pxcor > 0) [blue] [red]
]
;; the left half of the world turns red and
;; the right half turns blue
show n-values 10 [ n -> ifelse-value (n < 5) [0] [1] ]
=> [0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1]
show reduce [ [a b] -> ifelse-value (a > b) [a] [b] ]
  [1 3 2 5 3 8 3 2 1]
=> 8

When using more than one boolean you must surround the whole ifelse-value primitive and its blocks in parentheses. This functionality was added in NetLogo 6.1.

ask patches [
  let choice random 4
  set pcolor (ifelse-value
    choice = 0 [ red ]
    choice = 1 [ blue ]
    choice = 2 [ green ]
               [ yellow ])
]

A runtime error can occur if there is no elsereporter.

ask patches [
  let x = 2
  set pcolor (ifelse-value
    x = 0 [ red ]
    x = 1 [ blue ]
    ; no final else reporter is given, and x is 2 so there will be a runtime error
  )

See also if, ifelse.

import-drawing3.0

import-drawing filename

Reads an image file into the drawing, scaling it to the size of the world, while retaining the original aspect ratio of the image. The image is centered in the drawing. The old drawing is not cleared first.

Agents cannot sense the drawing, so they cannot interact with or process images imported by import-drawing. If you need agents to sense an image, use import-pcolors or import-pcolors-rgb.

The following image file formats are supported: BMP, JPG, GIF, and PNG. If the image format supports transparency (alpha), that information will be imported as well.

Note: This primitive is not compatible with NetLogo Web. If you wish to import a drawing with the same code and the same behavior in both NetLogo and NetLogo Web, see import-a:drawing.

import-pcolors3.0

import-pcolors filename

Reads an image file, scales it to the same dimensions as the patch grid while maintaining the original aspect ratio of the image, and transfers the resulting pixel colors to the patches. The image is centered in the patch grid. The resulting patch colors may be distorted, since the NetLogo color space does not include all possible colors. (See the Color section of the Programming Guide.) import-pcolors may be slow for some images, particularly when you have many patches and a large image with many different colors.

Since import-pcolors sets the pcolor of patches, agents can sense the image. This is useful if agents need to analyze, process, or otherwise interact with the image. If you want to simply display a static backdrop, without color distortion, see import-drawing.

The following image file formats are supported: BMP, JPG, GIF, and PNG. If the image format supports transparency (alpha), then all fully transparent pixels will be ignored. (Partially transparent pixels will be treated as opaque.)

Note: This primitive is not compatible with NetLogo Web. If you wish to import patch colors with the same code and the same behavior in both NetLogo and NetLogo Web, see import-a:pcolors.

import-pcolors-rgb4.0

import-pcolors-rgb filename

Reads an image file, scales it to the same dimensions as the patch grid while maintaining the original aspect ratio of the image, and transfers the resulting pixel colors to the patches. The image is centered in the patch grid. Unlike import-pcolors the exact colors in the original image are retained. The pcolor variable of all the patches will be an RGB list rather than an (approximated) NetLogo color.

The following image file formats are supported: BMP, JPG, GIF, and PNG. If the image format supports transparency (alpha), then all fully transparent pixels will be ignored. (Partially transparent pixels will be treated as opaque.)

Note: This primitive is not compatible with NetLogo Web. If you wish to import patch colors with the same code and the same behavior in both NetLogo and NetLogo Web, see import-a:pcolors-rgb.

import-world1.0

import-world filename

Reads the values of all variables for a model, both built-in and user-defined, including all observer, turtle, and patch variables, from an external file named by the given string. The file should be in the format used by the export-world primitive.

Note that the functionality of this primitive is also directly available from NetLogo's File menu.

When using import-world, to avoid errors, perform these steps in the following order:

1. Open the model from which you created the export file.
2. Press the Setup button, to get the model in a state from which it can be run.
3. Import the file.
4. Re-open any files that the model had opened with the file-open command.
5. If you want, press Go button to continue running the model from the point where it left off.

If you wish to import a file from a location other than the model's location, you may include the full path to the file you wish to import. See export-world for an example.

Note: This primitive is not compatible with NetLogo Web. If you wish to import a world with the same code and the same behavior in both NetLogo and NetLogo Web, see import-a:world.

in-cone3.0

agentset in-cone distance angle

This reporter lets you give a turtle a "cone of vision" in front of itself. The cone is defined by the two inputs, the vision distance (radius) and the viewing angle. The viewing angle may range from 0 to 360 and is centered around the turtle's current heading. (If the angle is 360, then in-cone is equivalent to in-radius.)

in-cone reports an agentset that includes only those agents from the original agentset that fall in the cone. (This can include the agent itself.)

The distance to a patch is measured from the center of the patch.

ask turtles
  [ ask patches in-cone 3 60
      [ set pcolor red ] ]
;; each turtle makes a red "splotch" of patches in a 60 degree
;; cone of radius 3 ahead of itself

in-<breed>-neighbor? in-link-neighbor?4.0

in-<breed>-neighbor? agent in-link-neighbor? turtle

Reports true if there is a directed link going from turtle to the caller or an undirected link connecting turtle to the caller. You can think of this as "is there a link I can use to get from turtle to the caller?"

crt 2
ask turtle 0 [
  create-link-to turtle 1
  show in-link-neighbor? turtle 1  ;; prints false
  show out-link-neighbor? turtle 1 ;; prints true
]
ask turtle 1 [
  show in-link-neighbor? turtle 0  ;; prints true
  show out-link-neighbor? turtle 0 ;; prints false
]

in-<breed>-neighbors in-link-neighbors4.0

in-<breed>-neighbors in-link-neighbors

Reports the agentset of all the turtles that have directed links coming from them to the caller as well as all turtles that have an undirected link connecting them with the caller. You can think of this as "all the turtles that can get to the caller using a link."

crt 4
ask turtle 0 [ create-links-to other turtles ]
ask turtle 1 [ ask in-link-neighbors [ set color blue ] ] ;; turtle 0 turns blue

in-<breed>-from in-link-from4.0

in-<breed>-from turtle in-link-from turtle

Reports a directed link from turtle to the caller or an undirected link connecting the two. If no link exists then it reports nobody. If more than one such link exists, reports a random one. You can think of this as "give me a link that I can use to travel from turtle to the caller."

crt 2
ask turtle 0 [ create-link-to turtle 1 ]
ask turtle 1 [ show in-link-from turtle 0 ] ;; shows link 0 1
ask turtle 0 [ show in-link-from turtle 1 ] ;; shows nobody

See also: out-link-to link-with

__includes4.0

__includes [ filename ... ]

Causes external NetLogo source files (with the .nls suffix) to be included in this model. Included files may contain breed, variable, and procedure definitions. __includes can only be used once per file.

The file names must be strings, for example:

__includes [ "utils.nls" ]

Or, for multiple files:

__includes [ "utils1.nls" "utils2.nls" ]

in-radius1.0

agentset in-radius number

Reports an agentset that includes only those agents from the original agentset whose distance from the caller is less than or equal to number. (This can include the agent itself.)

The distance to or a from a patch is measured from the center of the patch.

ask turtles
  [ ask patches in-radius 3
      [ set pcolor red ] ]
;; each turtle makes a red "splotch" around itself

insert-item6.0.2

insert-item index list value insert-item index string1 string2

On a list, inserts an item in that list. index is the index where the item will be inserted. The first item has an index of 0. (The 6th item in a list would have an index of 5.)

Likewise for a string, but all characters in a multiple-character string2 are inserted at index.

show insert-item 2 [2 7 4 5] 15
=> [2 7 15 4 5]
show insert-item 2 "cat" "re"
=> "caret"

inspect1.1

inspect agent

Opens an agent monitor for the given agent (turtle or patch).

inspect patch 2 4
;; an agent monitor opens for that patch
inspect one-of sheep
;; an agent monitor opens for a random turtle from
;; the "sheep" breed

See stop-inspecting and stop-inspecting-dead-agents

int1.0

int number

Reports the integer part of number -- any fractional part is discarded.

show int 4.7
=> 4
show int -3.5
=> -3

is-agent?1.2.1 is-agentset?1.2.1 is-anonymous-command?6.0 is-anonymous-reporter?6.0 is-boolean?1.2.1 is-directed-link?4.0 is-link?4.0 is-link-set?4.0 is-list?1.0 is-number?1.2.1 is-patch?1.2.1 is-patch-set?4.0 is-string?1.0 is-turtle?1.2.1 is-turtle-set?4.0 is-undirected-link?4.0

is-agent? value is-agentset? value is-anonymous-command? value is-anonymous-reporter? value is-boolean? value is-<breed>? value is-<link-breed>? value is-directed-link? value is-link? value is-link-set? value is-list? value is-number? value is-patch? value is-patch-set? value is-string? value is-turtle? value is-turtle-set? value is-undirected-link? value

Reports true if value is of the given type, false otherwise.

item1.0

item index list item index string

On lists, reports the value of the item in the given list with the given index.

On strings, reports the character in the given string at the given index.

Note that the indices begin from 0, not 1. (The first item is item 0, the second item is item 1, and so on.)

If index is fractional, it will be rounded down to the nearest integer (4.5 becomes 4, 10.9 becomes 10).

;; suppose mylist is [2 4 6 8 10]
show item 2 mylist
=> 6
show item 3 "my-shoe"
=> "s"

jump1.0

jump number

The turtle moves forward by number units all at once (rather than one step at a time as with the forward command).

If the turtle cannot jump number units because it is not permitted by the current topology the turtle does not move at all.

See also forward, can-move?.

map1.3

map reporter list (map reporter list1 ...)

With a single list, the given reporter is run for each item in the list, and a list of the results is collected and reported. reporter may be an anonymous reporter or the name of a reporter.

show map round [1.1 2.2 2.7]
=> [1 2 3]
show map [ i -> i * i ] [1 2 3]
=> [1 4 9]

With multiple lists, the given reporter is run for each group of items from each list. So, it is run once for the first items, once for the second items, and so on. All the lists must be the same length.

Some examples make this clearer:

show (map + [1 2 3] [2 4 6])
=> [3 6 9]
show (map [ [a b c] -> a + b = c ] [1 2 3] [2 4 6] [3 5 9])
=> [true false true]

See also foreach, -> (anonymous procedure).

max1.0

max list

Reports the maximum number value in the list. It ignores other types of items.

show max [xcor] of turtles
;; prints the x coordinate of the turtle which is
;; farthest right in the world
show max list a b
;; prints the larger of the two variables a and b
show max (list a b c)
;; prints the largest of the three variables a, b, and c

max-n-of4.0

max-n-of number agentset [reporter]

Reports an agentset containing number agents from agentset with the highest values of reporter. The agentset is built by finding all the agents with the highest value of reporter, if there are not number agents with that value then agents with the second highest value are found, and so on. At the end, if there is a tie that would make the resulting agentset too large, the tie is broken randomly.

