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Lists

🟨🐱 Scratch: Using Lists

✨ What You’ll Learn

  • How to make a list in Scratch
  • How to add, remove, and read items
  • Why lists are useful (like saving scores or storing player names)

🧠 What is a List?

A list is like a notebook that stores lots of things in order.

  • It can hold names, scores, facts—anything made of text or numbers.
  • You can add to it, read from it, or change what's inside!

🛠️ Make a List

  1. Click on the Variables menu.
  2. Click Make a List and give it a name like HighScores or ShoppingList.
  3. Choose if it’s For all sprites or This sprite only.

Note

Please see Technique Card: Variables in Scratch (practical) for more info on For all sprites and This sprite only

🔧 Useful Blocks

Block What it Does
add [thing] to [list] Puts something at the bottom of the list.
insert [thing] at [1] of [list] Adds something in a specific spot.
delete [1] of [list] Removes an item from the list.
replace item [1] of [list] with [thing] Changes something already in the list.
item [1] of [list] Reads something from the list.
length of [list] Tells how many things are in the list.
list contains [thing] Checks if something is in the list (true or false).

🎮 Example: Shopping List Game

  • Ask the player for 3 fruit names.
  • Add each one to the ShoppingList.
  • Then say them back using item [1] of [list].

lists-scratch-1

  • Let the user know how many items are in their shopping list.
  • Ask them which item they would like to remove then remove it.
  • Say the new and shorter shopping list back to the user.

lists-scratch-2

🎯 Try This

✅ Make a shopping game which uses a list to store bought items

✅ Use a list to record the names of people invited to the user's birthday party then tell them who they invited.

✅ Store colours in a list then say them to the player - can you then work out how to test their memories - they will need to type the colours back in the correct order and your project needs to check if they are correct...

🐟 Deep Dive

You can learn more about lists in general and more specifically Scratch: Technique Card: Lists in Programming and Scratch in Particular (deeper)

Watch the video