Your First Tags
---------------
```eval_rst
.. contents:: Table of Contents
:local:
```
### What Is A Tag?
If you're following this guide in order (and you should be!), you've already used a tag. In the [ex command guide](/guides/first-steps/ex-command), you tried `/ex narrate "hi "`. That `` part is a **tag** in Denizen. This is somewhat similar to what some plugins call a "placeholder", but with a lot more power to it. The "player.name" tag, as you can probably guess, is automatically replaced with your username.
Tags in Denizen are marked by `<>` around a description of what value should replace the tag. Tags can get you almost any information you need, whenever you need it.
### The Most Common Tags
The most common tags in use, more than anything else, are the color tags. The colors tag are also just about the simplest tags in Denizen. You're probably familiar with the basic color code system in minecraft, like `§7` to make gray. You're probably also familiar with some plugins that let you type something like `&7` to color text gray. Note that minecraft internally has a section sign `§` but the usual plugin format is with an ampersand `&` (this is because `§` is hard to type, but `&` is easy on most keyboards). To make text gray in Denizen, you type `<&7>`, which is still easy to type, but specifically formatted using the tag system (meaning it has `<>` around it, indicating that `<&7>` should be replaced by the actual internal light-gray color code with an `§`). You can also, instead of that, type `` to get the exact same result... which one you choose is up to your own preferences (do you like short tags, or clearer tags? Do you better know the color's names, or their internal ID numbers?). You can also do `<&color[gray]>` or ``, or... a lot of other ways of writing the same thing. As you get farther in this guide, you'll notice that having a whole bunch of options for how to achieve the same goal is a recurring theme in Denizen.
While text colors are the most commonly used tags overall, almost any real script is going to use a bunch of tags that are a little bit more complicated than just color codes.
### What Do Tags Look Like In Real Usage?
A simple tag usage might be `- teleport ` to teleport an NPC (gotten via the `` tag) to your own location (gotten via the `` tag).
Tag usages can get way more complex, like `- teleport ]> ].if_null[]>]>` ... don't worry if that doesn't make any sense, it's intentionally long and complicated, just to give you a taste of the amount of power tags have in the hands of an experienced user (and that's just a start - the only limit is the scripter's imagination!). Basic scripts will almost never require tags this long.
### So, How Do I Make A Tag?
As you might have guessed looking at that longer sample above - tags aren't limited to just a list of prechosen tags we made available. Tags are *built* by the scripter out of multiple parts to fit their needs.
#### The Parts of A Tag
There are two basic 'types' of tag that are available as building blocks to scripters. These types are: **Base tags**, and **sub-tags**.
#### Base Tags
A base tag is something like ``, which returns a `PlayerTag` of the situationally relevant player. There are also seemingly multi-part base tags like `` (though these are sometimes also thought of as `` returns a "ServerTagBase" and `` is a sub-tag of that).
Base tags exist on their own, and can only be used as the first part of a tag. Every completed tag has exactly one base tag in use.
#### Sub-Tags
A sub-tag is something like `` which returns an `ElementTag` of the applicable player's name. A sub-tag, in documentation, will always start with `(Something)Tag`, like `PlayerTag` or `ItemTag`. Anything that isn't in this format is a base tag.
Sub-tags are tacked onto the end of an existing tag. A complete tag can have any number of sub-tags - zero (just the base), one (a very simple tag), five hundred (an incredibly long tag), or any other number.
#### Combining The Parts
We saw the sub-tag example `` above. When a sub-tag starts with "PlayerTag", this basically means "insert a player here"... since the base tag `` returns a player, and `` needs a player as its first part, you can combine these to make `` which returns the name of the situationally relevant player. In the case of the `/ex` command, `` returns *your* name.
#### Longer Chains
The tag `` returns whichever entity the player is looking at. If you use this while looking at another player, this will return a `PlayerTag` of that player. So, we can use the rule of "insert anything that returns a valid PlayerTag anywhere it needs a PlayerTag" to insert `` into the tag to form ``. Because we're theoretically looking at another player for this example, we can repeat that rule by inserting this new tag at the start of ``. This results in ``, a functionally complete tag that returns the name of the player that you're looking at!
### A PlayerTag Is A Player In A Tag
That choice of wording isn't exactly hard to decipher. A PlayerTag is a player, as represented by a tag, who would have guessed?! Similarly, an NPCTag is an NPC in a tag, an EntityTag is any entity in a tag, an ItemTag is any item in a tag, ... we could go on for a while here, there's a lot of types of things you could use in a tag.