;; assume the world is 11 x 11
show max-n-of 5 patches [pxcor]
;; shows 5 patches with pxcor = max-pxcor
show max-n-of 5 patches with [pycor = 0] [pxcor]
;; shows an agentset containing:
;; (patch 1 0) (patch 2 0) (patch 3 0) (patch 4 0) (patch 5 0)

See also max-one-of, with-max.

max-one-of1.0

max-one-of agentset [reporter]

Reports the agent in the agentset that has the highest value for the given reporter. If there is a tie this command reports one random agent with the highest value. If you want all such agents, use with-max instead.

          show max-one-of patches [count turtles-here]
          
;; prints the first patch with the most turtles on it

See also max-n-of, with-max.

max-pxcor3.1 max-pycor3.1

max-pxcor max-pycor

These reporters give the maximum x-coordinate and maximum y-coordinate, (respectively) for patches, which determines the size of the world.

Unlike in older versions of NetLogo the origin does not have to be at the center of the world. However, the maximum x- and y- coordinates must be greater than or equal to zero.

Note: You can set the size of the world only by editing the view -- these are reporters which cannot be set.

crt 100 [ setxy random-float max-pxcor
                random-float max-pycor ]
;; distributes 100 turtles randomly in the
;; first quadrant

See also min-pxcor, min-pycor, world-width, and world-height

mean1.0

mean list

Reports the statistical mean of the numeric items in the given list. Errors on non-numeric items. The mean is the average, i.e., the sum of the items divided by the total number of items.

show mean [xcor] of turtles
;; prints the average of all the turtles' x coordinates

See this FAQ question for information on possible issues using mean with agentsets

median1.0

median list

Reports the statistical median of the numeric items of the given list. Ignores non-numeric items. The median is the item that would be in the middle if all the items were arranged in order. (If two items would be in the middle, the median is the average of the two.)

show median [xcor] of turtles
;; prints the median of all the turtles' x coordinates

member?1.0

member? value list member? string1 string2 member? agent agentset

For a list, reports true if the given value appears in the given list, otherwise reports false.

For a string, reports true or false depending on whether string1 appears anywhere inside string2 as a substring.

For an agentset, reports true if the given agent is appears in the given agentset, otherwise reports false.

show member? 2 [1 2 3]
=> true
show member? 4 [1 2 3]
=> false
show member? "bat" "abate"
=> true
show member? turtle 0 turtles
=> true
show member? turtle 0 patches
=> false

See also position.

min1.0

min list

Reports the minimum number value in the list. It ignores other types of items.

show min [xcor] of turtles
;; prints the lowest x-coordinate of all the turtles
show min list a b
;; prints the smaller of the two variables a and b
show min (list a b c)
;; prints the smallest of the three variables a, b, and c

min-n-of4.0

min-n-of number agentset [reporter]

Reports an agentset containing number agents from agentset with the lowest values of reporter. The agentset is built by finding all the agents with the lowest value of reporter, if there are not number agents with that value then the agents with the second lowest value are found, and so on. At the end, if there is a tie that would make the resulting agentset too large, the tie is broken randomly.

;; assume the world is 11 x 11
show min-n-of 5 patches [pxcor]
;; shows 5 patches with pxcor = min-pxcor
show min-n-of 5 patches with [pycor = 0] [pxcor]
;; shows an agentset containing:
;; (patch -5 0) (patch -4 0) (patch -3 0) (patch -2 0) (patch -1 0)

See also min-one-of, with-min.

min-one-of1.0

min-one-of agentset [reporter]

Reports a random agent in the agentset that reports the lowest value for the given reporter. If there is a tie, this command reports one random agent that meets the condition. If you want all such agents use with-min instead.

show min-one-of turtles [xcor + ycor]
;; reports the first turtle with the smallest sum of
;; coordinates

See also with-min, min-n-of.

min-pxcor3.1 min-pycor3.1

min-pxcor min-pycor

These reporters give the minimum x-coordinate and minimum y-coordinate, (respectively) for patches, which determines the size of the world.

Unlike in older versions of NetLogo the origin does not have to be at the center of the world. However, the minimum x- and y- coordinates must be less than or equal to zero.

Note: You can set the size of the world only by editing the view -- these are reporters which cannot be set.

crt 100 [ setxy random-float min-pxcor
                random-float min-pycor ]
;; distributes 100 turtles randomly in the
;; third quadrant

See also max-pxcor, max-pycor, world-width, and world-height

mod1.0

number1 mod number2

Reports number1 modulo number2: that is, the residue of number1 (mod number2). mod is is equivalent to the following NetLogo code:

          number1 - (floor (number1 / number2)) * number2

Note that mod is "infix", that is, it comes between its two inputs.

show 62 mod 5
=> 2
show -8 mod 3
=> 1

See also remainder. mod and remainder behave the same for positive numbers, but differently for negative numbers.

modes2.0

modes list

Reports a list of the most common item or items in list.

The input list may contain any NetLogo values.

If the input is an empty list, reports an empty list.

show modes [1 2 2 3 4]
=> [2]
show modes [1 2 2 3 3 4]
=> [2 3]
show modes [ [1 2 [3]] [1 2 [3]] [2 3 4] ]
=> [[1 2 [3]]]
show modes [pxcor] of turtles
;; shows which columns of patches have the most
;; turtles on them

mouse-down?1.0

mouse-down?

Reports true if the mouse button is down, false otherwise.

Note: If the mouse pointer is outside of the current view , mouse-down? will always report false.

mouse-inside?3.0

mouse-inside?

Reports true if the mouse pointer is inside the current view, false otherwise.

mouse-xcor1.0 mouse-ycor1.0

mouse-xcor mouse-ycor

Reports the x or y coordinate of the mouse in the 2D view. The value is in terms of turtle coordinates, so it might not be an integer. If you want patch coordinates, use round mouse-xcor and round mouse-ycor.

Note: If the mouse is outside of the 2D view, reports the value from the last time it was inside.

;; to make the mouse "draw" in red:
if mouse-down?
  [ ask patch mouse-xcor mouse-ycor [ set pcolor red ] ]

move-to4.0

move-to agent

The turtle sets its x and y coordinates to be the same as the given agent's.

(If that agent is a patch, the effect is to move the turtle to the center of that patch.)

move-to turtle 5
;; turtle moves to same point as turtle 5
move-to one-of patches
;; turtle moves to the center of a random patch
move-to max-one-of turtles [size]
;; turtle moves to same point as biggest turtle

Note that the turtle's heading is unaltered. You may want to use the face command first to orient the turtle in the direction of motion.

See also setxy.

my-<breeds> my-links4.0

my-<breeds> my-links

Reports an agentset of all links connected to the caller of the corresponding breed, regardless of directedness. Generally, you might consider using my-out-links instead of this primitive, as it works well for either directed or undirected networks (since it excludes directed, incoming links).

crt 5
ask turtle 0
[
  create-links-with other turtles
  show my-links ;; prints the agentset containing all links
                ;; (since all the links we created were with turtle 0 )
]
ask turtle 1
[
  show my-links ;; shows an agentset containing the link 0 1
]
end

my-in-<breeds> my-in-links4.0

my-in-<breeds> my-in-links

Reports an agentset of all the directed links coming in from other nodes to the caller as well as all undirected links connected to the caller. You can think of this as "all links that you can use to travel to this node".

crt 5
ask turtle 0
[
  create-links-to other turtles
  show my-in-links ;; shows an empty agentset
]
ask turtle 1
[
  show my-in-links ;; shows an agentset containing the link 0 1
]

my-out-<breeds> my-out-links4.0

my-out-<breeds> my-out-links

Reports an agentset of all the directed links going out from the caller to other nodes as well as undirected links connected to the caller. You can think of this as "all links you can use to travel from this node".

crt 5
ask turtle 0
[
  create-links-to other turtles
  show my-out-links ;; shows agentset containing all the links
]
ask turtle 1
[
  show my-out-links ;; shows an empty agentset
]

myself1.0

myself

"self" and "myself" are very different. "self" is simple; it means "me". "myself" means "the turtle, patch or link who asked me to do what I'm doing right now."

When an agent has been asked to run some code, using myself in that code reports the agent (turtle, patch or link) that did the asking.

myself is most often used in conjunction with of to read or set variables in the asking agent.

myself can be used within blocks of code not just in the ask command, but also hatch, sprout, of, with, all?, with-min, with-max, min-one-of, max-one-of, min-n-of, max-n-of.

ask turtles
  [ ask patches in-radius 3
      [ set pcolor [color] of myself ] ]
;; each turtle makes a colored "splotch" around itself

See the "Myself Example" code example for more examples.

See also self.

n-of3.1

n-of size agentset n-of size list

From an agentset, reports an agentset of size size randomly chosen from the input set, with no repeats.

From a list, reports a list of size size randomly chosen from the input set, with no repeats. The items in the result appear in the same order that they appeared in the input list. (If you want them in random order, use shuffle on the result.)

It is an error for size to be greater than the size of the input.

If size is fractional, it will be rounded down to the nearest integer (4.5 becomes 4, 10.9 becomes 10).

ask n-of 50 patches [ set pcolor green ]
;; 50 randomly chosen patches turn green

See also one-of and up-to-n-of, a version that does not error with a size greater than the size of the input.

n-values2.0

n-values size reporter

Reports a list of length size containing values computed by repeatedly running the reporter. reporter may be an anonymous reporter or the name of a reporter.

If the reporter accepts inputs, the input will be the number of the item currently being computed, starting from zero.

If size is fractional, it will be rounded down to the nearest integer (4.5 becomes 4, 10.9 becomes 10).

show n-values 5 [1]
=> [1 1 1 1 1]
show n-values 5 [ i -> i ]
=> [0 1 2 3 4]
show n-values 3 turtle
=> [(turtle 0) (turtle 1) (turtle 2)]
show n-values 5 [ x -> x * x ]
=> [0 1 4 9 16]

See also reduce, filter, -> (anonymous procedure), range.

neighbors1.1 neighbors41.1

neighbors neighbors4

Reports an agentset containing the 8 surrounding patches (neighbors) or 4 surrounding patches (neighbors4).

show sum [count turtles-here] of neighbors
  ;; prints the total number of turtles on the eight
  ;; patches around this turtle or patch
show count turtles-on neighbors
  ;; a shorter way to say the same thing
ask neighbors4 [ set pcolor red ]
  ;; turns the four neighboring patches red

<breed>-neighbors link-neighbors4.0

<breed>-neighbors link-neighbors

Reports the agentset of all turtles found at the other end of any links (undirected or directed, incoming or outgoing) connected to this turtle.

crt 3
ask turtle 0
[
  create-links-with other turtles
  ask link-neighbors [ set color red ] ;; turtles 1 and 2 turn red
]
ask turtle 1
[
  ask link-neighbors [ set color blue ] ;; turtle 0 turns blue
]
end

<breed>-neighbor? link-neighbor?4.0

<breed>-neighbor? turtle link-neighbor? turtle

Reports true if there is a link (either directed or undirected, incoming or outgoing) between turtle and the caller.

crt 2
ask turtle 0
[
  create-link-with turtle 1
  show link-neighbor? turtle 1  ;; prints true
]
ask turtle 1
[
  show link-neighbor? turtle 0     ;; prints true
]

netlogo-version3.0

netlogo-version

Reports a string containing the version number of the NetLogo you are running.

show netlogo-version
=> "6.1.1"

netlogo-web?5.2

netlogo-web?

