Cobra Types Overview

• Primitive Types
  • Common
    • bool
    • char
    • int (= int32)
    • uint (= uint32)
    • float (= float64)
    • decimal
    • number (= decimal, change with -number: option)
    • dynamic (see DynamicType)
  • Explicit Sizes/Sign?
    • int8, int16, int32, int64
    • uint8, uint16, uint32, uint64
  • PrimitiveTypeMembers
• Complex Types
  • Class
    • Single inheritance
    • Heap-based
    • Popular classes (provided by platform)
      • Object, String, StringBuilder, Exception
      • List<of T>, Dictionary<of K, V>, Set<of T>
      • Stack<of T>, Queue<of T>
      • TextWriter, TextReader, StringWriter
  • Struct
    • No inheritance (other than Object)
    • Value-based
    • Popular structs
      • DateTime, Color (System.Drawing)
  • Interface
    • Multiple inheritance
    • No code implementation
    • Popular interfaces (provided by platform libraries)
      • IEnumerable, IEnumerable<of T> (but use T* instead; see streams below)
      • IComparable, IComparable<of T>
• Nilable Type
  • foo? - can be "foo" or "nil"
  • applies to all types
  • "dynamic" implies "dynamic?" meaning you can always pass "nil" where "dynamic" is expected
• Streams
  • foo* - walkable collection of zero or more objects of type foo
  • See StreamType
• Working with types at run-time
  • You can get the type of "x" with "x.getType"
  • You can make instances with a type at run-time
    • t = x.getType
    • obj1 = t()
    • obj2 = t(0, 0)
• Generics
  • Classes, interfaces and structs can all be generic--parameterized by type.
  • These are identical to .NET generics as found in C# and VB.
  • Examples: List<of int>, List<of String>, Dictionary<of String, int>
  • The general form is: Name<of T, U, ...>
  • You can declare your own
  • You can overload by number of type arguments. In other words, Foo<of T> and Foo<of T, U> are two different types.
  • Methods can be generic: def foo<of T>(a as T, b as T)
• See also
  •  Discussion on types

TODO: arrays, passthrough, vari, local var type inference, greatest common denominator

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