# Welcome to Livebook
## Basic usage
Livebook is a tool for crafting **interactive** and **collaborative** code notebooks.
Each notebook consists of a number of cells, which serve as primary building blocks.
There are **Markdown** cells (such as this one) that allow you to describe your work
and **Code** cells to run your Elixir code!
To insert a new cell move your cursor between cells and click one of the revealed buttons. 👇
```elixir
# This is a Code cell - as the name suggests that's where the code goes.
# To evaluate this cell, you can either press the "Evaluate" button above
# or use `Ctrl + Enter` (or Cmd + Enter on a Mac)!
message = "hey, grab yourself a cup of 🍵"
```
Subsequent cells have access to the bindings you've defined:
```elixir
String.replace(message, "🍵", "☕")
```
Note however that bindings are not global, so each cell *sees* only stuff
that goes above itself. This approach helps to keep the notebook clean and
predictable as you keep working on it. Furthermore, Livebook tracks which
variables are used by each cell in order to detect which cells become
stale. For example, try changing the `message` variable and you will see
the status indicator on the bottom right of the second cell become yellow.
## Sections
You can leverage so called **sections** to nicely group related cells together.
Click on the "Outline" icon (<i class="ri-node-tree"></i>) in the sidebar
to reveal a list of all sections. As you can see, this approach helps to easily
jump around the notebook, especially once it grows.
Let's make use of this section to see how output is captured!
```elixir
cats = ~w(😼 😹 😻 😺 😸 😽)
for _ <- 1..3 do
cats
|> Enum.take_random(3)
|> Enum.join(" ")
|> IO.puts()
end
```
<!-- livebook:{"branch_parent_index":1} -->
## Branching sections
Additionally, you can make a section **branch out** from any
previous regular section. Hover over the section name to reveal
available actions and click on the branch icon to select the
parent section.
You still have access to all the previous data:
```elixir
{message, cats}
```
The important characteristic of a branching section is that
it runs independently from other sections and as such is well
suited for running long computations "in background".
```elixir
Process.sleep(300_000)
```
Having this cell running, feel free to insert another Code cell
in the section below and see it evaluates immediately. Crashes
in branched sections also have limited scope and will affect only
the branched section.
## Saving notebooks
By default, notebooks are stored in a temporary directory, which is fine for
interactive hacking, but oftentimes you will want to save your work for later.
Such can be done by clicking on the "Disk" icon (<i class="ri-livebook-save"></i>)
in the bottom-right corner and selecting the file location.
Once saved, you can access the location of the current `.livemd` file and
its current directory using `__ENV__` and `__DIR__` variables:
```elixir
IO.puts(__ENV__.file)
IO.puts(__DIR__)
```
Notebooks are stored in **live markdown** format, which is the Markdown you know,
with just a few assumptions on how particular elements are represented. Thanks to this
approach you can easily keep notebooks under version control and get readable diffs.
You can also easily preview those files and even edit them in a text editor.
## Keyboard shortcuts
Once you start using notebooks more, it's gonna be beneficial
to optimise how you move around. Livebook leverages the concept of
**navigation**/**insert** modes and offers many shortcuts for common operations.
Make sure to check out the shortcuts by clicking the "Keyboard" icon
(<i class="ri-livebook-shortcuts"></i>) in the sidebar or
by pressing <kbd>?</kbd>.
<!-- livebook:{"branch_parent_index":1} -->
## Autocompletion
Code cells also support autocompletion. Autocompletion happens
automatically as you type but you can explicitly trigger
it with <kbd>ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>␣</kbd>. You must start the runtime,
by executing any cell at least once, for the autocompletion engine
to load.
Let's try autocompleting the code below to `System.version()`.
First put the cursor after the `System` below and type `.`:
```elixir
System
```
You should have seen the editor listing many different options,
which you can use to find `version`. Executing the code will
return the Elixir version.
Note you can also press <kbd>tab</kbd> to cycle across the completion
alternatives.
## Markdown extensions
Livebook also include supports for links, mathematical expressions, and Mermaid diagrams.
### Links
It is possible to link between Livebooks using Markdown's link syntax.
For example, `[next chapter](chapter_2.livemd)` could be used to link
to a Livebook named `chapter_2.livemd` in the same directory as the current
notebook. Once clicked, Livebook will automatically open up a new session
to execute the linked notebook.
<!-- livebook:{"break_markdown":true} -->
### Math expressions
Livebook uses $\TeX$ syntax for math inside your Markdown cells.
It supports both inline math, like $e^{\pi i} + 1 = 0$, as well as display math:
$$
S(x) = \frac{1}{1 + e^{-x}} = \frac{e^{x}}{e^{x} + 1}
$$
To write your own, put your math expressions between \$ signs for inline math
or \$\$ if you want display math. You can double click the formulas above to see
how they are written.
You can explore all supported expressions in the [KaTeX documentation](https://katex.org/docs/supported.html).