Reports true if the model is running in NetLogo Web.

new-seed3.0

new-seed

Reports a number suitable for seeding the random number generator.

The numbers reported by new-seed are based on the current date and time in milliseconds and lie in the generator's usable range of seeds, -2147483648 to 2147483647.

new-seed never reports the same number twice in succession, even across parallel BehaviorSpace runs. (This is accomplished by waiting a millisecond if the seed for the current millisecond was already used.)

See also random-seed.

no-display1.0

no-display

Turns off all updates to the current view until the display command is issued. This has two major uses.

One, you can control when the user sees view updates. You might want to change lots of things on the view behind the user's back, so to speak, then make them visible to the user all at once.

Two, your model will run faster when view updating is off, so if you're in a hurry, this command will let you get results faster. (Note that normally you don't need to use no-display for this, since you can also use the on/off switch in view control strip to freeze the view.)

Note that display and no-display operate independently of the switch in the view control strip that freezes the view.

See also display.

nobody

nobody

This is a special value which some primitives such as turtle, one-of, max-one-of, etc. report to indicate that no agent was found. Also, when a turtle dies, it becomes equal to nobody.

Note: Empty agentsets are not equal to nobody. If you want to test for an empty agentset, use any?. You only get nobody back in situations where you were expecting a single agent, not a whole agentset.

set target one-of other turtles-here
if target != nobody
  [ ask target [ set color red ] ]

no-links4.0

no-links

Reports an empty link agentset.

no-patches4.0

no-patches

Reports an empty patch agentset.

not1.0

not boolean

Reports true if boolean is false, otherwise reports false.

if not any? turtles [ crt 10 ]

no-turtles4.0

no-turtles

Reports an empty turtle agentset.

of4.0

[reporter] of agent [reporter] of agentset

For an agent, reports the value of the reporter for that agent (turtle or patch).

show [pxcor] of patch 3 5
;; prints 3
show [pxcor] of one-of patches
;; prints the value of a random patch's pxcor variable
show [who * who] of turtle 5
=> 25
show [count turtles in-radius 3] of patch 0 0
;; prints the number of turtles located within a
;; three-patch radius of the origin

For an agentset, reports a list that contains the value of the reporter for each agent in the agentset (in random order).

crt 4
show sort [who] of turtles
=> [0 1 2 3]
show sort [who * who] of turtles
=> [0 1 4 9]

one-of1.0

one-of agentset one-of list

From an agentset, reports a random agent. If the agentset is empty, reports nobody.

From a list, reports a random list item. It is an error for the list to be empty.

ask one-of patches [ set pcolor green ]
;; a random patch turns green
ask patches with [any? turtles-here]
  [ show one-of turtles-here ]
;; for each patch containing turtles, prints one of
;; those turtles

;; suppose mylist is [1 2 3 4 5 6]
show one-of mylist
;; prints a value randomly chosen from the list

See also n-of, up-to-n-of.

or1.0

boolean1 or boolean2

Reports true if boolean1 is true, boolean2 is true, or both are true. Otherwise returns false if both booleans are false.

Note that if boolean1 is true, then boolean2 will not be run (since it can't affect the result).

if (pxcor > 0) or (pycor > 0) [ set pcolor red ]
;; patches turn red except in lower-left quadrant

other4.0

other agentset

Reports an agentset which is the same as the input agentset but omits this agent.

show count turtles-here
=> 10
show count other turtles-here
=> 9

other-end4.0

other-end

If run by a turtle, reports the turtle at the other end of the asking link.

If run by a link, reports the turtle at the end of the link that isn't the asking turtle.

These definitions are difficult to understand in the abstract, but the following examples should help:

ask turtle 0 [ create-link-with turtle 1 ]
ask turtle 0 [ ask link 0 1 [ show other-end ] ] ;; prints turtle 1
ask turtle 1 [ ask link 0 1 [ show other-end ] ] ;; prints turtle 0
ask link 0 1 [ ask turtle 0 [ show other-end ] ] ;; prints turtle 1

As these examples hopefully make plain, the "other" end is the end that is neither asking nor being asked.

out-<breed>-neighbor? out-link-neighbor?4.0

out-<breed>-neighbor? turtle out-link-neighbor? turtle

Reports true if there is a directed link going from the caller to turtle or if there is an undirected link connecting the caller with turtle. You can think of this as "can I get from the caller to turtle using a link?"

crt 2
ask turtle 0 [
  create-link-to turtle 1
  show in-link-neighbor? turtle 1  ;; prints false
  show out-link-neighbor? turtle 1 ;; prints true
]
ask turtle 1 [
  show in-link-neighbor? turtle 0  ;; prints true
  show out-link-neighbor? turtle 0 ;; prints false
]

out-<breed>-neighbors out-link-neighbors4.0

out-<breed>-neighbors out-link-neighbors

Reports the agentset of all the turtles that have directed links from the caller, or undirected links with the caller. You can think of this as "who can I get to from the caller using a link?"

crt 4
ask turtle 0
[
  create-links-to other turtles
  ask out-link-neighbors [ set color pink ] ;; turtles 1-3 turn pink
]
ask turtle 1
[
  ask out-link-neighbors [ set color orange ]  ;; no turtles change colors
                                               ;; since turtle 1 only has in-links
]
end

out-<breed>-to out-link-to4.0

out-<breed>-to turtle out-link-to turtle

Reports a directed link from the caller to turtle or an undirected link connecting the two. If no link exists then it reports nobody. If more than one such link exists, reports a random one. You can think of this as "give me a link that I can use to travel from the caller to turtle."

crt 2
ask turtle 0 [
  create-link-to turtle 1
  show out-link-to turtle 1 ;; shows link 0 1
]
ask turtle 1
[
  show out-link-to turtle 0 ;; shows nobody
]

See also: in-link-from link-with

output-print2.1 output-show2.1 output-type2.1 output-write2.1

output-print value output-show value output-type value output-write value

These commands are the same as the print, show, type, and write commands except that value is printed in the model's output area, instead of in the Command Center. (If the model does not have a separate output area, then the Command Center is used.) See also Output (programming guide).

patch1.0

patch xcor ycor

Given the x and y coordinates of a point, reports the patch containing that point. (The coordinates are absolute coordinates; they are not computed relative to this agent, as with patch-at.)

If x and y are integers, the point is the center of a patch. If x or y is not an integer, rounding to the nearest integer is used to determine which patch contains the point.

If wrapping is allowed by the topology, the given coordinates will be wrapped to be within the world. If wrapping is not allowed and the given coordinates are outside the world, reports nobody.

ask patch 3 -4 [ set pcolor green ]
;; patch with pxcor of 3 and pycor of -4 turns green
show patch 1.2 3.7
;; prints (patch 1 4); note rounding
show patch 18 19
;; supposing min-pxcor and min-pycor are -17
;; and max-pxcor and max-pycor are 17,
;; in a wrapping topology, prints (patch -17 -16);
;; in a non-wrapping topology, prints nobody

See also patch-at.

patch-ahead2.0

patch-ahead distance

Reports the single patch that is the given distance "ahead" of this turtle, that is, along the turtle's current heading. Reports nobody if the patch does not exist because it is outside the world.

ask patch-ahead 1 [ set pcolor green ]
;; turns the patch 1 in front of this turtle
;;   green; note that this might be the same patch
;;   the turtle is standing on

See also patch-at, patch-left-and-ahead, patch-right-and-ahead, patch-at-heading-and-distance.

patch-at1.0

patch-at dx dy

Reports the patch at (dx, dy) from the caller, that is, the patch containing the point dx east and dy patches north of this agent.

Reports nobody if there is no such patch because that point is beyond a non-wrapping world boundary.

ask patch-at 1 -1 [ set pcolor green ]
;; if caller is a turtle or patch, turns the
;;   patch just southeast of the caller green

See also patch, patch-ahead, patch-left-and-ahead, patch-right-and-ahead, patch-at-heading-and-distance.

patch-at-heading-and-distance2.0

patch-at-heading-and-distance heading distance

patch-at-heading-and-distance reports the single patch that is the given distance from this turtle or patch, along the given absolute heading. (In contrast to patch-left-and-ahead and patch-right-and-ahead, this turtle's current heading is not taken into account.) Reports nobody if the patch does not exist because it is outside the world.

ask patch-at-heading-and-distance -90 1 [ set pcolor green ]
;; turns the patch 1 to the west of this patch green

See also patch, patch-at, patch-left-and-ahead, patch-right-and-ahead.

patch-here1.0

patch-here

patch-here reports the patch under the turtle.

Note that this reporter isn't available to a patch because a patch can just say "self".

patch-left-and-ahead2.0 patch-right-and-ahead2.0

patch-left-and-ahead angle distance patch-right-and-ahead angle distance

Reports the single patch that is the given distance from this turtle, in the direction turned left or right the given angle (in degrees) from the turtle's current heading. Reports nobody if the patch does not exist because it is outside the world.

(If you want to find a patch in a given absolute heading, rather than one relative to the current turtle's heading, use patch-at-heading-and-distance instead.)

ask patch-right-and-ahead 30 1 [ set pcolor green ]
;; this turtle "looks" 30 degrees right of its
;;   current heading at the patch 1 unit away, and turns
;;   that patch green; note that this might be the same
;;   patch the turtle is standing on

See also patch, patch-at, patch-at-heading-and-distance.

patch-set4.0

patch-set value1 (patch-set value1 value2 ...)

Reports an agentset containing all of the patches anywhere in any of the inputs. The inputs may be individual patches, patch agentsets, nobody, or lists (or nested lists) containing any of the above.

patch-set self
patch-set patch-here
(patch-set self neighbors)
(patch-set patch-here neighbors)
(patch-set patch 0 0 patch 1 3 patch 4 -2)
(patch-set patch-at -1 1 patch-at 0 1 patch-at 1 1)
patch-set [patch-here] of turtles
patch-set [neighbors] of turtles

See also turtle-set, link-set.

patch-size4.1

patch-size

Reports the size of the patches in the view in pixels. The size is typically an integer, but may also be a floating point number.

See also set-patch-size.

patches1.0

patches

Reports the agentset consisting of all patches.

patches-own

patches-own [var1 ...]

This keyword, like the globals, breed, <breed>-own, and turtles-own keywords, can only be used at the beginning of a program, before any function definitions. It defines the variables that all patches can use.

All patches will then have the given variables and be able to use them.

All patch variables can also be directly accessed by any turtle standing on the patch.

See also globals, turtles-own, breed, <breeds>-own.

pcolor

pcolor

This is a built-in patch variable. It holds the color of the patch. You can set this variable to make the patch change color.

All patch variables can be directly accessed by any turtle standing on the patch. Color can be represented either as a NetLogo color (a single number) or an RGB color (a list of 3 numbers). See details in the Colors section of the Programming Guide.

See also color.

pen-down1.0 pd1.0 pen-erase3.0 pe3.0 pen-up1.0 pu1.0

pen-down pen-erase pen-up

The turtle changes modes between drawing lines, removing lines or neither. The lines will always be displayed on top of the patches and below the turtles. To change the color of the pen set the color of the turtle using set color.

