ErgoScript Syntax

ErgoScript is strongly typed, you should always know what types you are dealing with.

What’s going on here?

val bool: Boolean = true

• val is a keyword used to create a basic, immutable, value of any type.
• bool is the name used for the value created.
• : Boolean specifies the type of the value, this is not always necessary, but does make code more understandable.
• = true sets our Boolean value bool equal to true.

Learn to think in true and false statements. Booleans (More specifically, Sigma Propositions) are the core of every ErgoScript contract.

More ErgoScript Syntax Examples:

This code does not do anything useful in terms of a real-world application, but it serves as an example of the ErgoScript syntax and how to use some basic features of the language. It defines a simple contract with two possible execution paths based on a boolean input value, and creates some variables with different data types to demonstrate how to use them in the code.

  if(bool == true){
    val x = 0
    val y = 1
    val z = ((x * y) + 5) - (3 / 2)
  }else{
    val x = 2L
    val y: Coll[Long]  = Coll(0L, 1L, x) // You can build collections of elements
    val z: (Long, Long) = (3, 4)
    val a: (Long, Coll[Long]) = (x, y) // Build complex types by layering together pairs and colls
    val b: Coll[((Long, Long), Boolean)] = Coll(((2L, 4L), true), ((7L, 2L), false))
  }

ErgoScript is based on Scala, which brings means we have some standard functional programming methods and syntax

// Wrap this val statement into a function that returns a collection of integers paired with longs
val myMap: Coll[(Int, Long)] = {      
val intCollection = Coll(0, 1, 2)
    // Use the map function, a standard FP method that iterates through the entire
    intCollection.map{
        // collection and inputs each element through a function to return a collection of outputs.                  
        (myInt: Int) =>                   
        (myInt, myInt.toLong)
        // We represent our mapping function using a Lambda expression, we define the
        // parameter to be the element of our collection (an Int), then use the
        // arrow operator (=>) in order to show how our parameter maps to an output.
        // We do not need to specify the return value with a keyword        
}                                      
    }

Def vs Val?

  def computeAsDef(myInt: Int): Int = {
    myInt + 1
  }

  val computeAsVal: Int = {
    (myInt: Int) =>
      myInt + 1
  }

The two statements above do the exact same thing.

• computeAsDef is defined using the def keyword. This means that the function is defined at the time of the script's initialisation, but the actual calculation of myInt + 1 will occur each time the function is called.
• computeAsVal is defined using the val keyword and is a function literal. This means that the function is defined at the time of the script's initialisation and the calculation of myInt + 1 will only occur when the function is called.

In other words, the difference between val and def is when the function is calculated. val functions are calculated when the script is initialised, while def functions are calculated each time they are called.

In most instances, you will likely use val statements

Resources

Please note

Adapted from Deco Education - ErgoScript Developer Course