pinescript

Pine Script Development

Verify before implementing: For Pine Script version-specific syntax or new built-in functions, look up current docs via Context7 (query-docs) before writing code. TradingView updates Pine Script frequently and training data may be stale.

Critical Syntax Rules

• Ternary operators MUST stay on one line -- splitting across lines causes "end of line without line continuation" error. For complex ternaries, use intermediate variables:

  isBull = close > open
  barColor = isBull ? color.green : color.red
  

• Continuation lines outside parentheses MUST be indented by a non-multiple of 4 -- same indentation as the start errors, and 4/8/12 spaces parse as a local block and error too (2 spaces is the conventional choice). Inside parentheses (function calls, parenthesized expressions) any indentation works, including multiples of 4
• NEVER use plot() inside local scopes (if/for/functions) -- use conditional value instead: plot(condition ? value : na)
• barstate.isconfirmed -- use to prevent repainting on real-time bars

Platform Limits

500 bars history for request.security() | 500 plot calls | 64 drawing objects | 40 request.security() calls | 100KB compiled size

• Drawings positioned with xloc.bar_index reach at most 9,999 bars into the past and 500 into the future; for anything older, switch the drawing to xloc.bar_time and pass a timestamp (a time value without xloc.bar_time is treated as a future bar index and errors)
• Cap drawing growth with a rolling buffer: push each new object into an array, then line.delete(arr.shift()) once arr.size() exceeds the intended count -- otherwise the oldest drawings silently vanish at the 64-object limit

Performance

• Tuple security calls -- one request.security() returning [close, high, low] instead of 3 separate calls
• Pre-allocate arrays with array.new<type>(size) instead of push-and-resize
• Short-circuit signals: build conditions incrementally, exit early when first condition fails
• Cache repeated calculations in variables -- Pine recalculates every bar
• Iterate collections with for item in myArray (or for [i, item] in myArray) instead of for i = 0 to array.size(...) - 1 -- the indexed form re-evaluates the bound each pass and breaks when the loop mutates the array's size
• Model related values as a user-defined type, not parallel arrays: type Trade with float entry, int startBar, plus method functions, stored in one array<Trade>. Parallel arrays (entries, startBars, ...) desync on any missed push/remove and every operation must be repeated per array; one typed array keeps each object's fields together