Naming Objects

You can assign a certain name to an object when you create it using the Input Bar:

  • Points: In GeoGebra, points are always named using upper case letters. Just type in the name (e.g. A, P) and an equal sign in front of the coordinates or commands.

C = (2, 4), P = (1; 180°)

  • Vectors: In order to distinguish between points and vectors, vectors need to have a lower case name in GeoGebra. Again, type in the name (e.g. v, u) and an equal sign in front of the coordinates or commands.

v = (1, 3), u = (3; 90°)

  • Lines, circles, and conic sections: These objects can be named by typing in the name and a colon in front of their equations or commands.

g: y = x + 3, c: (x-1)^2 + (y – 2)^2 = 4, hyp: x^2 – y^2 = 2

  • Functions: You can name functions by typing, for example, f(x) = or g(x) = in front of the function’s equation or commands.

h(x) = 2 x + 4, q(x) = x^2, trig(x) = sin(x)

  • If you don’t manually assign a name to an object, GeoGebra assigns the names of new objects in alphabetical order.

  • You can create indices within the names of objects by using an underscore. For example A1 is entered as A_1 and sAB is entered as s_{AB} into the Input Bar.

Reserved labels

These are the labels you can’t use for objects: x, y, z, xAxis, yAxis, zAxis, abs, sgn, sqrt, exp, log, ln, ld, lg, cos, sin, tan, acos, arcos, arccos, asin, arcsin, atan, arctan, cosh, sinh, tanh, acosh, arcosh, arccosh, asinh, arcsinh, atanh, arctanh, atan2, erf, floor, ceil, round, random, conjugate, arg, gamma, gammaRegularized, beta, betaRegularized, sec, csc, cosec, cot, sech, csch, coth

In the symbol list of the Input Bar, you will find special characters for the following constants:

  • π - the circle constant pi, which you can also type with Alt + p

  • ℯ - the Euler number, e.g. for the exponential function ℯ^x, which you can also type with Alt + e

  • ί - the imaginary unit, e.g. for complex numbers like z = 3 + ί, which you can also type with Alt
    i

When the variable names e and i are not used yet, they are automatically read as ℯ and ί respectively for convenience.

Renaming objects

Select the Menu-edit-rename.svg Rename option in the Context Menu of the object or open the Menu-options.svg Properties Dialog window of the object and enter the new name in the Name box of the Basic tab.

  • Dependencies are usually automatically resolved: this means that the name of the object is also changed in its definition. Scripting involving objects that were assigned a new name need to be changed manually.

  • If you assign to an object a name that is already in use by another object, the name of this last object will be changed, e.g. if you change the name of point B to A and a point A already exists, the former point A gets the new name A1.