Functions

Defining functions

To declare a function, you must specify the type and name of a function. For the function to be defined, the body must be specified after the name of the function.

The body of the function may either be a compound body, declared using a pair of brackets, or an expression-body, which is declared using an equals. Examples:

// compound body
func @test() -> i32 {
    return 5;
}
// expression-body
func @test -> i32 = 5;

When using an expression-body, the body must only be a single statement or expression, and have the same type as that of the function return type.

A function will automatically create it's own scope, which means that any argument or variable inside the function may only be accessed inside of that function.

Functions must return a value unless they have type void, in which case they will assume to return a void value at the end of the function. Functions may be declared with parameters, which go inside of the parentheses in the declaration like so:

func @square(int32 num) -> i32 {
    return num * num;
}

A function may also be a member function definition. These belong to a specific struct type and have an implicit this parameter which is a pointer to the instance of the struct type that it has been called on. Member functions must be defined inside their owning struct.

Calling Functions

To call a function, simply type the name of the function followed by a set of parentheses containing any arguments you would like to pass to the function:

• MyFunc()
• Square(24)

If you wish to call an member function, use the member access operator like so:

• test.add(2)
• test.getID()

The arguments you pass to the function will follow the C Calling Convention of the platform.

The arguments you pass to the function must match the types of the parameters in the function declaration. A function call may be an expression or a statement.