Nim Programming Language
Nim is a brand new and very charming programming language, so a couple of months ago i decided to start to study it in my spare time. So i took some notes and examples, i hope they could be helpful to someone else.
STRINGS
"Strings" is a builtin data type in Nim, so you can use it always (module declarations is not necessary).
Declaration:
you can declare MUTABLE or IMMUTABLE strings.
Use let for immutable string declaration.
Use var for mutable string declaration.
Simpler declaration:
you can declare string variables taking advantage of the compiler type inference: it's not necessary to declare the "string" type, because the type will be resolved by the compiler.
# Simply declare let/var, variable with '=' operator and the string between double quotes
let si = "This is an immutable string"
var sm = "This is a mutable string"
echo si # --> This is an immutable string
echo sm # --> This is a mutable string
You CANNOT re-assign an IMMUTABLE strings.
This will cause a compiling ERROR:
si = "Trying to re-assign an immutable string"
# COMPILING ERROR!!!
# Error: 'si' cannot be assigned to
You CAN re-assign a MUTABLE strings.
sm = "Re-assigning the mutable string"
echo sm # --> Re-assigning the mutable string
Explicit Declaration:
you can choose to declare the string variables, without the use of the compiler type inference. Simply you have to declare the "string" type after the variable name and the ":" operator.
# explicit string declaration
let siexp:string = "Another immutable string"
let smexp:string = "Another mutable string"
echo siexp # --> Another immutable string
echo smexp # --> Another mutable string
Multi-line strings:
for declaring a multi-line string just write the string text between a triple "double-quote"
# multi-line string declaration
let mls = """This is
a multi-line string,
you can use it for html code
or just for christmas tree! ;-)
*
***
*****
*******
*********
|
"""
echo mls
# --> This is
# a multi-line string,
# you can use it for html code
# or just for christmas tree! ;-)
#
# *
# ***
# *****
# *******
# *********
# |
Unicode glyphs:
in Nim the strings contain text, encoded with the UTF-8 format, but also Unicode format is allowed. So you can use some 'Rune' type (glyphs) in your text.
# string with unicode characters
echo "This is a string with unicode characters: ℛ ₪ ⎒ ♥ ♫ ☻"
#---> This is a string with unicode characters: ℛ ₪ ⎒ ♥ ♫ ☻
Raw strings and escape characters:
there are some "special" characters, which have a particular meaning, especially in text formatting. They're called "escape characters" and they're always preceded by the '\' character. To "bypass" the string interpretation, you can use the raw string format, just putting 'r' after the opening string double-quote.
# string with \n (newline character):
echo "This is the first line...\n...and this is the second one"
# ---> This is the first line...
# ...and this is the second one
# string with \t (tab character):
echo "This is the first part of the string\tand this is the second one"
# ---> This is the first part of the string and this is the second one
# string with \\ (backslash character):
echo "This is the path-string: c:\\folder\\inner-folder\\"
# ---> This is the path-string: c:\folder\inner-folder\
# string with \" (quotation mark):
echo "This is a string with \"double quote\" in the text"
# ---> This is a string with "double quote" in the text
# bypass escape characters with a raw string:
echo r"This is a raw string: escape characters like '\n' '\t' '\\' are not interpreted"
echo r"In a raw string you can write 'c:\program files\nim\' instead of 'c:\\program files\\nim\\'"
# ---> This is a raw string: escape characters like '\n' '\t' '\\' are not interpreted
# ---> In a raw string you can write 'c:\program files\nim\' instead of 'c:\\program files\\nim\\'
Concatenation:
You can join only strings with strings.
# Concatenation with '&' operator
let s1 = "This"
let s2 = "string"
echo s1 & " is" & " a" & " concatenated " & s2
# --> This is a concatenated string
# Appending string with 'add' method
var stradd = "This is a string concatenated"
stradd.add("...with .add() method")
echo stradd
# ---> This is a string concatenated...with .add() method
Lenght:
# string.len() / string.len: return the lenght of the string
var l = "The lenght of this string is"
echo l, ": ", l.len()
echo "this is 11!".len
# ---> The leght of this string is: 28
# ---> 11
Comparison:
# Comparison by lenght, using operators '<', '>', '<=', '>=', '==', '!=':
# A true/false value will be returned
let
s1 = "This string has some characters"
s2 = "This one has few chars"
s3 = "This string in longer than others, because it has a lot of characters"
echo s1 > s2 # --> true
echo s3 <= s1 # --> false
echo s2 == s3 # --> false
echo s1 != s3 # --> true
Casting:
# $<var_name> --> str: transform a value in a string
let numint = 123 # integer
let numflo = 0.987 # float
let s = $numint & "-four-five-six-" & $numflo # string concatenation
echo s # ---> 123-four-five-six-0.987
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