PineTS Request (request) Namespace

This directory contains the implementation of Pine Script’s request.* functions, primarily request.security for multi-timeframe analysis.

Architecture

Functions are factory functions accessing the context.

The param() Method

The request.param() method is highly specialized. It performs two critical tasks:

1. Tuple Detection: It distinguishes between a tuple of expressions (e.g., [open, close]) and a time-series array.
   • If inputs are Series objects, it extracts their current values.
   • If inputs are scalars, it preserves them.
   • Heuristic: hasOnlySeries or hasOnlyScalars check.
2. ID Return: Unlike other param methods, it returns a tuple [value, name].
   • value: The extracted value(s).
   • name: The unique ID (p0, p1…) assigned by the transpiler.

return [val, name];

Why Return the Name?

The request.security function relies on caching secondary contexts (HTF contexts). To do this efficiently, it constructs a cache key using the parameter ID (name). Without this ID, it wouldn’t know which expression corresponds to which cached context.

Implementation Specifics

1. Secondary Contexts

request.security creates a new PineTS instance (a secondary context) to evaluate the expression in the requested timeframe.

• It prevents recursion: Secondary contexts have a flag isSecondaryContext = true.
• If request.security is called within a secondary context, it returns the expression directly (no new context).

2. Tuple Handling

When request.security returns a tuple (e.g., from [open, close]), it wraps the result in a 2D array [[val1, val2]]. This signals to Context.init() that the result is a tuple to be destructured, not a history array.

Generating the Barrel File

To regenerate the request.index.ts file:

npm run generate:request-index