Library Feature introduced in PineScript version 5

Library in PineScript 5

PineScript 5 launched in Oct 2021 has Library Feature that allows users to import functions from another file saved as library file. 

Library filetype has been introduced in pinescript 5, the way a study code or strategy code were created in version 4 of pinescript, now you can also create a library file. This library file can contain one or more functions that can be exported from the library file. 

Export in PineScript 5

For export of function from pinescript , you will be required to add export keyword before the function name and save the file containing function as a library file. A example is shown below for understanding 

01: //@version=5 02: 03: library("myEMA") 04: 05: export myEMA(int x) => 06:  ta.ema(close,x)

In the above code at line no 5 export keyword is used with the custom function myEMA which takes one integer variable as input. At line no 3, the file has been defined as a library file. A library file can have one or many functions and all or some of them can be exported from the file. 

To be able to export a function, the saved library file has to be published. You can either publish the library file as "public" or "private". Each library file when publish will prove a link for importing thr functions exported in the library file.  

Import in PineScript 5

The functions can be imported in a indicator or a strategy file as per the requirement of use, The "import" keyword can be used for importing all the functions exported by the export keyword from the librry file that has been published. 

The import keyword is followed by the path of the published library file. Usually the name of the path is [username]/[title of the library file]/[version of the library file]

Below is a simple code to import the function exported vide the library file discussed in the code of previous section.

01: //@version=5
02: indicator("test lib")
03: import username/myEMA/1 as s
04: plot(s.myEMA(7))
05: plot(s.myEMA(14))

The above code will import the functions of the library file and store all the functions thus imported in the container or alias name "S". Any of the function exported can be accessed from this alias name by using a dot operator. For example "s.myEMA".

Differences between pinescript version 4 and 5

 TradingView has released version 5 of pinescript with some new features. Some of the coders from old version may find that names of commonly used indicators have changed. I am listing here few of the changes that I noticed while converting and running  version 4 script in version 5. 

1. The "transp" property from plotshape function and plot function have been removed. You can use transp property from color.new function.

2. All the technical indicators are now required to be accessed from a "ta" namespace i.e. sma will be written as ta.sma, ema will become ta.ema and so on. Futher some of the other functions will also require "ta" namespace line ta.crossover or ta.valuewhen

3. Math functions has been moved to "math" namespace. The commonly used abs function is now required to be written as math.abs

4. The "iff" statement is no more, you have to convert all the statements written in "iff" to ternary operator using "?".

5. The name of study function has been changed to "indicators".

6. The most waited "while" loop has been included in version 5

7. Switch statement has been introduced in the new version of pinescript.

Apart from the above major changes that you may face while converting pinescript version 4 script to version 5, you will notice new features in version 5.

Libraries have been introduced and now you can also use default values in the user defined functions. We will discuss these new features in next post. 

Happy programming !