Builtins Reference

BioLang ships with 1000+ built-in functions spanning bioinformatics, statistics, data wrangling, visualization, and systems programming. Every function is available without imports — just call it.

Not sure which statistic to use?

Start with Guided Statistics. It explains centre, spread, shape, missingness, transformations, study design, and model checks in plain language while keeping every clue inspectable.

Showing all 1000+ builtins

Name	Category	Signature	Description
print	Core	print(values...) -> nil	Print values to stdout without newline
println	Core	println(values...) -> nil	Print values to stdout with newline
len	Core	len(value) -> int	Return length of string, list, or map
type	Core	type(value) -> string	Return type name as string
range	Core	range(start, end, step?) -> list	Generate integer sequence
abs	Core	abs(n) -> number	Absolute value
min	Core	min(a, b) -> number	Return smaller of two values
max	Core	max(a, b) -> number	Return larger of two values
int	Core	int(value) -> int	Cast to integer
float	Core	float(value) -> float	Cast to float
str	Core	str(value) -> string	Cast to string
bool	Core	bool(value) -> bool	Cast to boolean
assert	Core	assert cond, msg?	Assert condition is truthy or abort
debug	Core	debug(value) -> value	Print debug representation, return value
typeof	Core	typeof(value) -> string	Alias for type()
is_nil	Core	is_nil(value) -> bool	Check if value is nil
to_string	Core	to_string(value) -> string	Convert any value to its string representation
map	Collections	map(list, fn) -> list	Apply function to each element
filter	Collections	filter(list, fn) -> list	Keep elements where fn returns true
reduce	Collections	reduce(list, fn, init?) -> value	Accumulate list into single value
sort	Collections	sort(list) -> list	Sort in ascending order
sort_by	Collections	sort_by(list, fn) -> list	Sort with custom comparator
push	Collections	push(list, value) -> list	Append element to end of list
pop	Collections	pop(list) -> value	Remove and return last element
shift	Collections	shift(list) -> value	Remove and return first element
zip	Collections	zip(a, b) -> list	Pair elements from two lists
enumerate	Collections	enumerate(list) -> list	Pair each element with its index
flatten	Collections	flatten(list) -> list	Flatten nested lists one level
reverse	Collections	reverse(list) -> list	Reverse element order
unique	Collections	unique(list) -> list	Remove duplicate elements
first	Collections	first(list) -> value	Return first element
last	Collections	last(list) -> value	Return last element
take	Collections	take(list, n) -> list	Take first n elements
drop	Collections	drop(list, n) -> list	Drop first n elements
any	Collections	any(list, fn) -> bool	True if any element matches predicate
all	Collections	all(list, fn) -> bool	True if all elements match predicate
find	Collections	find(list, fn) -> value\|nil	Find first matching element
find_index	Collections	find_index(list, fn) -> int\|nil	Find index of first match
chunk	Collections	chunk(list, size) -> list	Split list into chunks of given size
window_slide	Collections	window_slide(list, size) -> list	Sliding window over list
group_by	Collections	group_by(list, fn) -> map	Group elements by key function
stat.explore	Guided Stats	stat.explore(values, options?) -> record	Explain centre, spread, shape, and review clues
stat.scan	Guided Stats	stat.scan(table, options?) -> record	Whole-table first pass and prioritized next steps
stat.means	Guided Stats	stat.means(values, options?) -> record	Compare means and their compatible spread measures
stat.decision_map	Guided Stats	stat.decision_map(options?) -> record	Question-led map of suitable statistical approaches
stat.compare_groups	Task-first Stats	stat.compare_groups(a, b, options?) -> record	Explicit two-group method, assumptions, alternatives, and result
stat.paired_change	Task-first Stats	stat.paired_change(before, after, options?) -> record	Preserve matched pairs in an explicit paired analysis
stat.count_association	Task-first Stats	stat.count_association(counts, options?) -> record	Explicit chi-square or Fisher count-table analysis
stat.stratified_association	Task-first Stats	stat.stratified_association(strata, options?) -> record	Tarone-adjusted Breslow-Day odds-ratio homogeneity test
stat.glm_diagnostics	Guided Stats	stat.glm_diagnostics(x, y, options?) -> record	Binomial or Poisson model diagnostics
stat.random_intercept_model	Guided Stats	stat.random_intercept_model(x, y, clusters, options?) -> record	One random-intercept model with pooling diagnostics
stat.cox_diagnostics	Guided Stats	stat.cox_diagnostics(time, event, x, options?) -> record	Cox fit and survival-model diagnostic clues
mean	Math	mean(list) -> float	Arithmetic mean
median	Math	median(list) -> float	Middle value of sorted list
stdev	Math	stdev(list) -> float	Standard deviation (sample)
variance	Math	variance(list) -> float	Variance (sample)
sum	Math	sum(list) -> number	Sum of all elements
quantile	Math	quantile(list, q) -> float	Q-th quantile (0.0 to 1.0)
ttest	Math	ttest(a, b) -> map	Two-sample t-test
ttest_one	Stats	ttest_one(values, mean) -> record	One-sample, two-sided t-test
fisher_exact	Stats	fisher_exact(a, b, c, d) -> record	Fisher exact test for a 2 × 2 table
power_t_test	Stats	power_t_test(effect, alpha?, power?) -> record	Approximate required sample size per group
glm	Stats	glm(formula, table, family?) -> record	Binomial, Gaussian, or Poisson model
cor	Math	cor(a, b) -> float	Pearson correlation coefficient
sqrt	Math	sqrt(n) -> float	Square root
log	Math	log(n) -> float	Natural logarithm
random	Math	random() -> float	Random float in [0, 1)
upper	String	upper(s) -> string	Convert to uppercase
lower	String	lower(s) -> string	Convert to lowercase
split	String	split(s, delim) -> list	Split string by delimiter
join	String	join(list, sep) -> string	Join list elements into string
replace	String	replace(s, old, new) -> string	Replace all occurrences
contains	String	contains(s, sub) -> bool	Check if string contains substring
format	String	format(template, args...) -> string	Format string with placeholders
table	Tables	table(columns) -> table	Create table from column map
csv	Tables	csv(path, opts?) -> table	Read CSV file into table
select	Tables	select(tbl, cols...) -> table	Select columns from table
mutate	Tables	mutate(tbl, name, fn) -> table	Add or modify column
left_join	Tables	left_join(a, b, on) -> table	Left join two tables
pivot_wider	Tables	pivot_wider(tbl, names, vals) -> table	Pivot from long to wide format
matrix	Matrix	matrix(rows) -> matrix	Create matrix from nested lists
matmul	Matrix	matmul(a, b) -> matrix	Matrix multiplication
pca	Matrix	pca(mat, n_components) -> map	Principal Component Analysis
sparse_matrix	Sparse	sparse_matrix(entries, r, c) -> sparse	Create sparse matrix from triplets
log1p_cpm	Sparse	log1p_cpm(mat) -> sparse	log(1 + CPM) normalization for scRNA-seq
regex_match	Regex	regex_match(s, pattern) -> bool	Test if pattern matches string
regex_captures	Regex	regex_captures(s, pattern) -> list	Extract capture groups
json_parse	JSON	json_parse(s) -> value	Parse JSON string
json_keys	JSON	json_keys(value) -> list	Get keys from a JSON object
now	DateTime	now() -> datetime	Current date and time
date_diff	DateTime	date_diff(a, b, unit) -> int	Difference between two dates
verify_checksum	Hash	verify_checksum(path, expected) -> bool	Verify MD5, SHA-1, or SHA-256 by digest length
sketch	Hash	sketch(sequence, k, sketch_size) -> list	MinHash sketch for sequence similarity
read_text	Filesystem	read_text(path) -> string	Read file contents as string
glob	Filesystem	glob(pattern) -> list	Find files matching glob pattern
http_get	HTTP	http_get(url, opts?) -> response	HTTP GET request
bio_fetch	HTTP	bio_fetch(db, id) -> map	Fetch record from biological database
sparkline	Viz	sparkline(data) -> string	Unicode sparkline chart
boxplot	Viz	boxplot(data, opts?) -> string	ASCII boxplot
plot	Plotting	plot(data, opts?) -> svg	Generic plot dispatcher
heatmap	Plotting	heatmap(mat, opts?) -> svg	Heatmap from matrix data
volcano	Plotting	volcano(tbl, opts?) -> svg	Volcano plot for DE analysis
manhattan	Bio Plots	manhattan(tbl, opts?) -> svg	Manhattan plot for GWAS
circos	Bio Plots	circos(tracks, opts?) -> svg	Circos plot for genomic data
cell_embedding	Bio Plots	cell_embedding(coords, labels) -> svg	UMAP/tSNE cell embedding plot
container_run	Containers	container_run(image, cmd, opts?) -> map	Run command in container
biocontainer	Containers	biocontainer(tool, cmd) -> map	Run BioContainers tool
chat	LLM	chat(prompt, opts?) -> string	Send prompt to LLM
llm_models	LLM	llm_models() -> list	List available LLM models
s3_download	Transfer	s3_download(bucket, key, path) -> string	Download from S3
sra_fastq	Transfer	sra_fastq(accession, outdir) -> list	Download FASTQ from SRA
par_map	Advanced	par_map(list, fn, threads?) -> list	Parallel map across threads
provenance	Advanced	provenance(value) -> map	Get data provenance/lineage