Note: When a turtle's pen is down, all movement commands cause lines to be drawn, including jump, setxy, and move-to.

Note: These commands are equivalent to setting the turtle variable "pen-mode" to "down" , "up", and "erase".

Note: On Windows drawing and erasing a line might not erase every pixel.

pen-mode

This is a built-in turtle variable. It holds the state of the turtle's pen. You set the variable to draw lines, erase lines or stop either of these actions. Possible values are "up", "down", and "erase".

pen-size

This is a built-in turtle variable. It holds the width of the line, in pixels, that the turtle will draw (or erase) when the pen is down (or erasing).

plabel

plabel

This is a built-in patch variable. It may hold a value of any type. The patch appears in the view with the given value "attached" to it as text. You can set this variable to add, change, or remove a patch's label.

All patch variables can be directly accessed by any turtle standing on the patch.

See also plabel-color, label, label-color.

plabel-color

plabel-color

This is a built-in patch variable. It holds a number greater than or equal to 0 and less than 140. This number determines what color the patch's label appears in (if it has a label). You can set this variable to change the color of a patch's label.

All patch variables can be directly accessed by any turtle standing on the patch.

See also plabel, label, label-color.

plot1.0

plot number

Increments the x-value of the plot pen by plot-pen-interval, then plots a point at the updated x-value and a y-value of number. (The first time the command is used on a plot, the point plotted has an x-value of 0.)

plot-name1.0

plot-name

Reports the name of the current plot (a string)

plot-pen-exists?4.0

plot-pen-exists? string

Reports true if a plot pen with the given name is defined in the current plot. Otherwise reports false.

plot-pen-down1.0 plot-pen-up1.0

plot-pen-down plot-pen-up

Puts down (or up) the current plot-pen, so that it draws (or doesn't). (By default, all pens are down initially.)

plot-pen-reset1.0

plot-pen-reset

Clears everything the current plot pen has drawn, moves it to (0,0), and puts it down. If the pen is a permanent pen, the color, mode, and interval are reset to the default values from the plot Edit dialog.

plotxy1.0

plotxy number1 number2

Moves the current plot pen to the point with coordinates (number1, number2). If the pen is down, a line, bar, or point will be drawn (depending on the pen's mode).

plot-x-min1.0 plot-x-max1.0 plot-y-min1.0 plot-y-max1.0

plot-x-min plot-x-max plot-y-min plot-y-max

Reports the minimum or maximum value on the x or y axis of the current plot.

These values can be set with the commands set-plot-x-range and set-plot-y-range. (Their default values are set from the plot Edit dialog.)

position1.0

position item list position string1 string2

On a list, reports the first position of item in list, or false if it does not appear.

On strings, reports the position of the first appearance string1 as a substring of string2, or false if it does not appear.

Note: The positions are numbered beginning with 0, not with 1.

;; suppose mylist is [2 7 4 7 "Bob"]
show position 7 mylist
=> 1
show position 10 mylist
=> false
show position "in" "string"
=> 3

See also member?.

precision1.0

precision number places

Reports number rounded to places decimal places.

If places is negative, the rounding takes place to the left of the decimal point.

show precision 1.23456789 3
=> 1.235
show precision 3834 -3
=> 4000

See also round, ceiling, floor.

print1.0

print value

Prints value in the Command Center, followed by a carriage return.

This agent is not printed before the value, unlike show.

See also show, type, write, output-print, and Output (programming guide).

pxcor pycor

pxcor pycor

These are built-in patch variables. They hold the x and y coordinate of the patch. They are always integers. You cannot set these variables, because patches don't move.

pxcor is greater than or equal to min-pxcor and less than or equal to max-pxcor; similarly for pycor and min-pycor and max-pycor.

All patch variables can be directly accessed by any turtle standing on the patch.

See also xcor, ycor.

random1.0

random number

If number is positive, reports a random integer greater than or equal to 0, but strictly less than number.

If number is negative, reports a random integer less than or equal to 0, but strictly greater than number.

If number is zero, the result is always 0 as well.

Note: In versions of NetLogo prior to version 2.0, this primitive reported a floating point number if given a non-integer input. This is no longer the case. If you want a floating point answer, you must now use random-float instead.

show random 3
;; prints 0, 1,  or 2
show random -3
;; prints 0, -1, or -2
show random 3.5
;; prints 0, 1, 2, or 3

See also random-float.

random-float2.0

random-float number

If number is positive, reports a random floating point number greater than or equal to 0 but strictly less than number.

If number is negative, reports a random floating point number less than or equal to 0, but strictly greater than number.

If number is zero, the result is always 0.

show random-float 3
;; prints a number at least 0 but less than 3,
;; for example 2.589444906014774
show random-float 2.5
;; prints a number at least 0 but less than 2.5,
;; for example 1.0897423196760796

random-exponential1.2.1 random-gamma2.0 random-normal1.2.1 random-poisson1.2.1

random-exponential mean random-gamma alpha lambda random-normal mean standard-deviation random-poisson mean

Reports an accordingly distributed random number with the mean and, in the case of the normal distribution, the standard-deviation. (The standard deviation may not be negative.)

random-exponential reports an exponentially distributed random floating point number. It is equivalent to (- mean) * ln random-float 1.0.

random-gamma reports a gamma-distributed random floating point number as controlled by the floating point alpha and lambda parameters. Both inputs must be greater than zero. (Note: for results with a given mean and variance, use inputs as follows: alpha = mean * mean / variance; lambda = 1 / (variance / mean).)

random-normal reports a normally distributed random floating point number.

random-poisson reports a Poisson-distributed random integer.

show random-exponential 2
;; prints an exponentially distributed random floating
;; point number with a mean of 2
show random-normal 10.1 5.2
;; prints a normally distributed random floating point
;; number with a mean of 10.1 and a standard deviation
;; of 5.2
show random-poisson 3.4
;; prints a Poisson-distributed random integer with a
;; mean of 3.4

random-pxcor3.1 random-pycor3.1

random-pxcor random-pycor

Reports a random integer ranging from min-pxcor (or -y) to max-pxcor (or -y) inclusive.

ask turtles [
  ;; move each turtle to the center of a random patch
  setxy random-pxcor random-pycor
]

See also random-xcor, random-ycor.

random-seed1.0

random-seed number

Sets the seed of the pseudo-random number generator to the integer part of number. The seed must be in the range -2147483648 to 2147483647; note that this is smaller than the full range of integers supported by NetLogo (-9007199254740992 to 9007199254740992).

See the Random Numbers section of the Programming Guide for more details.

random-seed 47822
show random 100
=> 50
show random 100
=> 35
random-seed 47822
show random 100
=> 50
show random 100
=> 35

random-xcor3.1 random-ycor3.1

random-xcor random-ycor

Reports a random floating point number from the allowable range of turtle coordinates along the given axis, x or y.

Turtle coordinates range from min-pxcor - 0.5 (inclusive) to max-pxcor + 0.5 (exclusive) horizontally; vertically, substitute -y for -x.

ask turtles [
  ;; move each turtle to a random point
  setxy random-xcor random-ycor
]

See also random-pxcor, random-pycor.

range6.0

range stop (range start stop) (range start stop step)

Generates a list of numbers, starting at start, ending before stop, counting by step. start defaults to 0 and step defaults to 1.

show range 5
=> [0 1 2 3 4]
show (range 2 5)
=> [2 3 4]
show (range 2 5 0.5)
=> [2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5]
show (range 10 0 -1)
=> [10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1]

See also n-values

read-from-string1.1

read-from-string string

Interprets the given string as if it had been typed in the Command Center, and reports the resulting value. The result may be a number, list, string, or boolean value, or the special value "nobody".

Useful in conjunction with the user-input primitive for converting the user's input into usable form.

show read-from-string "3" + read-from-string "5"
=> 8
show length read-from-string "[1 2 3]"
=> 3
crt read-from-string user-input "Make how many turtles?"
;; the number of turtles input by the user
;; are created

Note: This primitive is not compatible with NetLogo Web. If you wish to read user input with the same code and the same behavior in both NetLogo and NetLogo Web, see dialog:user-input.

reduce1.3

reduce reporter list

Reduces a list from left to right using the given reporter, resulting in a single value. This means, for example, that reduce [ [a b] -> a + b] [1 2 3 4] is equivalent to (((1 + 2) + 3) + 4). If list has a single item, that item is reported. It is an error to reduce an empty list. reporter may be an anonymous reporter or the name of a reporter.

The first input passed to the reporter is the result so far, and the second input is the next item in the list.

Since it can be difficult to develop an intuition about what reduce does, here are some simple examples which, while not useful in themselves, may give you a better understanding of this primitive:

show reduce + [1 2 3]
=> 6
show reduce - [1 2 3]
=> -4
show reduce [ [result-so-far next-item] -> next-item - result-so-far ] [1 2 3]
=> 2
show reduce [ [result-so-far ignored-item] -> result-so-far ] [1 2 3]
=> 1
show reduce [ [ignored next-item] -> next-item ] [1 2 3]
=> 3
show reduce sentence [[1 2] [3 [4]] 5]
=> [1 2 3 [4] 5]
show reduce [ [result-so-far next-item] -> fput next-item result-so-far ] (fput [] [1 2 3 4 5])
=> [5 4 3 2 1]

Here are some more useful examples:

;; find the longest string in a list
to-report longest-string [strings]
  report reduce
    [ [longest-so-far next-string] -> ifelse-value (length longest-so-far >= length next-string) [longest-so-far] [next-string] ]
    strings
end

show longest-string ["hi" "there" "!"]
=> "there"

;; count the number of occurrences of an item in a list
to-report occurrences [x the-list]
  report reduce
    [ [occurrence-count next-item] -> ifelse-value (next-item = x) [occurrence-count + 1] [occurrence-count] ] (fput 0 the-list)
end

show occurrences 1 [1 2 1 3 1 2 3 1 1 4 5 1]
=> 6

;; evaluate the polynomial, with given coefficients, at x
to-report evaluate-polynomial [coefficients x]
  report reduce [ [value coefficient] -> (x * value) + coefficient ] coefficients
end

;; evaluate 3x^2 + 2x + 1 at x = 4
show evaluate-polynomial [3 2 1] 4
=> 57

See also filter, -> (anonymous procedure.

remainder1.2.1

remainder number1 number2

Reports the remainder when number1 is divided by number2. This is equivalent to the following NetLogo code:

          number1 - (int (number1 / number2)) * number2

show remainder 62 5
=> 2
show remainder -8 3
=> -2

See also mod. mod and remainder behave the same for positive numbers, but differently for negative numbers.

remove1.0

remove item list remove string1 string2

For a list, reports a copy of list with all instances of item removed.

For strings, reports a copy of string2 with all the appearances of string1 as a substring removed.

set mylist [2 7 4 7 "Bob"]
set mylist remove 7 mylist
;; mylist is now [2 4 "Bob"]
show remove "to" "phototonic"
=> "phonic"

remove-duplicates1.0

remove-duplicates list

Reports a copy of list with all duplicate items removed. The first of each item remains in place.

set mylist [2 7 4 7 "Bob" 7]
set mylist remove-duplicates mylist
;; mylist is now [2 7 4 "Bob"]

remove-item2.0

remove-item index list remove-item index string

For a list, reports a copy of list with the item at the given index removed.

