Learn: Data Types

The following data types are availanle in min (with the corresponding shorthand symbols used in operator signatures in brackets):

null (null)
null value.
boolean (bool)
true or false.
integer (int)
A 64-bit integer number like 1, 27, or -15.
float (flt)
A 64-bit floating-point number like 3.14 or -56.9876.
string (str)
A series of characters wrapped in double quotes: “Hello, World!”.
quotation (quot)
A list of elements, which may also contain symbols. Quotations can be used to create heterogenous lists of elements of any data type, and also to create a block of code that will be evaluated later on (quoted program). Example: (1 2 3 + *)
command (cmd)
A command string wrapped in square brackets that will be immediately executed on the current shell and converted into the command standard output. Example: [ls -a]
dictionary (dict)

A key/value table. Dictionaries are implemented as an immediately-dequoted quotation, are enclosed in curly braces, and are represented by their symbol definitions. Note that dictionary keys must start with : or ^ and be followed by a double-quoted string, or a single word (which can be written without double quotes). The dict Module provides some operators on dictionaries.

Example

The following is a simple dictionary containing three keys: name, paradigm, and first-release-year:

{ "min" :name "concatenative" :paradigm 2017 :"first release year" }

Theere are two types of dictionary keys: * define keys, which are prepended by :, which are used to store data, including quotations that will be interpreted as lists of values. * lambda keys, which are prepended by ^, which are used to store executable code. In this case, a quotation will be immediately executed when accessed.

Example

The following program prints 16:

; First, define a dictionary with a value using a define key ; and an operation using a lambda key {4 :value (dup *) ^square} :test ; When accessing the quotation, it will be executed immediately test.value test.square puts

Additionally, dictionaries can also be typed to denote complex objects like sockets, errors, etc. For example, the following dictionary defines an error:

{ "MyError" :error "An error occurred" :message "symbol1" :symbol "dir1/file1.min" :filename 3 :line 13 :column ;error }

Tip

The dict.dtype operator can be used to set the type of a dictionary.

The global Module provides predicate operators to check if an element belongs to a particular data type or pseudo-type (boolean?, number?, integer?, float?, …).

Additionally, the global Module provides operators to convert values from a data type to another (e.g. integer, string, and so on).

→ Continue to Operators