Data Types and Variables
Implicit Types
Data types in Csound 6 and earlier were declared one of the characters i, k, a, S, w as first character of the variable name. This applied for local variables which are only valid in the scope of an instrument. For global variables these type specifiers were prefixed by the g character.
| Local | Global | Data type | Updated at | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| i | gi | number | initalization (i-rate) | iFreq giTable |
| k | gk | number | control cycle (k-rate) | kAmp gkCount |
| a | ga | number | audio sample (a-rate) | aOut gaReverb |
| S | gS | string | i-rate or k-rate | S_file gS_host |
| f | gf | spectral | k-rate | fSig gfSig |
| w | - | spectral (old) | k-rate | - |
| i[] | gi[] | array | i-rate | iArr[] giArr[] |
| k[] | gk[] | array | k-rate | kArr[] gkArr[] |
Explicit Types
In Csound 7 the data type can be given explicitely, without being bound to the name.
nchnls = 2
0dbfs = 1
instr 1
freq:i = 442
amp:k = linen:k(1,.1,p3,.1)
sine:a = poscil:a(.2,freq)
outch(1,sine*amp)
dB@global:i = -6
env@global:k = linseg(1,p3,0)
tri@global:a = vco2(.3,200)
endin
schedule(1,0,3)
instr 2
outch(2,tri*ampdb(dB)*env)
endin
schedule(2,0,3)
Constants and Reserved Symbols
Constants are available continuously and do not change in value. Usually they are connected with reserved symbols and written in the orchestra header: