Structures

Structures (aka structs) are a good way to collect many variables in one spot. Every declaration within the structure is called a member (aka field). The difference from a slice or array is that they contain values of the same data-type, while each of the struct fields can have a different data type. Also, the fields of structures are accessed with an identifier.

For example to declaration a struct:

struct Employee {
    name:   str
    age:    u8
    title:  str
    salary: u32
}

Members of structures are the same as a variable definition except const keyword.

Creating a Instances of Structures

To instantiate structs, you can either give the values of the fields using braces after the struct name, or create them with their default values.

For example:

struct Character {
    name:  str
    age:   u64
    title: str
}

fn main() {
    let anon = Character{}
    let frodo = Character{"Frodo", 50, "Hobbit"}
    let gandalf = Character{
        name: "Gandalf",
        age: 24000,
        title: "Wizard",
    }
    println(anon)
    println(frodo)
    println(gandalf)
}

Methods for Structures

Structures can have special functions (methods). Similar to class methods of object oriented programming. You can use structure generics in function and have generics for your function.

WARNING

You can't shadow generics.

Implementing Methods

To implement method(s) to structure, the following syntax is applied:

impl STRUCT_IDENTIFIER {
    // Methods
}

WARNING

Just give structure identifier as receiver. Not generics or type alias.

Receiver Parameters

Receivers indicate which instance the function will use. Receiver parameters must be the first parameter of each method. Receiver parameters are also a reference by default.

There are two types of receiver parameters;

Smart Pointer Receiver Parameter Smart Pointer receivers require the function to be a reference. The function can only be called from a reference instance of the structure.

Receiver Parameter Receivers, on the other hand, allow changes made within the function to be reflected in the structure if the receiver is mutable. However, when the structure is given as arguments to different functions, or in a different state, it is copied. That is, it is only variable within itself.

Assigning to the self parameter will cause mutation in the same way. This is because, behind the scenes, the self parameter is treated as a reference variable. Therefore, assignments made directly to the self variable will be written to the memory of the instance calling the method.

WARNING

Not deep copy.

Syntax

fn IDENTIFIER([RECEIVER_PARAMETER], PARAMETERS...): RET_TYPE {
    [BODY]
}

For example to receiver parameters:

// Immutable Smart Pointer Receiver
fn method(&self): str { /* Body */ }

// Mutable Smart Pointer Receiver
fn method(mut &self): str { /* Body */ }

// Immutable Receiver
fn method(self): str { /* Body */ }

// Mutable Receiver
fn method(mut self): str { /* Body */ }

For example to implementing method to structure:

impl Position {
    fn isOrigin(self): bool {
        ret self.x == 0 && self.y == 0
    }
}

He example at above, implements isOrigin(): bool method to Position structure.

The self Keyword

The self keyword represents the receiver a receiver function has. It is used to access and use the members of the structure. The data type is the same as the data type of the receiver.

For example:

impl Person {
    fn getName(self): str {
        ret self.name
    }
}

In the example above, the name field of the Employee structure instance is accessed with the self keyword.

Reference Literal Instances

You can heap-allocate structure instancing. The unary & operator returns reference to if you use at instancing.

For example:

let pos = &Position{x: 10, y: 20}

pos variable is the reference and points to the heap-allocated Position structure instance.

WARNING

If you are not sure how references work, check the memory management documentations.

Static Methods

Static methods, like normal methods, are dependent on the structure itself, but there are some differences.

These differences are:

• Can called via type declaration without instances
• Don't dependent to instances
• Don't takes receiver parameters
• Can't access via instances

For example:

struct Dog {}

impl Dog {
    static fn voice() {
        println("woof woof")
    }
}

fn main() {
    // Call static method via type declaration.
    Dog.voice()
}

Field Tags

Field tags are special key:value pairs assigned to struct fields at compile time. They are not accessible at runtime in any way; however, you can read the tags on a struct's fields using Jule's compile-time capabilities.

To add a tag to a struct field, you can use a string literal.
For example:

struct Foo {
	bar: int `fizz:"myvalue"`
	baz: str `fuzz:"123"`
}

For more detailed information about tags, please read the section below.

Tag Syntax and Semantics

Tags are represented using string literals. Leading and trailing whitespace characters in the literals are invalid and will be evaluated like key:value pairs. Key-value pairs must be separated by exactly one whitespace character. A colon (:) is used to separate the key and value in a tag pair, and there must be no whitespace between them. Keys are considered valid if they contain any characters except Unicode whitespace characters and the tag separator character (:). Values must always be string literals—raw string literals are not supported, so double quotes (") must always be used. The string literals used for values are processed the same way as Jule string literals, meaning escape sequences and similar syntax are supported.

Example tag literals

Tag Literal	Represented Tags
`foo:"bar"`	foo:"bar"
`f_oo:"bar"`	f_oo:"bar"
"foo:\"bar\""	foo:"bar"
`foo:"\u00E7"`	foo:"ç"
"foo:\"\\u00E7\""	foo:"ç"
"foo:\"\u00E7\""	foo:"ç"
`foo:"bar" baz:"foo"`	foo:"bar", baz:"foo"
`foo:"bar" baz:"foo"`	foo:"bar", baz:"foo"
`fo34çöğ;)(9384#o:"bar"`	fo34çöğ;)(9384#o:"bar"

Recommended Tag Format

Even though special characters can be used in tags, it is recommended that key names be written as if naming variables in Jule source code.