One word we used earlier might be a bit less clear: "ElementTag". An ElementTag is the most basic type of value: anything! An ElementTag can be a number, some text, binary data, or even a player.
#### Wait, But You Just Said Players Are PlayerTags
Yes, players are PlayerTags. And also ElementTags. And also EntityTags.
In Denizen, object types can have sub-types. The notable example is that PlayerTag and NPCTag both have the sub-type of EntityTag. What this means, is that anywhere an `EntityTag` is needed (for example, the tag ``), a PlayerTag or NPCTag can be inserted and it will work exactly as expected (so, `` will return the player's health value).
ElementTag, as was said, is the most basic type of value. Every single object type in Denizen has the sub-type of ElementTag. This means that anywhere an `ElementTag` is needed, *any* value at all can be inserted. A PlayerTag, an NPCTag, an ItemTag, or anything else, all are valid inputs to anything that takes an ElementTag as input.
### Some Tags Have Inputs
Some tags need an input value. For example, the tag `].to[<#>]>` takes two simple numeric input values (the 'from' and the 'to') and returns a random number between the two.
At the most basic, these inputs can simply be filled in with whatever type of value they expect. So, you can type into your in-game command line `/ex narrate ` and it will, as expected, narrate back a random number from 1 to 10. If you repeat the command a few times, you'll get a different random number each time (except when it repeats, as true randomness tends to do sometimes).
#### A Tag As Input To A Tag?!
Simple value inputs are good for testing, but in real usage, you'll often find reason to put a dynamic value into the input of a tag. Here's a fun sample script:
```dscript_green
slowly_dying:
type: task
script:
- narrate "You think you're so special with health left?!"
- hurt ]>
- narrate "Hah! Take that, ! Now you only have health left!"
```
Every time this sample script runs, the player will lose a random amount up to half of their health, usually less. It will also tell them what their health was before and after the damage is applied.
As you can see in the sample, the tag `` was used as the second input to the tag `].to[<#.#>]>`.
That inner tag is formed from `` to get the linked player, `` to get the player's health value, and `]>` to divide the value (in this case, by 2).
### Note About The Future
In the future, when writing real scripts, you of course won't be expected to just memorize the tags that are available to use. In a [later section](/guides/basics/finding-tools) we'll see the ways to find the tags that are needed for any given script idea. Until we get to that section, this guide will show you any tags you need to practice the ideas taught on any page.
### Wording Clarifications
There are some words used on this page that are specific to Denizen. For the most part, the context of their usage should be enough to give you the idea of what they mean... But, just in case, here's some explanations to make sure you understand the words used properly:
- **"Returns"**, when discussing tags, generally used in sentences like "The tag `` returns the player's name" means that tag, when used, gets replaced by the player's name. So `- narrate "hi "` will narrate `"hi bob"`. "Returns" in any sentence can be swapped out for "gets replaced by", like "The tag `` gets replaced by the player's name".
- **"Object"** is general term refering to some value, usually in the context of discussing the different *types of objects*. A PlayerTag is one type of object, an NPCTag is another. When working on a script, any player is an object, and that object is of the PlayerTag object type. Each type is named "(something)Tag" to indicate that it is (something) for usage within a tag. This phrasing is still used even when not specifically discussing tags. The wider set of all objects in the context of scripting are sometimes called ObjectTags.
### Related Technical Docs
If you want to read a lot more about tags, here are a few technical guides you might consider...
Note: most users, especially those learning from the Denizen for the first time, should just continue on to the next guides page. These references might be of interest to later come back to after you've learned Denizen as far as this guide teaches.
- [Fallbacks language doc](https://meta.denizenscript.com/Docs/Languages/tag%20fallbacks)
- [ObjectTags language doc](https://meta.denizenscript.com/Docs/Languages/ObjectTags)
- [Unique vs generic objects language doc](https://meta.denizenscript.com/Docs/Languages/Unique%20Objects%20vs%20Generic%20Objects)
- [ElementTag related language docs](https://meta.denizenscript.com/Docs/Languages/ElementTag)
- [List of all object types](https://meta.denizenscript.com/Docs/ObjectTypes)
- [List of all tags](https://meta.denizenscript.com/Docs/Tags/)