2 LabTalk Scripting Guide


In this guide we introduce LabTalk, the scripting language in Origin. LabTalk is designed for users who wish to write and execute scripts to perform analysis and graphing of their data. The purpose of this guide is to help users who are generally familiar with programming in a scripting language to take advantage of the scripting capabilities in Origin. We provide sufficient detail for a user with basic knowledge of Origin to begin tailoring the software to meet their unique needs.

The guide starts with a quick introduction to LabTalk, followed by a chapter on language fundamentals, and a chapter outlining various ways to organize and execute scripts within the Origin environment. The remaining chapters are organized by various functional areas of Origin, such as importing, graphing, data analysis, user interaction, and automation.

A few reference tables are included at the end. However this guide is not a full language reference. The full LabTalk language reference documentation is accessible from the Help menu in Origin. New features are continually introduced to LabTalk with successive versions of Origin. These are typically marked with a version number stamp (i.e., 8.1, typically in a bold and/or red-colored font) in the language reference help file.

This guide should be used in conjunction with other resources for learning LabTalk, which are listed in the Resources for Learning LabTalk chapter.

This guide provides several script examples. To try these examples you can either type in the script, or you can simply copy and paste the script from the soft file version of this guide accessible from the Help menu.