What are lists?

A list is just a type of variable that holds a bunch of data instead of a single value. For example, you can have a list of numbers or words. Here's an operation to store a word bank into the verbs list for a poetry program:

This is a lot more convenient than creating 7 different variables for each verb you wanted to store, like verb1, verb2, and so on! If you want to add more verbs to this list, just click the (+) button in the add to list block instead of creating a whole new variable.

List variables can hold as many elements as you like and any kind of data you like (numbers, text, and more). You can think of a list as a little bit like a real-life shopping list. They are great for storing lots of data in one place. Each item in a list is stored in order, which allows you to perform all sorts of interesting operations on lists.

You can add a new list variable yourself in the Variables section of the Code Palette, using the CREATE LIST button. The blocks to add, delete, insert, and replace items from lists are also available in the Variables section.

For example, here is a block that returns a random element from the verbs list: