Ok. I was told that if I found myself repeating code over and over, I should probably do something a bit different, which is easy enough when I can type out what I want to do, which I cannot here.

I have one sprite that needs to call out the name of a musical instrument each time its clef is clicked. Since there are many, many instruments in the orchestra, I'm trying to avoid filling his sprite with repetitive code. I'm desperately trying to find “If sprite X is played, say the word X. If sprite Y is played, say the word Y.”

Somehow my self-defined blocks just ain't working. Any suggestions?

I'm kind of confused on what you want to accomplish. I'm sorry; I'd love to help, could you put up an example project?
Edit: I see your project. Solution in a new post

What you could do is that you could make a variable named “Selected Instrument” or something along those lines (doesn't matter what you name it, to be honest)

Then, when the clef is clicked, have the clef set the name of the variable to the name of the instrument, and then broadcast a message to let the speaker sprite know that it needs to say something.

Make sense?

Many thanks for the speedy reply! I have the general idea, but for the sprite that does the speaking, could I somehow work this into an if . . . then . . . else structure, or is that what you are saying? The Looping constructs take only certain types of variables and I haven't had much luck defining them and placing them in a loop.

I'm sorry, I've lost track. For me, understanding programming concepts in regular language is hard for me.

Basically, here's how it would work. I'll be using the variable “instName”, but you can name it anything you want.

Clef Sprite's Code (using trumpet as example)

when this sprite clicked
stop all sounds
set volume to (50)%
play sound [trumpet v]
set [instName v] to [trumpet]
broadcast [Say Instrument Name v]

Speaker Sprite's Code

when I receive [Say Instrument Name v]
say (join [This instrument is the ] (instName)) for (2) secs

I think if you want to give information about the instrument, you'd need to do something like this:

when I receive [Say Instrument Name v]
say (join [This instrument is the ] (instName)) for (2) secs
if <(instName) = [trumpet]> then //Again, using trumpet as an example
say [This instrument blah blah blah...] for (2) secs  
end

You'd then continue making those if statements, until you've covered all the instruments. It's not necessary to use the “if/else” blocks, just plop a bunch of ifs together, and you'll be fine.

I hope I helped!

Um. Wow! My pseudo solution was a lot clunkier! Thanks!

No problem. Let me know if you need any more help. I'm glad to.

Should be working great, but for some reason, instead of saying, “These are the cellos,” he's saying “These are 1.” I checked on the cello variable under data objects and it too said “1” but everything in the code has the appropriate wording in it.

Thoughts?

I know your issue.

What you've done is made a new variable called Cello, which has the data “1”

Instead of putting a variable there, just type the word “Cello” into the set variable block. It should look like this:

set [Selected Instrument v] to [Cello]

Did that. And while it did not fix the entire problem, I fixed the rest with an “if.” Tip of the hat to you! Many thanks!

What else is wrong with it?

Actually. It didn't get fixed. I changed the text, per your suggestion. But the sprite script takes a variable. The cello variable on this list evaluates to 0 or 1, so I guess I can't use it anywhere?

Got it. I was being an idiot. :\

It's because you're doing it… oddly.

Here, I'll use the cellos and the violins as an example.

Cello Code:

when this sprite clicked
stop all sounds
set volume to (200)%
play sound [Cello v]
set [InstName v] to [Cello]
broadcast [Say Instrument Name v]

Violin Code:

when this sprite clicked
stop all sounds
set volume to (200)%
play sound [Violin v]
set [InstName v] to [Violin]
broadcast [Say Instrument Name v]

Now, code for the speaker:

when I receive [Say Instrument Name v]
if <(InstName) = [Cello]> then
say [This is the Cello.] for (2) secs //Add any additional information about the Cello in this if statement.
end
if <(InstName) = [Violin]> then
say [This is the Violin.] for (2) secs //Add any additional information about the Violins in this if statement
end
//Continue with the rest of the instruments

Make sense?