Education Technology

Solution 37715: Program commands that use the left and right parentheses display an unexpected syntax error on the TI-84 Plus CE™.

Why do the program commands that use the left and right parentheses display an unexpected syntax error on the TI-84 Plus CE™?

There may be an expectation that some syntax entry is valid when in fact it is not.

Example:

• Create TI-Basic programs with various formats of Wait command argument.

• Enter valid input:
Wait (500/4076*60)
Wait 500/4076*60
 
• Invalid input:
Wait (X)+5


Notice here, the right parenthesis is a signal in TI-Basic that the command argument has ended.

If a command syntax does not include an opening left parenthesis, such as Wait, using a pair of parentheses in an argument may be interpreted as the full argument and give an unexpected syntax error. 

When entering long expressions with parentheses enclosing the entire expression with paired parentheses can help avoid syntax errors of this nature.