# Using arguments in commands

Sometimes when using commands you may want to get data from the user, and change the response accordingly. In this section, you'll create a command that pulls a string from the message and says it back to the user!

# String arguments

A string argument is simply the text after the command name and prefix. For example: ?say Hi there! would cause the argument to be Hi there!. It's quite simple to create one.

First, go into your first folder and make a new file called say.js. Once you have it, set up your command class and everything just like the one in the meow command.

const { Command } = require('discord.js-commando');

module.exports = class SayCommand extends Command {
	constructor(client) {
		super(client, {
			name: 'say',
			aliases: ['parrot', 'copy'],
			group: 'first',
			memberName: 'say',
			description: 'Replies with the text you provide.',
		});
	}

	run(message) {
		// empty for now
	}
};

Place a , after the description field, because you're going to be adding an args field.

The args field is simply an array of objects, each containing data for that argument.

super(client, {
	name: 'say',
	aliases: ['parrot', 'copy'],
	group: 'first',
	memberName: 'say',
	description: 'Replies with the text you provide.',
	args: [
		{
			key: 'text',
			prompt: 'What text would you like the bot to say?',
			type: 'string',
		},
	],
});

See? Simple.

• key is the name of the argument. When you define it in your run method, this is what you'll be using.
• prompt is the text that displays if no argument is provided. If someone uses just ?say, that prompt will come up asking for the text.
• type is the type the argument is a part of. This can be many things, including string, integer, user, member, etc.

Adding more args is as simple as adding another object to the array, like so:

args: [
	{
		key: 'text',
		prompt: 'What text would you like the bot to say?',
		type: 'string',
	},
	{
		key: 'otherThing',
		prompt: 'What is this other useless thing?',
		type: 'string',
	},
]

You can also set arguments to default to a specifc value:

{
	key: 'otherThing',
	prompt: 'What is this other useless thing?',
	type: 'string',
	default: 'dog',
},

As you can see, they're very powerful things.

Head on over to your run method and set the text arg to a variable.

run(message, { text }) {
	// empty for now
}

Next, make the run method return the text back to the user.

run(message, { text }) {
	return message.reply(text);
}

And there you have it, a say command using args!

# Resulting code

If you want to compare your code to the code we've constructed so far, you can review it over on the GitHub repository here .