I have code with recursive functions that use translate() to change the
current location. The code works fine, but now I have to add code that needs
to know the current x, y, z location that resulted from many nested
translate() functions. How can I find the current x, y, z location?
Thank you!

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To me, the "current location" is location that is the reference point of any
object that you draw. For example, if you wrote sphere(d=10);, the center of
the sphere would be at the current location. That location could have any x,
y, and z coordinates, depending on the previous translates and rotates. I
need to know those coordinates in order to determine whether to draw the
next object.

I should also mention that there are also many rotate() functions in the
recursive functions I mentioned previously.

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Short answer is you can't get it from OpenSCAD.
You do all the translates etc, so you can calculate where 'here' is.

There are libraries which can help like  local
https://github.com/jreinhardt/local-scad  , there are others, I just can't
find them ATM.

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You understand correctly, and I was thinking of doing exactly what you
suggest. I was hoping that OpenSCAD had an easier way to do it. OpenSCAD
obviously knows the current [x, y, z] and it seems like it should be simple
for it to make that information available to the program.

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don't know whether it will help you, but the way nophead described, is not
too difficult to go, if you have translate(), rotate(), and scale() as
functions.

Say your module contains code like this

rotate([100,0,100])
translate([0,30,100])
rotate([33,0,100])
translate([0,0,100])
cube(100);

if you want to know where cube is mapped, or where any other point q will be
mapped, you just use the same transformation sequence in function syntax.

q=[0,0,0];
q1 =
rotate([100,0,100],
translate([0,30,100],
rotate([33,0,100],
translate([0,0,100], q))));
echo(q1);

Here is my implementation of the three functions. The code looks more
difficult than it is, because the functions are part of a richer interface,
accept parameter calls without [] and work recursive. They operate over
points, lists of points, lists of lists of points and so on. I use them
mainly in connection with sweep(), but they will also serve your needs.

function translate(x=0, y=0, z=0, v) =
let(v = (len(x)==3)?y:v, x = (len(x)==3)?x:[x, y, z])
len(v[0])?[for (i=v) translate(x,i)]:v+x;

function rotate(x=0, y=0, z=0, v) =  // 2D vectors allowed
let(v = (len(x)==3)?y:v, x=(len(x)==3)?x:[x, y, z])
len(v[0])? [for(i=v) rotate(x,i)]:Rz(x[2], Ry(x[1], Rx(x[0], v)));
function Rx(x, A) = len(A[0][0])?[for(i=A) Rx(x, i)]:
A*[[1, 0, 0], [0, cos(x), sin(x)], [0, -sin(x), cos(x)]];
function Ry(y, A) = len(A[0][0])?[for(i=A) Ry(y, i)]:
A*[[cos(y), 0, sin(y)], [0, 1, 0], [-sin(y), 0, cos(y)]];
function Rz(z, A) = len(A[0][0])?
[for(i=A) Rz(z, i)]:
len(A[0])==2?
A*[[cos(z), sin(z)], [-sin(z), cos(z)]]:
A*[[cos(z), sin(z), 0], [-sin(z), cos(z), 0], [0, 0, 1]];

function scale(x=1, y=1, z=1, v) =
let(v = (len(x)==3)?y:v, x = (len(x)==3)?x:[x, y, z])
len(v[0])?[for (i=v) S_(x,i)]:[v[0]*x[0], v[1]*x[1], v[2]*x[2]];

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