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Built-in Functions

Macros are built-in functions that perform some common tasks. Below is a list of some common macros that you can use at any stage in your CSML flows.

OneOf

Return one the elements of the array passed in the first argument at random.

Useful for randomisation of dialogue parts!

say OneOf(["I like you", "You're awesome"])

Or

If the first element exists return it, otherwise return the second argument as a default value

say Or(var, "default value")

Shuffle

Given an array, return it with its elements in a random order.

Especially useful in questions to randomize the available options!

do btn1 = Button("Blue")
do btn2 = Button("Red")
do btns = Shuffle([btn1, btn2])

say Question(
  title = "Select a pill",
  buttons = btns
)

Find

Return whether a string is contained in another string.

say Find("needle", in="haystack") // false
say Find("yes", in="well yes, I like cheese") // true

Length

Return the length of a given string or array

say Length("My horse is amazing") // 19
say Length([1, 2, 3]) // 3

Random

Return a random floating point number in the range 0-1 (0 included, 1 excluded).

say Random() // 0.03196249773128712
say Random() // 0.6416423921015862

Floor

Return the largest integer less than or equal to the given number.

say Floor(1.23456) // 1

This is useful to generate a random integer in a given range:

say Floor(Random() * 5) // a random integer between 0-4 (included)
say Floor(Random() * 8) + 12 // a random integer between 12 - 19 (included)

UUID

Generate a random UUID (v1 or v4, defaults to v4)

say UUID() // "aa4b9fb4-4d37-488c-981f-8aebc4eb9eaa"
say UUID("v1") // "d0b40e8e-7ea4-11eb-9439-0242ac130002"
say UUID("v4") // "4b784011-e49b-4913-9d58-7abf4f8a56bc"

Time

The Time() helpers lets your manipulate timestamps and dates easily.

do myTime = Time() // initialize a Time object at the current UTC time
do myTime = Time().at(2021, 03, 28, 12, 53, 20, 123) // initialize a time object at 2021-03-28T12:53:20.123Z

do myTime = Time().unix() // generate the unix timestamp (in milliseconds)

do myTime = Time().format() // returns an ISO8601 string
do myTime = Time().format("%h%d") // returns a string with a custom format

do myTime = Time().add(60) // adds 60 seconds to the value
do myTime = Time().sub(60) // subtract 60 seconds to the value

do myTime = Time().with_timezone("Europe/Paris") // set the time in the given timezone

do myTime = Time().parse("2021-03-28") // parse a date
do myTime = Time().parse("2021-03-28T12:53:20Z") // parse an ISO-formatted string
do myTime = Time().parse("01/01/2021", "%d/%m/%Y") // parse a custom-formatted string

CSML's Time function is based on Rust's Chrono library. All the formatting options are listed here: https://docs.rs/chrono/0.4.19/chrono/format/strftime/index.html

Exists

Check if a variable has been saved in the chatbot's memory before for the current user.

do Exists("myvar") // false
remember myvar = 123
do Exists("myvar") // true

Exists only checks for the existance of top-level variable names in the chatbot's memory for the current user, i.e obj and not obj.prop