<!-- livebook:{"break_markdown":true} -->
### Mermaid diagrams
[Mermaid](https://mermaid-js.github.io/) is a library for creating diagrams
and visualizations using text and code. You can define those diagrams in
your Markdown cells via ```` ```mermaid ```` blocks. Let's see an example:
```mermaid
graph TD;
A-->B;
A-->C;
B-->D;
C-->D;
```
## Erlang support
Livebook also allows developers to write Erlang code. To do so,
click on the submenu option on the right side of the "Elixir" cell
button and choose Erlang.
Your Erlang code will run alongside your Elixir cells. This means
you can leverage all of the dependency management and smart cell features
outlined in the previous sections. In particular, integration between
Erlang and Elixir will happen as follows:
* Variables in Elixir are available in Erlang cells in camel-case
fashion. `x` in Elixir becomes `X` in Erlang. `foo_bar` becomes
`FooBar`;
* Variables in Erlang are available in Elixir cells in underscored
fashion. `X` in Erlang becomes `x` in Elixir. `FooBar` becomes
`foo_bar`;
For example, to print all of the cats defined at the top of the notebook,
but in Erlang:
```erlang
[io:format("~ts", [Cat]) || Cat <- Cats].
```
### Defining modules
You can also define Erlang modules, one per cell, as you would in an `.erl` file.
```erlang
-module(direction).
-export([north/0, east/0, west/0, south/0]).
north() -> {ok, north}.
east() -> {ok, east}.
west() -> {ok, west}.
south() -> {ok, south}.
```
Macros, includes, and similar module feature are supported.
Once the module is defined, you can call the functions as usual:
```erlang
{ok, N} = direction:north(),
{ok, E} = direction:east(),
{ok, W} = direction:west(),
{ok, S} = direction:south(),
{N, E, W, S}.
```
We are just beginning the Erlang integration and contributions to
further enrich it are welcome.
## Evaluation vs compilation
Livebook automatically shows the execution time of each Code
cell on the bottom-right of the cell. After evaluation, the total
time can be seen by hovering the green dot.
However, it is important to remember that all code outside of
a module in Erlang or Elixir is *evaluated*, and therefore
executes much slower than code defined inside modules, which
are *compiled*.
Let's see an example. Run the cell below:
```elixir
Enum.reduce(1..1_000_000, 0, fn x, acc -> x + acc end)
```
We are adding all of the elements in a range by iterating them
one by one. However, executing it likely takes some reasonable
amount of time, as the invocation of the `Enum.reduce/3` as well
as the anonymous function argument are evaluated.
However, what if we move the above to inside a function? Let's do
that:
```elixir
defmodule Bench do
def sum do
Enum.reduce(1..1_000_000, 0, fn x, acc -> x + acc end)
end
end
```
Now let's try running it:
```elixir
Bench.sum()
```
The latest cell should execute at least an order of magnitude faster
than the previous `Enum.reduce/3` call. While the call `Bench.sum()`
itself is evaluated, the one million iterations of `Enum.reduce/3`
happen inside a module, which is compiled.
Another benefit is compiling code is that exceptions often have
better stacktraces and error messages. Therefore, if a notebook is
performing slower than expected or you need more information in case
of failures, consider moving the bulk of the execution to inside
modules.
## Running tests
There are two main ways of running tests inside Livebook.
<!-- livebook:{"break_markdown":true} -->
### Doctests
Doctests allow developers to provide and test examples directly
from their documentation. Doctests are defined with the `iex>`
prompts under the `@moduledoc` and `@doc` attributes of your
modules. Let's see an example:
```elixir
defmodule MyModule do
@moduledoc """
This is an example of doctests:
iex> 2 + 2
5
iex> 6 + 7
13
"""
end
```
Livebook automatically detects doctests for any defined modules
and automatically executes them when you evaluate the cell.
Doctests which fail are marked in red in the gutter and show
the failure information right below them. Otherwise they are tagged
in green. For more information on doctests and their limitations,
see [`ExUnit.Doctest`](https://hexdocs.pm/ex_unit/ExUnit.DocTest.html).
<!-- livebook:{"break_markdown":true} -->
### ExUnit integration
It is also possible to run `ExUnit` suites directly from your notebooks.
The key is to disable `ExUnit`'s autorun feature and then explicitly
run the test suite after all test cases have been defined:
```elixir
ExUnit.start(autorun: false)
defmodule MyTest do
use ExUnit.Case, async: true
test "it works" do
assert true
end
end
ExUnit.run()
```
This is perfect for testing more complex logic that does not fit under
doctests.
## Next steps
That's our quick intro to Livebook! Where to go next?
* If you are not familiar with Elixir, there is a fast paced
introduction to the language in the [Distributed portals
with Elixir](/learn/notebooks/distributed-portals-with-elixir)
notebook;
* [Write and deploy a chat application](/learn/notebooks/deploy-apps)
using Livebook and learn more about our [use cases](https://hexdocs.pm/livebook/use_cases.html)
* Go back [to the Learn page](/learn) and see how to use Livebook to
deploy apps, explore data, plot graphs, and much more;
* Finally, remember Livebook is an open source project, so feel free to
look into [the repository](https://github.com/livebook-dev/livebook)
to contribute, report bugs, suggest features or just skim over the
codebase.
Now go ahead and build something cool! 🚢