Interacting With Julia

Julia comes with a full-featured interactive command-line REPL (read-eval-print loop) built into the julia executable. In addition to allowing quick and easy evaluation of Julia statements, it has a searchable history, tab-completion, many helpful keybindings, and dedicated help and shell modes. The REPL can be started by simply calling julia with no arguments or double-clicking on the executable:

$ julia
               _
   _       _ _(_)_     |  A fresh approach to technical computing
  (_)     | (_) (_)    |  Documentation: https://docs.julialang.org
   _ _   _| |_  __ _   |  Type "?help" for help.
  | | | | | | |/ _` |  |
  | | |_| | | | (_| |  |  Version 0.6.0-dev.2493 (2017-01-31 18:53 UTC)
 _/ |\__'_|_|_|\__'_|  |  Commit c99e12c* (0 days old master)
|__/                   |  x86_64-linux-gnu

julia>

To exit the interactive session, type ^D – the control key together with the d key on a blank line – or type quit() followed by the return or enter key. The REPL greets you with a banner and a julia> prompt.

The different prompt modes

The Julian mode

The REPL has four main modes of operation. The first and most common is the Julian prompt. It is the default mode of operation; each new line initially starts with julia>. It is here that you can enter Julia expressions. Hitting return or enter after a complete expression has been entered will evaluate the entry and show the result of the last expression.

julia> string(1 + 2)
"3"

There are a number useful features unique to interactive work. In addition to showing the result, the REPL also binds the result to the variable ans. A trailing semicolon on the line can be used as a flag to suppress showing the result.

julia> string(3 * 4);

julia> ans
"12"

In Julia mode, the REPL supports something called prompt pasting. This activates when pasting text that starts with julia>  into the REPL. In that case, only expressions starting with julia>  are parsed, others are removed. This makes it is possible to paste a chunk of code that has been copied from a REPL session without having to scrub away prompts and outputs. This feature is enabled by default but can be disabled or enabled at will with Base.REPL.enable_promptpaste(::Bool). If it is enabled, you can try it out by pasting the code block above this paragraph straight into the REPL. This feature does not work on the standard Windows command prompt due to its limitation at detecting when a paste occurs.

Help mode

When the cursor is at the beginning of the line, the prompt can be changed to a help mode by typing ?. Julia will attempt to print help or documentation for anything entered in help mode:

julia> ? # upon typing ?, the prompt changes (in place) to: help?>

help?> string
search: string String stringmime Cstring Cwstring RevString readstring randstring bytestring SubString

  string(xs...)

  Create a string from any values using the print function.

Macros, types and variables can also be queried:

help?> @time
  @time

  A macro to execute an expression, printing the time it took to execute, the number of allocations,
  and the total number of bytes its execution caused to be allocated, before returning the value of the
  expression.

  See also @timev, @timed, @elapsed, and @allocated.

help?> AbstractString
search: AbstractString AbstractSparseMatrix AbstractSparseVector AbstractSet

  No documentation found.

  Summary:

  abstract AbstractString <: Any

  Subtypes:

  Base.Test.GenericString
  DirectIndexString
  String

Help mode can be exited by pressing backspace at the beginning of the line.

Shell mode

Just as help mode is useful for quick access to documentation, another common task is to use the system shell to execute system commands. Just as ? entered help mode when at the beginning of the line, a semicolon (;) will enter the shell mode. And it can be exited by pressing backspace at the beginning of the line.

julia> ; # upon typing ;, the prompt changes (in place) to: shell>

shell> echo hello
hello

Search modes

In all of the above modes, the executed lines get saved to a history file, which can be searched. To initiate an incremental search through the previous history, type ^R – the control key together with the r key. The prompt will change to (reverse-i-search)`':, and as you type the search query will appear in the quotes. The most recent result that matches the query will dynamically update to the right of the colon as more is typed. To find an older result using the same query, simply type ^R again.

Just as ^R is a reverse search, ^S is a forward search, with the prompt (i-search)`':. The two may be used in conjunction with each other to move through the previous or next matching results, respectively.

Key bindings

The Julia REPL makes great use of key bindings. Several control-key bindings were already introduced above (^D to exit, ^R and ^S for searching), but there are many more. In addition to the control-key, there are also meta-key bindings. These vary more by platform, but most terminals default to using alt- or option- held down with a key to send the meta-key (or can be configured to do so).

Customizing keybindings

Julia's REPL keybindings may be fully customized to a user's preferences by passing a dictionary to REPL.setup_interface(). The keys of this dictionary may be characters or strings. The key '*' refers to the default action. Control plus character x bindings are indicated with "^x". Meta plus x can be written "\\Mx". The values of the custom keymap must be nothing (indicating that the input should be ignored) or functions that accept the signature (PromptState, AbstractREPL, Char). The REPL.setup_interface() function must be called before the REPL is initialized, by registering the operation with atreplinit(). For example, to bind the up and down arrow keys to move through history without prefix search, one could put the following code in .juliarc.jl:

import Base: LineEdit, REPL

const mykeys = Dict{Any,Any}(
    # Up Arrow
    "\e[A" => (s,o...)->(LineEdit.edit_move_up(s) || LineEdit.history_prev(s, LineEdit.mode(s).hist)),
    # Down Arrow
    "\e[B" => (s,o...)->(LineEdit.edit_move_up(s) || LineEdit.history_next(s, LineEdit.mode(s).hist))
)

function customize_keys(repl)
    repl.interface = REPL.setup_interface(repl; extra_repl_keymap = mykeys)
end

atreplinit(customize_keys)

Users should refer to base/LineEdit.jl to discover the available actions on key input.