For strings, reports a copy of string with the character at the given index removed.

Note that the indices begin from 0, not 1. (The first item is item 0, the second item is item 1, and so on.)

If index is fractional, it will be rounded down to the nearest integer (4.5 becomes 4, 10.9 becomes 10).

set mylist [2 7 4 7 "Bob"]
set mylist remove-item 2 mylist
;; mylist is now [2 7 7 "Bob"]
show remove-item 2 "string"
=> "sting"

repeat1.0

repeat number [ commands ]

Runs commands number times.

pd repeat 36 [ fd 1 rt 10 ]
;; the turtle draws a circle

replace-item1.0

replace-item index list value replace-item index string1 string2

On a list, replaces an item in that list. index is the index of the item to be replaced, starting with 0. (The 6th item in a list would have an index of 5.) Note that "replace-item" is used in conjunction with "set" to change a list.

Likewise for a string, but the given character of string1 removed and the contents of string2 spliced in instead.

If index is fractional, it will be rounded down to the nearest integer (4.5 becomes 4, 10.9 becomes 10).

show replace-item 2 [2 7 4 5] 15
=> [2 7 15 5]
show replace-item 1 "cat" "are"
=> "caret"

report1.0

report value

Immediately exits from the current to-report procedure and reports value as the result of that procedure. report and to-report are always used in conjunction with each other. See to-report for a discussion of how to use them.

reset-perspective3.0 rp3.0

reset-perspective

The observer stops watching, following, or riding any turtles (or patches). (If it wasn't watching, following, or riding anybody, nothing happens.) In the 3D view, the observer also returns to its default position (above the origin, looking straight down).

See also follow, ride, watch.

reset-ticks4.0

reset-ticks

Resets the tick counter to zero, sets up all plots, then updates all plots (so that the initial state of the world is plotted).

Normally reset-ticks goes at the end of a setup procedure.

See also clear-ticks, tick, ticks, tick-advance, setup-plots, update-plots.

reset-timer1.0

reset-timer

Resets the timer to zero seconds. See also timer.

Note that the timer is different from the tick counter. The timer measures elapsed real time in seconds; the tick counter measures elapsed model time in ticks.

resize-world4.1

resize-world min-pxcor max-pxcor min-pycor max-pycor

Changes the size of the patch grid.

If the given patch grid coordinates are different than the ones in use, all turtles and links die, and the existing patch grid is discarded and new patches created. Otherwise, existing turtles and links will live if the grid coordinates are unchanged.

Retaining references to old patches or patch sets is inadvisable and may subsequently cause runtime errors or other unexpected behavior.

If any coordinate is fractional, it will be rounded to the nearest integer towards zero (4.5 becomes 4, 10.9 becomes 10, -2.9 becomes -2).

See also set-patch-size.

reverse1.0

reverse list reverse string

Reports a reversed copy of the given list or string.

show mylist
;; mylist is [2 7 4 "Bob"]
set mylist reverse mylist
;; mylist now is ["Bob" 4 7 2]
show reverse "live"
=> "evil"

rgb1.0

rgb red green blue

Reports a RGB list when given three numbers describing an RGB color. The numbers are range checked to be between 0 and 255.

See also hsb

ride3.0

ride turtle

Set the perspective to turtle.

Every time turtle moves the observer also moves. Thus, in the 2D View the turtle will stay at the center of the view. In the 3D view it is as if looking through the eyes of the turtle. If the turtle dies, the perspective resets to the default.

The observer may only watch or follow a single subject. Calling ride will remove the highlight created by prior calls to watch and watch-me, highlighting the ridden turtle instead.

See also reset-perspective, watch, follow, subject.

ride-me3.0

ride-me

Asks the observer to ride this turtle.

The observer may only watch or follow a single subject. Calling ride-me will remove the highlight created by prior calls to watch and watch-me, highlighting this turtle instead.

See also ride.

right1.0 rt1.0

right number

The turtle turns right by number degrees. (If number is negative, it turns left.)

round1.0

round number

Reports the integer nearest to number.

If the decimal portion of number is exactly .5, the number is rounded in the positive direction.

Note that rounding in the positive direction is not always how rounding is done in other software programs. (In particular, it does not match the behavior of StarLogoT, which always rounded numbers ending in 0.5 to the nearest even integer.) The rationale for this behavior is that it matches how turtle coordinates relate to patch coordinates in NetLogo. For example, if a turtle's xcor is -4.5, then it is on the boundary between a patch whose pxcor is -4 and a patch whose pxcor is -5, but the turtle must be considered to be in one patch or the other, so the turtle is considered to be in the patch whose pxcor is -4, because we round towards the positive numbers.

show round 4.2
=> 4
show round 4.5
=> 5
show round -4.5
=> -4

See also precision, ceiling, floor.

run1.3 runresult1.3

run command (run command input1 ...) run string runresult reporter (runresult reporter input1 ...) runresult string

The run form expects the name of a command, an anonymous command, or a string containing commands. This agent then runs them.

The runresult form expects the name of a reporter, an anonymous reporter, or a string containing a reporter. This agent runs it and reports the result.

Note that you can't use run to define or redefine procedures. If you care about performance, note that the code must be compiled first which takes time. However, compiled bits of code are cached by NetLogo and thus using run on the same string over and over is much faster than running different strings. The first run, though, will be many times slower than running the same code directly, or in an anonymous command.

Anonymous procedures are recommended over strings whenever possible. (An example of when you must use strings is if you accept pieces of code from the user of your model.)

Anonymous procedures may freely read and/or set local variables and procedure inputs. Trying to do the same with strings may or may not work and should not be relied on.

When using anonymous procedures, you can provide them with inputs, if you surround the entire call with parentheses. For example:

(run [ [turtle-count step-count] -> crt turtle-count [ fd step-count ] ] 10 5)
;; creates 10 turtles and move them forward 5 steps
show (runresult [ [a b] -> a + b ] 10 5)
=> 15
;; adds 10 and 5

See also foreach, -> (anonymous procedure).

scale-color1.0

scale-color color number range1 range2

Reports a shade of color proportional to the value of number.

If range1 is less than range2, then the larger the number, the lighter the shade of color. But if range2 is less than range1, the color scaling is inverted.

If number is less than range1, then the darkest shade of color is chosen.

If number is greater than range2, then the lightest shade of color is chosen.

Note: for color shade is irrelevant, e.g. green and green + 2 are equivalent, and the same spectrum of colors will be used.

ask turtles [ set color scale-color red age 0 50 ]
;; colors each turtle a shade of red proportional
;; to its value for the age variable

self1.3

self

Reports this turtle, patch, or link.

"self" and "myself" are very different. "self" is simple; it means "me". "myself" means "the agent who asked me to do what I'm doing right now."

Note that it is always redundant to write [foo] of self. This is always equivalent to simply writing foo.

See also myself.

; (semicolon)

; comments

After a semicolon, the rest of the line is ignored. This is useful for adding "comments" to your code -- text that explains the code to human readers. Extra semicolons can be added for visual effect.

NetLogo's Edit menu has items that let you comment or uncomment whole sections of code.

sentence1.0 se1.0

sentence value1 value2 (sentence value1 ...)

Makes a list out of the values. If any value is a list, its items are included in the result directly, rather than being included as a sublist. Examples make this clearer:

show sentence 1 2
=> [1 2]
show sentence [1 2] 3
=> [1 2 3]
show sentence 1 [2 3]
=> [1 2 3]
show sentence [1 2] [3 4]
=> [1 2 3 4]
show sentence [[1 2]] [[3 4]]
=> [[1 2] [3 4]]
show (sentence [1 2] 3 [4 5] (3 + 3) 7)
=> [1 2 3 4 5 6 7]

set1.0

set variable value

Sets variable to the given value.

Variable can be any of the following:

• A global variable declared using "globals"
• The global variable associated with a slider, switch, chooser, or input box.
• A variable belonging to this agent
• If this agent is a turtle, a variable belonging to the patch under the turtle.
• A local variable created by the let command.
• An input to the current procedure.

set-current-directory2.0

set-current-directory string

Sets the current directory that is used by the primitives file-delete, file-exists?, and file-open.

The current directory is not used if the above commands are given an absolute file path. This is defaulted to the user's home directory for new models, and is changed to the model's directory when a model is opened.

Note that in Windows file paths the backslash needs to be escaped within a string by using another backslash "C:\\"

The change is temporary and is not saved with the model.

set-current-directory "C:\\NetLogo"
;; Assume it is a Windows Machine
file-open "my-file.txt"
;; Opens file "C:\\NetLogo\\my-file.txt"

set-current-plot1.0

set-current-plot plotname

Sets the current plot to the plot with the given name (a string). Subsequent plotting commands will affect the current plot.

set-current-plot-pen1.0

set-current-plot-pen penname

The current plot's current pen is set to the pen named penname (a string). If no such pen exists in the current plot, a runtime error occurs.

set-default-shape1.0

set-default-shape turtles string set-default-shape links string set-default-shape breed string

Specifies a default initial shape for all turtles or links, or for a particular breed of turtles or links. When a turtle or link is created, or it changes breeds, it shape is set to the given shape.

This command doesn't affect existing agents, only agents you create afterwards.

The given breed must be either turtles, links, or the name of a breed. The given string must be the name of a currently defined shape.

In new models, the default shape for all turtles is "default".

Note that specifying a default shape does not prevent you from changing an agent's shape later. Agents don't have to be stuck with their breed's default shape.

create-turtles 1 ;; new turtle's shape is "default"
create-cats 1    ;; new turtle's shape is "default"

set-default-shape turtles "circle"
create-turtles 1 ;; new turtle's shape is "circle"
create-cats 1    ;; new turtle's shape is "circle"

set-default-shape cats "cat"
set-default-shape dogs "dog"
create-cats 1   ;; new turtle's shape is "cat"
ask cats [ set breed dogs ]
  ;; all cats become dogs, and automatically
  ;; change their shape to "dog"

See also shape.

set-histogram-num-bars1.0

set-histogram-num-bars number

Set the current plot pen's plot interval so that, given the current x range for the plot, there would be number number of bars drawn if the histogram command is called.

See also histogram.

__set-line-thickness

__set-line-thickness number

Specifies the thickness of lines and outlined elements in the turtle's shape.

The default value is 0. This always produces lines one pixel thick.

Non-zero values are interpreted as thickness in patches. A thickness of 1, for example, produces lines which appear one patch thick. (It's common to use a smaller value such as 0.5 or 0.2.)

Lines are always at least one pixel thick.

This command is experimental and may change in later releases.

set-patch-size4.1

set-patch-size size

Sets the size of the patches of the view in pixels. The size is typically an integer, but may also be a floating point number.

See also patch-size, resize-world.

set-plot-background-color6.0.2

set-plot-background-color color

Sets the background color of the current plot. The color may be specified as a number or a list. See the Colors section of the programming guide for more details. This change is temporary and is not saved with the model. When the plot is cleared, the background color will revert to white.

