Syntax by Example

The following examples will help you understand the syntax of Evy. We also have a one page Cheat Sheet that you can print and keep handy.

For a more formal definition of the syntax, see the Language Specification. Built-in functions, such as print and circle, are documented in the Built-ins section.

#Comment

// This is a comment

#Declaration

x:num // or string, bool, any, []num, {}string
y := 1 // type inference (num)
print x y // 0 1

#Assignment

z:num
z = 5
print z // 5

#Expression

Arithmetic, number expressions

pi := 3.1415
x := 5 * (3 + pi) - 2 / 7.6
print x // 30.44434210526316

Logical, boolean expressions

trace := false
debug := true
level := "error"

b := !trace and debug or level == ""
print b // true

#Strings

Concatenation, indexing and slicing

str := "abc" + "🥪123" // "abc🥪123" - concatenation
s2 := str[0] // "a" - indexing
s3 := str[1:5] // "bc🥪1" - slicing
print str s2 s3

Newline, indentation and escaping

str := "newline: \n indentation: \t"
print str
print "quotation mark : \" " // escaping

#if statements

x := 6
if x > 10
    print "huge"
else if x > 5
    print "medium"
else
    print "small"
end

#Nested if

str := "abc"
if (len str) > 2
    if (startswith str "a")
        print "string starting with 'a'"
    else
        print "string not starting with 'a'"
    end
else
    print "single character or empty string"
end

#Loop statements

#while loop

x := 0
while x < 10
    print x // 0 1 2 ... 9
    x = x + 1
end

#for … range number

for x := range 5
    print x // 0 1 2 3 4
end

for x := range 5 10
    print x // 5 6 7 8 9
end

for x := range 1 10 2 // from to step
    print x // 1 3 5 7 9
end

for x := range -10
    print x // nothing. step is 1 by default.
end

#for … range array

for x := range [1 2 3]
    print x // 1 2 3
end

#for … range map

m := {name:"Mali" sport:"climbing"}
for key := range m
    print key m[key]
end

#break

x := 0
while true
    print "tick... "
    sleep 1
    if x > 2
        print "💥"
        break // breaks out of the innermost loop
    end
    x = x + 1
end

#Function definition

func add:num a:num b:num
    return a + b
end

#No return type

func foxprint s:string
    print "🦊 "+s
end

#Variadic

func list args:any...
    for arg := range args[:-1]
        printf "%v, " arg
    end
    printf "%v" args[-1]
end

#Function calls

n := add 1 2
print n // 3
foxprint "🐾" // 🦊 🐾
list 2 true "blue" // [2 true blue]

// previous function definitions
func add:num a:num b:num
    return a + b
end

func foxprint s:string
    print "🦊 "+s
end

func list args:any...
    print args
end

#Array

Typed declaration

a1:[]num
a2:[][]string
a1 = [1 2 3 4] // type: num[]
a2 = [["1" "2"] ["a" "b"]] // type: string[][]
print a1 a2

Declaration with inference

a1 := [true false] // type: bool[]
a2 := ["s1" // line break allowed
    "s2"] // type: string[]
print a1 a2

any arrays

a1:[]any
a2 := ["chars" 123] // type: any[]
print a1 a2

#Array element access

a1 := [1 2 3 4]
a2 := [["1" "2"] ["a" "b"]]
print a1[1] // 2
print a2[1][0] // "a"
print a1[-1] // 4

#Concatenation

a := [1 2 3 4]
a = a + [100] // [1 2 3 4 100]; optional extra whitespace
a = [0] + a + [101 102] // [0 1 2 3 4 100 101 102]

#Repetition

a := [0] * 5 // [0 0 0 0 0]
a = [1 2] * 2 + a + [3] * 3 // [1 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 3]
n := 3
b := ["hello"] * n
print b // ["hello" "hello" "hello"]

#Slicing

a := [1 2 3]
b := a[:2] // [1 2]
b = a[1:2] // [2]
b = a[-2:] // [2 3]

#Map

Any map

m:{}any // keys used in literals or with `.` must be identifiers.
m.name = "fox"
m.age = 42
m["key with space"] = "🔑🪐"
print m // {name:fox age:42 key with space:🔑🪐}

Typed map

m1 := {letters:"abc" name:"Jill"} // type: {}string
m2 := {
    letters:"abc" // line break allowed
    name:"Jill"
}
print m1 m2

Empty map

m1:{}string // {}string
m2 := {} // {}any
print m1 m2 // {} {}

Nested map

m1:{}[]num
m2 := {a:{}}
print m1 m2 // {} {a:{}}

#Map value access

m := {letters:"abc" name:"Jill"}
s := "letters"
print m.letters // abc
print m[s] // abc
print m["letters"] // abc

#any

Zero value of any is false.

x:any
m1:{}any
m2 := {letter:"a" number:1} // {}any
print x m1 m2 // false {} {letter:a number:1}

a1:[]any
a2 := ["b" 2] // []any
print a1 a2 // [] [b 2]

#Type inspection with typeof

print (typeof "abc") // "string"
print (typeof true) // "bool"
print (typeof [1 2]) // "[]num"
print (typeof [[1 2] [3 4]]) // "[][]num"

#Type assertion

x:any
print x (typeof x) // flase bool
x = [1 2 3 4]
s := x.([]num) // type assertion
print s (typeof s) // [1 2 3 4] []num

#Type inspection and assertion

v:any
v = "🐐"
if (typeof v) == "string"
    s := v.(string) // type assertion
    print s+s // 🐐🐐
end

#Event handling

on key k:string
    print "key:" k
end

Evy can only handle a limited set of events, such as key presses, pointer movements, or periodic screen redraws.