Primitive data types

Spice supports eight different primitive data types out of the box: double, int, short, long, byte, char, string and bool. In addition, there is a builtin type-inferred type, called dyn. Let us take a look at each one individually!

The double data type¶

Doubles are signed double-precision 64-bit IEEE 754 floating point numbers.

Variables¶

In Spice, variables of type double can be defined like this:

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double variable1 = 56.9042;

double variable2;
variable2 = -0.2349;

Literals¶

Double literals require a decimal separator, may have a preceding sign and the scientific notation is supported.

They must match the following regular expression:

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[-]?[0-9]*[.][0-9]+([eE][+-]?[0-9]+)?

Examples:

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-0.5
611.456
2.51e-11

The int data type¶

Integers are whole numbers of 32-bit. Signed integers have a range from a min of -2,147,483,648 to a max of 2,147,483,647. Unsigned integers have a range from a min of 0 to a max of 4,294,967,295.

Variables¶

In Spice, variables of type int can be defined like this:

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int variable1 = 903;

int variable2;
variable2 = -2;

unsigned int variable3 = 4294967295u;

Literals¶

Integer literals may have a preceding sign. The literal can be noted in decimal, binary, hexadecimal or octal system, each with its respective prefix and number/letter range. For unsigned int literals, the suffix u can be appended. Scientific notation is currently not supported.

They must match the following regular expression:

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INT_LIT := [-]?(DEC_LIT | BIN_LIT | HEX_LIT | OCT_LIT)[u]?;
DEC_LIT := ([0][dD])?[0-9]+;
BIN_LIT := [0][bB][01]+;
HEX_LIT := [0][xXhH][0-9a-fA-F]+;
OCT_LIT := [0][oO][0-7]+;

Examples:

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123
-5
0D6
0b101
0xf6a9
0o71037u

The short data type¶

Shorts are whole numbers of 16-bit. Signed shorts have a range from a min of -32,768 to a max of 32,767. Unsigned shorts have a range from a min of 0 to a max of 65535.

Variables¶

In Spice, variables of type short can be defined like this:

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short variable1 = 15s;

short variable2;
variable2 = 0s;

unsigned short variable3 = 65535us;

Literals¶

Short literals may have a preceding sign. The literal can be noted in decimal, binary, hexadecimal or octal system, each with its respective prefix and number/letter range. For unsigned short literals, the suffix u can be appended. The literal must end with the suffix s. Scientific notation is currently not supported.

They must match the following regular expression:

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SHORT_LIT := [-]?(DEC_LIT | BIN_LIT | HEX_LIT | OCT_LIT)[u]?s;
DEC_LIT := ([0][dD])?[0-9]+;
BIN_LIT := [0][bB][01]+;
HEX_LIT := [0][xXhH][0-9a-fA-F]+;
OCT_LIT := [0][oO][0-7]+;

Examples:

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0s
-87s
0d45us
0b0010s
0x76cbus
0o04324s

The long data type¶

Longs are whole numbers of 64-bit. Signed long have a range from a min of -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to a max of 9,223,372,036,854,775,807. Unsigned integers have a range from a min of 0 to a max of 18,446,744,073,709,551,615.

Variables¶

In Spice, variables of type long can be defined like this:

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long variable1 = 12492309573l;

long variable2;
variable2 = -34945968l;

unsigned long variable3 = 18446744073709551615ul;

Literals¶

Long literals may have a preceding sign. The literal can be noted in decimal, binary, hexadecimal or octal system, each with its respective prefix and number/letter range. For unsigned long literals, the suffix u can be appended. The literal must end with the suffix l. Scientific notation is currently not supported.

They must match the following regular expression:

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LONG_LIT := [-]?(DEC_LIT | BIN_LIT | HEX_LIT | OCT_LIT)[u]?l;
DEC_LIT := ([0][dD])?[0-9]+;
BIN_LIT := [0][bB][01]+;
HEX_LIT := [0][xXhH][0-9a-fA-F]+;
OCT_LIT := [0][oO][0-7]+;

Examples:

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9283423923l
-435987l
0d7539ul
0b11001ul
0x7821l
0o6666ul

The byte data type¶

Bytes are unsigned whole numbers of 8-bit, which have a range from a min of 0 to a max of 255.

Variables¶

In Spice, variables of type byte can be defined like this:

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byte variable1 = cast<byte>(11);

byte variable2;
variable2 = cast<byte>(12);

Literals¶

There are no byte literals in Spice. Use type casting to cast an int, short or long literal to a byte.

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byte b = cast<byte>(123u);

The char data type¶

Chars are unsigned whole numbers of 8-bit, which have a range from a min of 0 to a max of 255. The value of a char represents the UTF-8 sign of the 8-bit integer value.

Variables¶

In Spice, variables of type char can be defined like this:

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char variable1 = 'A';

char variable2;
variable2 = '.';

Literals¶

Char literals are noted either as a single character or a single escape sequence, enclosed in single quotes.

They must match the following regular expression:

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'([^'\\\r\n]|\\.)'

Examples:

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'c'
'\n'

The string data type¶

Strings are immutable sequences of 8-bit integers (chars) and contain text-like information. The length of a string is unlimited.

Variables¶

In Spice, variables of type string can be defined like this:

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string variable1 = "test string";

string variable2;
variable2 = "Hello World!";

Literals¶

String literals are noted as a sequence of character and/or escape sequences, enclosed in double quotes.

They must match the following regular expression:

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"([^"\\\r\n]|\\.)*"

Examples:

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"this is a test"
"\n\t\r\"' hello"

The bool data type¶

Booleans are 1-bit integers and can be assigned with the exactly two values: true or false.

Variables¶

In Spice, variables of type bool can be defined like this:

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bool variable1 = true;

bool variable2;
variable2 = false;

Literals¶

Bool literals are either the keyword true or false.

The dyn data type¶

The dyn data type (dyn stands for dynamic) is a more unconventional data type. The concrete type of a dyn variable or field gets inferred at compile time so that the language stays type-safe. This also means, that once you assign a value to a dyn variable, the type is pinned and can't be inferred anymore. Assigning a value of another type to the same variable will result in a compile error.

Variables¶

Dyn variables can be defined like this:

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dyn variable1 = 1.24;
dyn variable2 = -67;
dyn variable3;
dyn variable4 = false;

variable3 = "demo string";