Note: Plot backgrounds do not support transparency. If a list is used to set the color, the alpha component will be ignored.

set-plot-pen-color1.0

set-plot-pen-color color

Sets the color of the current plot pen to color.

set-plot-pen-interval1.0

set-plot-pen-interval number

Tells the current plot pen to move a distance of number in the x direction during each use of the plot command. (The plot pen interval also affects the behavior of the histogram command.)

set-plot-pen-mode1.0

set-plot-pen-mode number

Sets the mode the current plot pen draws in to number. The allowed plot pen modes are:

• 0 (line mode) the plot pen draws a line connecting two points together.
• 1 (bar mode): the plot pen draws a bar of width plot-pen-interval with the point plotted as the upper (or lower, if you are plotting a negative number) left corner of the bar.
• 2 (point mode): the plot pen draws a point at the point plotted. Points are not connected.

The default mode for new pens is 0 (line mode).

setup-plots5.0

setup-plots

For each plot, runs that plot's setup commands, including the setup code for any pens in the plot.

reset-ticks has the same effect, so in models that use the tick counter, this primitive is not normally used.

See the Plotting section of the Programming Guide for more details.

See also update-plots.

set-plot-x-range1.0 set-plot-y-range1.0

set-plot-x-range min max set-plot-y-range min max

Sets the minimum and maximum values of the x or y axis of the current plot.

The change is temporary and is not saved with the model. When the plot is cleared, the ranges will revert to their default values as set in the plot's Edit dialog.

setxy1.0

setxy x y

The turtle sets its x-coordinate to x and its y-coordinate to y.

Equivalent to set xcor x set ycor y, except it happens in one time step instead of two.

If x or y is outside the world, NetLogo will throw a runtime error, unless wrapping is turned on in the relevant dimensions. For example, with wrapping turned on in both dimensions and the default world size where min-pxcor = -16, max-pxcor = 16, min-pycor = -16 and max-pycor = 16, asking a turtle to setxy 17 17 will move it to the center of patch (-16, -16).

setxy 0 0
;; turtle moves to the middle of the center patch
setxy random-xcor random-ycor
;; turtle moves to a random point
setxy random-pxcor random-pycor
;; turtle moves to the center of a random patch

See also move-to.

shade-of?1.0

shade-of? color1 color2

Reports true if both colors are shades of one another, false otherwise.

show shade-of? blue red
=> false
show shade-of? blue (blue + 1)
=> true
show shade-of? gray white
=> true

shape

shape

This is a built-in turtle and link variable. It holds a string that is the name of the turtle or link's current shape. You can set this variable to change the shape. New turtles and links have the shape "default" unless the a different shape has been specified using set-default-shape.

Example:

          ask turtles [ set shape "wolf" ]
          ;; assumes you have made a "wolf"
          ;; shape in NetLogo's Turtle Shapes Editor
          ask links [ set shape "link 1" ]
          ;; assumes you have made a "link 1" shape in
          ;; the Link Shapes Editor

See also set-default-shape, shapes.

shapes2.1

shapes

Reports a list of strings containing all of the turtle shapes in the model.

New shapes can be created, or imported from the shapes library or from other models, in the Shapes Editor.

show shapes
=> ["default" "airplane" "arrow" "box" "bug" ...
ask turtles [ set shape one-of shapes ]

show1.0

show value

Prints value in the Command Center, preceded by this agent, and followed by a carriage return. (This agent is included to help you keep track of what agents are producing which lines of output.) Also, all strings have their quotes included similar to write.

See also print, type, write, output-show, and Output (programming guide).

show-turtle1.0 st1.0

show-turtle

The turtle becomes visible again.

Note: This command is equivalent to setting the turtle variable "hidden?" to false.

See also hide-turtle.

show-link4.0

show-link

The link becomes visible again.

Note: This command is equivalent to setting the link variable "hidden?" to false.

See also hide-link.

shuffle2.0

shuffle list

Reports a new list containing the same items as the input list, but in randomized order.

show shuffle [1 2 3 4 5]
=> [5 2 4 1 3]
show shuffle [1 2 3 4 5]
=> [1 3 5 2 4]

sin1.0

sin number

Reports the sine of the given angle. Assumes angle is given in degrees.

show sin 270
=> -1

size

size

This is a built-in turtle variable. It holds a number that is the turtle's apparent size. The default size is 1, which means that the turtle is the same size as a patch. You can set this variable to change a turtle's size.

sort1.0

sort list sort agentset

Reports a sorted list of numbers, strings, or agents.

If the input contains no numbers, strings, or agents, the result is the empty list.

If the input contains at least one number, the numbers in the list are sorted in ascending order and a new list reported; non-numbers are ignored.

Or, if the input contains at least one string, the strings in the list are sorted in ascending order and a new list reported; non-strings are ignored.

Or, if the input is an agentset or a list containing at least one agent, a sorted list of agents (never an agentset) is reported; non-agents are ignored. Agents are sorted in the same order the < operator uses. (Patches are sorted with the top left-most patch first and the bottom right-most patch last, turtles are sorted by who number).

show sort [3 1 4 2]
=> [1 2 3 4]
show sort [2 1 "a"]
=> [1 2]
show sort (list "a" "c" "b" (patch 0 0))
=> ["a" "b" "c"]
show sort (list (patch 0 0) (patch 0 1) (patch 1 0))
=> [(patch 0 1) (patch 0 0) (patch 1 0)]

;; label patches with numbers in left-to-right, top-to-bottom order
let n 0
foreach sort patches [ the-patch ->
  ask the-patch [
    set plabel n
    set n n + 1
  ]
]

;; some additional examples to clarify behavior in strange cases
show sort (list patch 0 0 patch 0 1 patch 1 0 turtle 0 turtle 1) ; turtles are always sorted lower than patches
=> [(turtle 0) (turtle 1) (patch 0 1) (patch 0 0) (patch 1 0)]
show sort (list nobody false true) ; booleans and nobody cannot be sorted
=> []
show sort (list [1 2 3] turtles) ; lists and agentsets are not included if they are inside a list passed to sort
=> []

See also sort-by, sort-on.

sort-by1.3

sort-by reporter list sort-by reporter agentset

If the input is a list, reports a new list containing the same items as the input list, in a sorted order defined by the boolean reporter. reporter may be an anonymous reporter or the name of a reporter.

The two inputs to reporter are the values being compared. The reporter should report true if the first argument comes strictly before the second in the desired sort order, and false otherwise.

If the input is an agentset or a list of agents, reports a list (never an agentset) of agents.

If the input is a list, the sort is stable, that is, the order of items considered equal by the reporter is not disturbed. If the input is an agentset, ties are broken randomly.

show sort-by < [3 1 4 2]
=> [1 2 3 4]
show sort-by > [3 1 4 2]
=> [4 3 2 1]
show sort-by [ [string1 string2] -> length string1 < length string2 ] ["Grumpy" "Doc" "Happy"]
=> ["Doc" "Happy" "Grumpy"]

See also sort, sort-on, -> (anonymous procedure).

sort-on5.0

sort-on [reporter] agentset

Reports a list of agents, sorted according to each agent's value for reporter. Ties are broken randomly.

The values must be all numbers, all strings, or all agents of the same type.

crt 3
show sort-on [who] turtles
=> [(turtle 0) (turtle 1) (turtle 2)]
show sort-on [(- who)] turtles
=> [(turtle 2) (turtle 1) (turtle 0)]
foreach sort-on [size] turtles
  [ the-turtle -> ask the-turtle [ do-something ] ]
;; turtles run "do-something" one at a time, in
;; ascending order by size

See also sort, sort-by.

sprout1.0

sprout number [ commands ] sprout-<breeds> number [ commands ]

Creates number new turtles on the current patch. The new turtles have random integer headings and the color is randomly selected from the 14 primary colors. The turtles immediately run commands. This is useful for giving the new turtles different colors, headings, or whatever. (The new turtles are created all at once then run one at a time, in random order.)

If the sprout-<breeds> form is used, the new turtles are created as members of the given breed.

If number is fractional, it will be rounded down to the nearest integer (4.5 becomes 4, 10.9 becomes 10).

sprout 5
sprout-wolves 10
sprout 1 [ set color red ]
sprout-sheep 1 [ set color black ]

See also create-turtles, hatch.

sqrt1.0

sqrt number

Reports the square root of number.

stamp1.0

stamp

This turtle or link leaves an image of its shape in the drawing at its current location.

Note: The shapes made by stamp may not be pixel-for-pixel identical from computer to computer.

stamp-erase3.1

stamp-erase

This turtle or link removes any pixels below it in the drawing inside the bounds of its shape.

Note: The shapes made by stamp-erase may not be pixel-for-pixel identical from computer to computer.

standard-deviation1.0

standard-deviation list

Reports the sample standard deviation of a list of numbers. Ignores other types of items.

(Note that this estimates the standard deviation for a sample, rather than for a whole population, using Bessel's correction.)

show standard-deviation [1 2 3 4 5 6]
=> 1.8708286933869707
show standard-deviation [energy] of turtles
;; prints the standard deviation of the variable "energy"
;; from all the turtles

See this FAQ question for information on possible issues using standard-deviation with agentsets

startup

startup

User-defined procedure which, if it exists, will be called when a model is first loaded in the NetLogo application.

to startup
  setup
end

startup does not run when a model is run headless from the command line, or by parallel BehaviorSpace.

stop1.0

stop

This agent exits immediately from the enclosing procedure, ask, or ask-like construct (e.g. crt, hatch, sprout). Only the enclosing procedure or construct stops, not all execution for the agent.

if not any? turtles [ stop ]
;; exits if there are no more turtles

Note: stop can also be used to stop a forever button. See Buttons in the Programming Guide for details.

stop can also be used to stop a BehaviorSpace model run. If the go commands directly call a procedure, then when that procedure calls stop, the run ends.

stop-inspecting5.2

stop-inspecting agent

Closes the agent monitor for the given agent (turtle or patch). In the case that no agent monitor is open, stop-inspecting does nothing.

stop-inspecting patch 2 4
;; the agent monitor for that patch closes
ask sheep [ stop-inspecting self ]
;; close all agent monitors for sheep

See inspect and stop-inspecting-dead-agents.

stop-inspecting-dead-agents5.2

stop-inspecting-dead-agents

Closes all agent monitors for dead agents. See inspect and stop-inspecting.

subject3.0

subject

Reports the turtle (or patch) that the observer is currently watching, following, or riding. Reports nobody if there is no such turtle (or patch).

See also watch, follow, ride.

sublist2.1 substring1.0

sublist list position1 position2 substring string position1 position2

Reports just a section of the given list or string, ranging between the first position (inclusive) and the second position (exclusive).

If either position is fractional, it will be rounded down to the nearest integer (4.5 becomes 4, 10.9 becomes 10).

Note: The positions are numbered beginning with 0, not with 1.

show sublist [99 88 77 66] 1 3
=> [88 77]
show substring "apartment" 1 5
=> "part"

subtract-headings2.1

subtract-headings heading1 heading2

Computes the difference between the given headings, that is, the number of degrees in the smallest angle by which heading2 could be rotated to produce heading1. A positive answer means a clockwise rotation, a negative answer counterclockwise. The result is always in the range -180 to 180, but is never exactly -180.

