Setting Up Your Environment

Notebooks and cells

A notebook is a document made of cells. Type an expression in an input cell and press Shift + Enter to evaluate it. The result appears in an output cell below, labelled like this:

In[1]:= 3 + 4
Out[1]= 7

• Enter alone starts a new line in the same cell.
• Choose Format → Style → Text (or press Alt + 7) to turn a cell into a text cell for notes. Section and title styles organize long notebooks.
• % means "the last result"; %% the one before.
• A semicolon at the end hides the output: x = 5;.
• Alt + . (Cmd + . on macOS) aborts a long evaluation.

Typing math

You can type everything as plain text, but notebooks also accept typeset math:

• Ctrl + / starts a fraction, Ctrl + 6 a superscript, Ctrl + 2 a square root.
• Esc p Esc types π, Esc inf Esc types ∞.

Getting help

• ?Plot shows a short description of Plot; ??Plot shows more.
• Select a function name and press F1 to open its page in the Documentation Center. Every page has runnable examples — the best way to learn a new function.
• Online, all documentation is at reference.wolfram.com.

Other editors

• VS Code — the official Wolfram Language extension gives syntax highlighting, error checking, and running code with the Wolfram Engine.
• Jupyter — the Wolfram Language for Jupyter kernel lets you use the Wolfram Engine from Jupyter notebooks.
• Script files use the extension .wls (Wolfram Language script) or .wl (package); notebooks use .nb.