Tab completion

In both the Julian and help modes of the REPL, one can enter the first few characters of a function or type and then press the tab key to get a list all matches:

julia> stri[TAB]
stride     strides     string      stringmime  strip

julia> Stri[TAB]
StridedArray    StridedMatrix    StridedVecOrMat  StridedVector    String

The tab key can also be used to substitute LaTeX math symbols with their Unicode equivalents, and get a list of LaTeX matches as well:

julia> \pi[TAB]
julia> π
π = 3.1415926535897...

julia> e\_1[TAB] = [1,0]
julia> e₁ = [1,0]
2-element Array{Int64,1}:
 1
 0

julia> e\^1[TAB] = [1 0]
julia> e¹ = [1 0]
1×2 Array{Int64,2}:
 1  0

julia> \sqrt[TAB]2     # √ is equivalent to the sqrt() function
julia> √2
1.4142135623730951

julia> \hbar[TAB](h) = h / 2\pi[TAB]
julia> ħ(h) = h / 2π
ħ (generic function with 1 method)

julia> \h[TAB]
\hat              \hermitconjmatrix  \hkswarow          \hrectangle
\hatapprox        \hexagon           \hookleftarrow     \hrectangleblack
\hbar             \hexagonblack      \hookrightarrow    \hslash
\heartsuit        \hksearow          \house             \hspace

julia> α="\alpha[TAB]"   # LaTeX completion also works in strings
julia> α="α"

A full list of tab-completions can be found in the Unicode Input section of the manual.

Completion of paths works for strings and julia's shell mode:

julia> path="/[TAB]"
.dockerenv  .juliabox/   boot/        etc/         lib/         media/       opt/         root/        sbin/        sys/         usr/
.dockerinit bin/         dev/         home/        lib64/       mnt/         proc/        run/         srv/         tmp/         var/
shell> /[TAB]
.dockerenv  .juliabox/   boot/        etc/         lib/         media/       opt/         root/        sbin/        sys/         usr/
.dockerinit bin/         dev/         home/        lib64/       mnt/         proc/        run/         srv/         tmp/         var/

Tab completion can help with investigation of the available methods matching the input arguments:

julia> max([TAB] # All methods are displayed, not shown here due to size of the list

julia> max([1, 2], [TAB] # All methods where `Vector{Int}` matches as first argument
max(x, y) in Base at operators.jl:215
max(a, b, c, xs...) in Base at operators.jl:281

julia> max([1, 2], max(1, 2), [TAB] # All methods matching the arguments.
max(x, y) in Base at operators.jl:215
max(a, b, c, xs...) in Base at operators.jl:281

Keywords are also displayed in the suggested methods, see second line after ; where limit and keep are keyword arguments:

julia> split("1 1 1", [TAB]
split(str::AbstractString) in Base at strings/util.jl:278
split{T<:AbstractString}(str::T, splitter; limit, keep) in Base at strings/util.jl:254

The completion of the methods uses type inference and can therefore see if the arguments match even if the arguments are output from functions. The function needs to be type stable for the completion to be able to remove non-matching methods.

Tab completion can also help completing fields:

julia> Pkg.a[TAB]
add       available

Fields for output from functions can also be completed:

julia> split("","")[1].[TAB]
endof  offset  string

The completion of fields for output from functions uses type inference, and it can only suggest fields if the function is type stable.

Customizing Colors

The colors used by Julia and the REPL can be customized, as well. To change the color of the Julia prompt you can add something like the following to your .juliarc.jl file, which is to be placed inside your home directory:

function customize_colors(repl)
    repl.prompt_color = Base.text_colors[:cyan]
end

atreplinit(customize_colors)

The available color keys can be seen by typing Base.text_colors in the help mode of the REPL. In addition, the integers 0 to 255 can be used as color keys for terminals with 256 color support.

You can also change the colors for the help and shell prompts and input and answer text by setting the appropriate field of repl in the customize_colors function above (respectively, help_color, shell_color, input_color, and answer_color). For the latter two, be sure that the envcolors field is also set to false.

It is also possible to apply boldface formatting by using Base.text_colors[:bold] as a color. For instance, to print answers in boldface font, one can use the following as a .juliarc.jl:

function customize_colors(repl)
    repl.envcolors = false
    repl.answer_color = Base.text_colors[:bold]
end

atreplinit(customize_colors)

You can also customize the color used to render warning and informational messages by setting the appropriate environment variables. For instance, to render error, warning, and informational messages respectively in magenta, yellow, and cyan you can add the following to your .juliarc.jl file:

ENV["JULIA_ERROR_COLOR"] = :magenta
ENV["JULIA_WARN_COLOR"] = :yellow
ENV["JULIA_INFO_COLOR"] = :cyan