Browse by Category

Core

17 functions — print, len, type, range, casting

Collections & HOFs

24 functions — map, filter, reduce, sort, zip

Math & Statistics

Core summaries, tests, models, probability, and maths

Guided Statistics

39 explainable tools — inspect, visualize, diagnose

String Operations

18 functions — split, join, replace, format

Table Operations

32 functions — csv, select, join, pivot

Matrix

18 functions — matmul, svd, pca, eigenvalues

Sparse Matrix

9 functions — sparse ops, log1p_cpm, tfidf

Regex

6 functions — match, find, replace, captures

JSON

6 functions — parse, stringify, read, path

DateTime

7 functions — now, format, parse, add, diff

Hash & Encoding

10 functions — sha256, base64, sketch

File System

18 functions — read, write, glob, mkdir

HTTP & Network

10 functions — get, post, download, bio_fetch

ASCII Plots

8 functions — sparkline, bar_chart, boxplot

SVG Plots

14 functions — scatter, heatmap, volcano

Bio Plots

21 functions — manhattan, circos, oncoprint

Containers

5 functions — container_run, container_pull, tool_search, tool_info, tool_pull

LLM Chat

5 functions — chat, analyze, code, config

Transfer

10 functions — ftp, s3, gcs, sra_fastq

Advanced

20 functions — par_map, spawn, provenance

New in recent releases: additional sequence utilities, expanded sparse matrix ops, and new bio plot types bring the total to 1000+ functions. Check the individual category pages for the latest additions.