The main expression or object that a built-in Wolfram Language function acts on is given as the first argument to the function. As part of the syntax, a built-in Wolfram Language function can take more arguments, which may be required or may be generalizations or extensions of the function. After the arguments come options, which allow further extensions to control the behavior of the function.
If you try to use Plot without specifying a range, the Wolfram Language produces an error message:
Here, a parametric curve is plotted with range between and . These bounds are specified in the second argument to ParametricPlot:
To see the exact syntax for a visualization function, see its page in the documentation. For help in finding the documentation page for a function, see How to: Find Information about Functions.
Options are entered using rules. The short form for a rule uses a right arrow, which you get by typing (with no space between - and >). The Wolfram System front end automatically converts into upon further typing. Either symbol is a short form for Rule.
Import some data from the Wolfram Language documentation example data and display it in a Grid:
The options that are available depend upon the function being used. To find out which options you can use with a function, see How to: Find Available Options.