Note that simply subtracting the two headings using the - (minus) operator wouldn't work. Just subtracting corresponds to always rotating clockwise from heading2 to heading1; but sometimes the counterclockwise rotation is shorter. For example, the difference between 5 degrees and 355 degrees is 10 degrees, not -350 degrees.

show subtract-headings 80 60
=> 20
show subtract-headings 60 80
=> -20
show subtract-headings 5 355
=> 10
show subtract-headings 355 5
=> -10
show subtract-headings 180 0
=> 180
show subtract-headings 0 180
=> 180

sum1.0

sum list

Reports the sum of the items in the list.

show sum [energy] of turtles
;; prints the total of the variable "energy"
;; from all the turtles

See this FAQ question for information on possible issues using sum with agentsets

tan1.0

tan number

Reports the tangent of the given angle. Assumes the angle is given in degrees.

thickness

thickness

This is a built-in link variable. It holds a number that is the link's apparent size as a fraction of the patch size. The default thickness is 0, which means that regardless of patch-size the links will always appear 1 pixel wide. You can set this variable to change a link's thickness.

tick4.0

tick

Advances the tick counter by one and updates all plots.

If the tick counter has not been started yet with reset-ticks, an error results.

Normally tick goes at the end of a go procedure.

See also ticks, tick-advance, reset-ticks, clear-ticks, update-plots.

tick-advance4.0

tick-advance number

Advances the tick counter by number. The input may be an integer or a floating point number. (Some models divide ticks more finely than by ones.) The input may not be negative.

When using tick-based view updates, the view is normally updated every 1.0 ticks, so using tick-advance with a number less then 1.0 may not always trigger an update. If you want to make sure that the view is updated, you can use the display command.

If the tick counter has not been started yet with reset-ticks, an error results.

Does not update plots.

See also tick, ticks, reset-ticks, clear-ticks.

ticks4.0

ticks

Reports the current value of the tick counter. The result is always a number and never negative.

If the tick counter has not been started yet with reset-ticks, an error results.

Most models use the tick command to advance the tick counter, in which case ticks will always report an integer. If the tick-advance command is used, then ticks may report a floating point number.

See also tick, tick-advance, reset-ticks, clear-ticks.

tie4.0

tie

Ties end1 and end2 of the link together. If the link is a directed link end1 is the root turtle and end2 is the leaf turtle. The movement of the root turtle affects the location and heading of the leaf turtle. If the link is undirected the tie is reciprocal so both turtles can be considered root turtles and leaf turtles. Movement or change in heading of either turtle affects the location and heading of the other turtle.

When the root turtle moves, the leaf turtles moves the same distance, in the same direction. The heading of the leaf turtle is not affected. This works with forward, jump, and setting the xcor or ycor of the root turtle.

When the root turtle turns right or left, the leaf turtle is rotated around the root turtle the same amount. The heading of the leaf turtle is also changed by the same amount.

If the link dies, the tie relation is removed.

crt 2 [ fd 3 ]
;; creates a link and ties turtle 1 to turtle 0
ask turtle 0 [ create-link-to turtle 1 [ tie ] ]

See also untie

tie-mode

tie-mode

This is a built-in link variable. It holds a string that is the name of the tie mode the link is currently in. Using the tie and untie commands changes the mode of the link. You can also set tie-mode to "free" to create a non-rigid joint between two turtles (see the Tie section of the Programming Guide for details). By default links are not tied.

See also: tie, untie

timer1.0

timer

Reports how many seconds have passed since the command reset-timer was last run (or since NetLogo started). The potential resolution of the clock is milliseconds. (Whether you get resolution that high in practice may vary from system to system, depending on the capabilities of the underlying Java Virtual Machine.)

See also reset-timer.

Note that the timer is different from the tick counter. The timer measures elapsed real time in seconds; the tick counter measures elapsed model time in ticks.

to

to procedure-name to procedure-name [input1 ...]

Used to begin a command procedure.

to setup
  clear-all
  crt 500
end

to circle [radius]
  crt 100 [ fd radius ]
end

to-report

to-report procedure-name to-report procedure-name [input1 ...]

Used to begin a reporter procedure.

The body of the procedure should use report to report a value for the procedure. See report.

to-report average [a b]
  report (a + b) / 2
end

to-report absolute-value [number]
  ifelse number >= 0
    [ report number ]
    [ report (- number) ]
end

to-report first-turtle?
  report who = 0  ;; reports true or false
end

towards1.0

towards agent

Reports the heading from this agent to the given agent.

If wrapping is allowed by the topology and the wrapped distance (around the edges of the world) is shorter, towards will use the wrapped path.

Note: asking for the heading from an agent to itself, or an agent on the same location, will cause a runtime error.

set heading towards turtle 1
;; same as "face turtle 1"

See also face.

towardsxy1.0

towardsxy x y

Reports the heading from the turtle or patch towards the point (x,y).

If wrapping is allowed by the topology and the wrapped distance (around the edges of the world) is shorter, towardsxy will use the wrapped path.

Note: asking for the heading to the point the agent is already standing on will cause a runtime error.

See also facexy.

turtle1.0

turtle number <breed> number

Reports the turtle with the given who number, or nobody if there is no such turtle. For breeded turtles you may also use the single breed form to refer to them.

ask turtle 5 [ set color red ]
;; turtle with who number 5 turns red

turtle-set4.0

turtle-set value1 (turtle-set value1 value2 ...)

Reports an agentset containing all of the turtles anywhere in any of the inputs. The inputs may be individual turtles, turtle agentsets, nobody, or lists (or nested lists) containing any of the above.

turtle-set self
(turtle-set self turtles-on neighbors)
(turtle-set turtle 0 turtle 2 turtle 9)
(turtle-set frogs mice)

See also patch-set, link-set.

turtles1.0

turtles

Reports the agentset consisting of all turtles. This is a special agentset that can grow as turtles are added to the world, see the programming guide for more info.

show count turtles
;; prints the number of turtles

turtles-at1.0

turtles-at dx dy <breeds>-at dx dy

Reports an agentset containing the turtles on the patch (dx, dy) from the caller. (The result may include the caller itself if the caller is a turtle.)

create-turtles 5 [ setxy 2 3 ]
show count [turtles-at 1 1] of patch 1 2
=> 5

If the name of a breed is substituted for "turtles", then only turtles of that breed are included.

turtles-here1.0

turtles-here <breeds>-here

Reports an agentset containing all the turtles on the caller's patch (including the caller itself if it's a turtle).

crt 10
ask turtle 0 [ show count turtles-here ]
=> 10

If the name of a breed is substituted for "turtles", then only turtles of that breed are included.

breed [cats cat]
breed [dogs dog]
create-cats 5
create-dogs 1
ask dogs [ show count cats-here ]
=> 5

turtles-on2.0

turtles-on agent turtles-on agentset <breeds>-on agent <breeds>-on agentset

Reports an agentset containing all the turtles that are on the given patch or patches, or standing on the same patch as the given turtle or turtles.

ask turtles [
  if not any? turtles-on patch-ahead 1
    [ fd 1 ]
]
ask turtles [
  if not any? turtles-on neighbors [
    die-of-loneliness
  ]
]

If the name of a breed is substituted for "turtles", then only turtles of that breed are included.

turtles-own

turtles-own [var1 ...] <breeds>-own [var1 ...]

The turtles-own keyword, like the globals, breed, <breeds>-own, and patches-own keywords, can only be used at the beginning of a program, before any function definitions. It defines the variables belonging to each turtle.

If you specify a breed instead of "turtles", only turtles of that breed have the listed variables. (More than one turtle breed may list the same variable.)

breed [cats cat ]
breed [dogs dog]
breed [hamsters hamster]
turtles-own [eyes legs]   ;; applies to all breeds
cats-own [fur kittens]
hamsters-own [fur cage]
dogs-own [hair puppies]

See also globals, patches-own, breed, <breeds>-own.

type1.0

type value

Prints value in the Command Center, not followed by a carriage return (unlike print and show). The lack of a carriage return allows you to print several values on the same line.

This agent is not printed before the value. unlike show.

type 3 type " " print 4
=> 3 4

See also print, show, write, output-type, and Output (programming guide).

undirected-link-breed

undirected-link-breed [<link-breeds> <link-breed>]

This keyword, like the globals and breeds keywords, can only be used at the beginning of the Code tab, before any procedure definitions. It defines an undirected link breed. Links of a particular breed are always either all directed or all undirected. The first input defines the name of the agentset associated with the link breed. The second input defines the name of a single member of the breed.

Any link of the given link breed:

• is part of the agentset named by the link breed name
• has its built-in variable breed set to that agentset
• is directed or undirected as declared by the keyword

Most often, the agentset is used in conjunction with ask to give commands to only the links of a particular breed.

undirected-link-breed [streets street]
undirected-link-breed [highways highway]
to setup
  clear-all
  crt 2
  ask turtle 0 [ create-street-with turtle 1 ]
  ask turtle 0 [ create-highway-with turtle 1 ]
end

ask turtle 0 [ show sort my-links ]
;; prints [(street 0 1) (highway 0 1)]

See also breed, directed-link-breed

untie4.0

untie

Unties end2 from end1 (sets tie-mode to "none") if they were previously tied together. If the link is an undirected link, then it will untie end1 from end2 as well. It does not remove the link between the two turtles.

See also tie

See the Tie section of the Programming Guide for more details.

up-to-n-of6.1

up-to-n-of size agentset up-to-n-of size list

From an agentset, reports an agentset of size size randomly chosen from the input set, with no repeats. If the input does not have enough agents to satisfy the size, reports the entire agentset.

From a list, reports a list of size size randomly chosen from the input set, with no repeats. The items in the result appear in the same order that they appeared in the input list. (If you want them in random order, use shuffle on the result.) If the input does not have enough items to satisfy the size, reports the entire list.

If size is fractional, it will be rounded down to the nearest integer (4.5 becomes 4, 10.9 becomes 10).

ask up-to-n-of 50 patches [ set pcolor green ]
;; 50 randomly chosen patches turn green
;; if less than 50 patches exist, they all turn green

See also n-of, one-of.

update-plots5.0

update-plots

For each plot, runs that plot's update commands, including the update code for any pens in the plot.

tick has the same effect, so in models that use the tick counter, this primitive is not normally used. Models that use fractional ticks may need update-plots, since tick-advance does not update the plots.

See the Plotting section of the Programming Guide for more details.

See also setup-plots.

uphill1.0 uphill41.0

uphill patch-variable uphill4 patch-variable

Moves the turtle to the neighboring patch with the highest value for patch-variable. If no neighboring patch has a higher value than the current patch, the turtle stays put. If there are multiple patches with the same highest value, the turtle picks one randomly. Non-numeric values are ignored.

uphill considers the eight neighboring patches; uphill4 only considers the four neighbors.

Equivalent to the following code (assumes variable values are numeric):

          move-to patch-here  ;; go to patch center
          let p max-one-of neighbors [patch-variable]  ;; or neighbors4
          if [patch-variable] of p > patch-variable [
          face p
          move-to p
          ]

Note that the turtle always ends up on a patch center and has a heading that is a multiple of 45 (uphill) or 90 (uphill4).

See also downhill, downhill4.

user-directory3.1

user-directory

Opens a dialog that allows the user to choose an existing directory on the system.

It reports a string with the absolute path or false if the user cancels.

set-current-directory user-directory
;; Assumes the user will choose a directory

user-file3.1

user-file

Opens a dialog that allows the user to choose an existing file on the system.

It reports a string with the absolute file path or false if the user cancels.

file-open user-file
;; Assumes the user will choose a file

user-new-file3.1

user-new-file

Opens a dialog that allows the user to choose a location and name of a new file to be created. It reports a string with the absolute file path or false if the user cancels.

file-open user-new-file
;; Assumes the user will choose a file

Note that this reporter doesn't actually create the file; normally you would create the file using file-open, as in the example.

If the user chooses an existing file, they will be asked if they wish to replace it or not, but the reporter itself doesn't cause the file to be replaced. To do that you would use file-delete.

Note: This primitive is not compatible with NetLogo Web. If you wish to read the contents of a file with the same code and the same behavior in both NetLogo and NetLogo Web, see fetch:user-file-async.

user-input1.1

user-input value

Reports the string that a user types into an entry field in a dialog with title value.

value may be of any type, but is typically a string.

show user-input "What is your name?"

See the User Interaction Primitives section of the Programming Guide for additional details.

user-message1.1

user-message value

Opens a dialog with value displayed as the message to the user.

value may be of any type, but is typically a string.

user-message (word "There are " count turtles " turtles.")

Note that if a user closes the user-message dialog with the "X" in the corner, the behavior will be the same as if they had clicked "OK".

See the User Interaction Primitives section of the Programming Guide for additional details.

user-one-of3.1

user-one-of value list-of-choices

Opens a dialog with value displayed as the message and list-of-choices displayed as a popup menu for the user to select from.

Reports the item in list-of-choices selected by the user.

value may be of any type, but is typically a string.

if "yes" = user-one-of "Set up the model?" ["yes" "no"]
  [ setup ]

Note: This primitive is not compatible with NetLogo Web. If you wish to read a chooser value from the user with the same code and the same behavior in both NetLogo and NetLogo Web, see dialog:user-one-of.

See the User Interaction Primitives section of the Programming Guide for additional details.

user-yes-or-no?2.0

user-yes-or-no? value

Reports true or false based on the user's response to value.

value may be of any type, but is typically a string.

if user-yes-or-no? "Set up the model?"
  [ setup ]

Note: This primitive is not compatible with NetLogo Web. If you wish to read a true or false value from the user with the same code and the same behavior in both NetLogo and NetLogo Web, see dialog:user-yes-or-no?.

See the User Interaction Primitives section of the Programming Guide for additional details.

variance1.0

variance list

Reports the sample variance of a list of numbers. Ignores other types of items.

(Note that this computes an unbiased estimate of the variance for a sample, rather than for a whole population, using Bessel's correction.)

The sample variance is the sum of the squares of the deviations of the numbers from their mean, divided by one less than the number of numbers in the list.

show variance [2 7 4 3 5]
=> 3.7

See this FAQ question for information on possible issues using variance with agentsets

wait1.0

wait number

Wait the given number of seconds. (This needn't be an integer; you can specify fractions of seconds.) Note that you can't expect complete precision; the agent will never wait less than the given amount, but might wait slightly more.

repeat 10 [ fd 1 wait 0.5 ]

While the agent is waiting, no other agents can do anything. Everything stops until the agent is done.

See also every.

watch3.0

watch agent

Puts a spotlight on agent. In the 3D view the observer will also turn to face the subject.

The observer may only watch or follow a single subject. Calling watch will undo perspective changes caused by prior calls to follow, follow-me, ride, and ride-me.

See also follow, subject, reset-perspective, ride, ride-me, watch-me.

watch-me3.0

watch-me

Asks the observer to watch this agent.

The observer may only watch or follow a single subject. Calling watch will undo perspective changes caused by prior calls to follow, follow-me, ride, and ride-me.

See also follow, subject, reset-perspective, ride, ride-me, watch.

while1.0

while [reporter] [ commands ]

If reporter reports false, exit the loop. Otherwise run commands and repeat.

The reporter may have different values for different agents, so some agents may run commands a different number of times than other agents.

while [any? other turtles-here]
  [ fd 1 ]
;; turtle moves until it finds a patch that has
;; no other turtles on it

who

who

This is a built-in turtle variable. It holds the turtle's "who number" or ID number, an integer greater than or equal to zero. You cannot set this variable; a turtle's who number never changes.

Who numbers start at 0. A dead turtle's number will not be reassigned to a new turtle until you use the clear-turtles or clear-all commands, at which time who numbering starts over again at 0.

Example:

show [who] of turtles with [color = red]
;; prints a list of the who numbers of all red turtles
;; in the Command Center, in random order
crt 100
  [ ifelse who < 50
      [ set color red ]
      [ set color blue ] ]
;; turtles 0 through 49 are red, turtles 50
;; through 99 are blue

You can use the turtle reporter to retrieve a turtle with a given who number. See also turtle.

Note that who numbers aren't breed-specific. No two turtles can have the same who number, even if they are different breeds:

clear-turtles
create-frogs 1
create-mice 1
ask turtles [ print who ]
;; prints (in some random order):
;; (frog 0): 0
;; (mouse 1): 1

Even though we only have one mouse, it is mouse 1 not mouse 0, because the who number 0 was already taken by the frog.

with1.0

agentset with [reporter]

Takes two inputs: on the left, an agentset (usually "turtles" or "patches"). On the right, a boolean reporter. Reports a new agentset containing only those agents that reported true -- in other words, the agents satisfying the given condition.

show count patches with [pcolor = red]
;; prints the number of red patches

<breed>-with link-with4.0

<breed>-with turtle link-with turtle

Reports a link between turtle and the caller (directed or undirected, incoming or outgoing). If no link exists then it reports nobody. If more than one such link exists, reports a random one.

crt 2
ask turtle 0 [
  create-link-with turtle 1
  show link-with turtle 1 ;; prints link 0 1
]

See also: in-link-from, out-link-to

with-max2.1

agentset with-max [reporter]

Takes two inputs: on the left, an agentset (usually "turtles" or "patches"). On the right, a reporter. Reports a new agentset containing all agents reporting the maximum value of the given reporter.

show count patches with-max [pxcor]
;; prints the number of patches on the right edge

See also max-one-of, max-n-of.

with-min2.1

agentset with-min [reporter]

Takes two inputs: on the left, an agentset (usually "turtles" or "patches"). On the right, a reporter. Reports a new agentset containing only those agents that have the minimum value of the given reporter.

show count patches with-min [pycor]
;; prints the number of patches on the bottom edge

See also min-one-of, min-n-of.

with-local-randomness4.0

with-local-randomness [ commands ]

The commands are run without affecting subsequent random events. This is useful for performing extra operations (such as output) without changing the outcome of a model.

Example:

;; Run #1:
random-seed 50 setup repeat 10 [ go ]
;; Run #2:
random-seed 50 setup
with-local-randomness [ watch one-of turtles ]
repeat 10 [ go ]

Since one-of is used inside with-local-randomness, both runs will be identical.

Specifically how it works is, the state of the random number generator is remembered before the commands run, then restored afterwards. (If you want to run the commands with a fresh random state instead of the same random state that will be restored later, you can begin the commands with random-seed new-seed.)

The following example demonstrates that the random number generator state is the same both before the commands run and afterwards.

random-seed 10
with-local-randomness [ print n-values 10 [random 10] ]
;; prints [8 9 8 4 2 4 5 4 7 9]
print n-values 10 [random 10]
;; prints [8 9 8 4 2 4 5 4 7 9]

without-interruption1.1

without-interruption [ commands ]

This primitive exists only for backwards compatibility. We don't recommend using it in new models.

The agent runs all the commands in the block without allowing other agents using ask-concurrent to "interrupt". That is, other agents are put "on hold" and do not run any commands until the commands in the block are finished.

Note: This command is only useful in conjunction with ask-concurrent.

See also ask-concurrent.

word1.0

word value1 value2 (word value1 ...)

Concatenates the inputs together and reports the result as a string.

show word "tur" "tle"
=> "turtle"
word "a" 6
=> "a6"
set directory "c:\\foo\\fish\\"
show word directory "bar.txt"
=> "c:\foo\fish\bar.txt"
show word [1 54 8] "fishy"
=> "[1 54 8]fishy"
show (word 3)
=> "3"
show (word "a" "b" "c" 1 23)
=> "abc123"

world-width3.1 world-height3.1

world-width world-height

These reporters give the total width and height of the NetLogo world.

The width equals max-pxcor - min-pxcor + 1 and the height equals max-pycor - min-pycor + 1.

See also max-pxcor, max-pycor, min-pxcor, and min-pycor

wrap-color1.0

wrap-color number

wrap-color checks whether number is in the NetLogo color range of 0 to 140 (not including 140 itself). If it is not, wrap-color "wraps" the numeric input to the 0 to 140 range.

The wrapping is done by repeatedly adding or subtracting 140 from the given number until it is in the 0 to 140 range. (This is the same wrapping that is done automatically if you assign an out-of-range number to the color turtle variable or pcolor patch variable.)

show wrap-color 150
=> 10
show wrap-color -10
=> 130

write2.0

write value

This command will output value, which can be a number, string, list, boolean, or nobody to the Command Center, not followed by a carriage return (unlike print and show).

This agent is not printed before the value, unlike show. Its output also includes quotes around strings and is prepended with a space.

write "hello world"
=>  "hello world"

See also print, show, type, output-write, and Output (programming guide).

xcor

xcor

This is a built-in turtle variable. It holds the current x coordinate of the turtle. You can set this variable to change the turtle's location.

This variable is always greater than or equal to (min-pxcor - 0.5) and strictly less than (max-pxcor + 0.5).

See also setxy, ycor, pxcor, pycor,

xor1.0

boolean1 xor boolean2

Reports true if either boolean1 or boolean2 is true, but not when both are true. Otherwise returns false.

if (pxcor > 0) xor (pycor > 0)
  [ set pcolor blue ]
;; upper-left and lower-right quadrants turn blue

ycor

ycor

This is a built-in turtle variable. It holds the current y coordinate of the turtle. You can set this variable to change the turtle's location.

This variable is always greater than or equal to (min-pycor - 0.5) and strictly less than (max-pycor + 0.5).

See also setxy, xcor, pxcor, pycor,

->6.0

[ [args] -> commands ] [ [args] -> reporter ]

Creates and reports an anonymous procedure - a command or reporter - depending on the input. Within commands or reporter the listed args may be used just as you would use let or procedure variables. The variable names in args have the same restrictions as variable names of commands and reporters. In addition, they must not match the name of any let or procedure variable in their procedure.

Anonymous procedures are commonly used with the primitives foreach, map, reduce, filter, sort-by, and n-values. See those entries for example usage.

See the Anonymous Procedures section of the Programming Guide for details.